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November 2016
News
Conservation group report for October By Sara Messenger, Three Brooks Nature Conservation Group
A
s the days get colder and the nights draw in, the reserve is changing, replacing her verdant skirts with a more subdued autumnal attire, but the cooler days don’t mean there is any less fun to be had! Just substitute blackberry picking with kicking up leaves, and splashing about in puddles and bird watching with squirrel gazing, as they sprint chattering overhead with mouthfuls of nuts to hoard away for their winter larders. The Thursday Green Gym, when not helping to landscape the skate park and clearing the school entrance paths of bramble have been working extra hard to keep out the chill, and although a little early for coppicing hazel, they have cleared an area by the
entrance to Savages Wood and have used the wood to replace the tired old fence with a new woven hazel one. Sadly, much of our time this month has been taken with litter picking and graffiti cleaning, although, regrettably for Meadowbrook School, not before they came down for the day, as their teacher was spotted trying to shield the more obscene graffiti from view! Although we are still waiting for Street Care to repair the damaged gate fence, we did remove the sharp broken edges to make it a safer.
Ponds and newts
Another of our autumn tasks is to make good the ponds and create more hibernacula for the newts to hibernate in, so we headed over to Dewfalls
Pond, which is again in need of attention. Although previous surveys showed that this pond once had a great many protected great crested newts, none were found during our surveys this year, and although we planted up this pond again this year, it may have been in vain as the pond is now dry. The Huckley Way pond that we maintain is also very low on water this year, as is Davies Pond (on Jubilee Green). In fact,
DENTAL CARE
DID YOU KNOW? REGULAR DENTAL CHECKS CAN HELP PREVENT POTENTIAL NASTY DISEASES
the pond on The Common East is the only one to have had more newts in it this year than in 2015, which is a worrying trend. Six of the group have newt licences and each year undertake additional night time surveys to review our resident newt populations, so if you see a strange person with a clipboard and high-vis jacket shining a torch over a pond in the dead of night, it may well be one of us!
FLEA & WORMING DID YOU KNOW?
VETS CAN PRESCRIBE MORE EFFECTIVE & LONGER LASTING TREATMENTS THAN ‘OFF THE SHELF’ PRODUCTS
FITNESS & WELLBEING DID YOU KNOW?
OUR VETS CAN OFFER ADVICE ON EXERCISE, NUTRITION AND WEIGHT MANAGEMENT
There are lots more great reasons to visit your local vet. To find out more visit: vets4pets.com/greatreasons or companioncare.co.uk/greatreasons Vets4Pets Filton Shield Retail Centre, Gloucester Road, Filton, BS34 7BQ Call: 0117 969 8400 or visit: www.vets4pets.com/filton
Companion Care Bristol Filton Inside Pets at Home, Abbey Wood Retail Park, Station Road, Filton, BS34 7JL Call: 0117 979 9200 or visit: www.companioncare.co.uk/bristolfilton
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