There have been many references to “brownfield” sites in Leigh, sometimes with bewildering regularity. Rather than singing the praises of these places by the written word, this audio-visual presentation (with the majority of photographs from Bickershaw and North Leigh) will surely give a more accurate picture of what we already have and, tragically, what we might well lose if there's no resistance to plans to develop our green spaces.
Video slideshow produced by Dave Wilson and David Shallcross (2014).
Two Greenheart Awards for the L.O.S. Young Birders' Cub Team
The L.O.S. Young Birders' Club Team won two awards at the Wigan Greenheart 'Big Thank You 2014' event held at St. Peter's Pavilion in Hindley on Friday 27 June. Various presentations were given by a number of local volunteer groups and other organisations such as Natural England and the GM Ecology Unit.
Martyn Jones, Tony Bishop, George Pike and Brian Fawcett were presented with the 'Overall Winners' award for the work they and the extended team which includes Joan Disley, Jeff Hurst, Roy Rhodes and Dave Wilson have been doing with young people in the Wigan and Leigh area over the last 18 months - his came as quite a surprise to us.
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| George Pike, Martyn Jones and Tony Bishop receiving their Greenheart awards for the LOSYBC |
Martyn Jones also received a Wigan Greenheart 'Community Champion' Award following a nomination by the other members of the LOSYBC for the work he has done in helping organise 27 events involving around 900 young people in local primary schools, Cubs, Beavers and Boys' Brigade packs. Here's a short video slideshow showing some of the things we have done.
These Greenheart awards reward the hard work that has been done by all the LOSYBC team members and give us the inspiration to continue our work with more young people in the future. To read about the sort of work we've been doing with LOSYBC visit our website: www.losybc.blogspot.com
All Change for the L.O.S. Friday Night Presentations
Due to rising costs, ease of access and other issues, from September 2014 the L.O.S. Friday night meetings will be held at the 180 Club (formerly the Conservative Club) on Railway Road in Leigh.
The 180 Club is near the Leigh Town Hall car park where members will still be able to park free of charge on Friday nights and, as the room is on the ground floor, no stairs or lift are needed. Society members and visitors will have dedicated access from the car park to Back Salford Street.
As well as having comfortable seating and no pressure to leave at 9:30pm, various beverages will available from a bar which will be open next to the room during the meetings. We hope that these new facilities will enable our members and visitors to have more time to mingle and chat in a more convivial atmosphere at all our future indoor meetings.
The full address of the 180 Club is:
The 180 Club is near the Leigh Town Hall car park where members will still be able to park free of charge on Friday nights and, as the room is on the ground floor, no stairs or lift are needed. Society members and visitors will have dedicated access from the car park to Back Salford Street.
As well as having comfortable seating and no pressure to leave at 9:30pm, various beverages will available from a bar which will be open next to the room during the meetings. We hope that these new facilities will enable our members and visitors to have more time to mingle and chat in a more convivial atmosphere at all our future indoor meetings.
The full address of the 180 Club is:
180 Club
Railway Road
Leigh
WN7 4AX
Please note: Any references to L.O.S. indoor meetings being held at Leigh Library in the Derby Room on this website will be updated in due course.
L.O.S. Annual Sponsored Bird Watch
Our annual Sponsored Birdwatch will be held on Sunday 11 May this year and the customary meal afterwards will be held at the Raven Inn in Glazebury. Please see your email from organiser Martin Ansell for details of the day and menus and let him know your numbers for the meal and choice as soon as possible, but by Saturday 3 May at the latest.
It's not too late to enter a team, all you need is at least three people and a team name. Then let Martin know and he'll send you a sponsorship form and bird checklist.
The five teams to date are:
BALD EAGLES
Eric Munroe, Alan Wilcox, Martin Ansell, Keith Burgess
LITTLE BUSTARDS
Dave Jones, Phil Tosh, Joe Doherty
THE KING AND WE THREE
Eddie King, George and Angela Pike, Michael Arundel
INDIAN RUNNERS
David Shallcross, Anne Other
FEATHER BRAINS
Joan and Jim Disley, Martyn Jones, Jeff Hurst
RULES OF THE DAY
- Use the Leigh OS recording area as defined on our website
- Species must be live and in their natural habitat, flying or on the ground (nothing caged) and on the British list
- Sightings should be by the team, not an uncorroborated individual sighting. Please put where you saw a species on the Alphabetical Bird List so it can contribute to reports and make sure a copy gets to Eddie King, as Recorder, for verification on the day. Eddie has the last word on accepting sightings
LOS Blacktoft Sands RSPB Fieldtrip Date Changed
Please note that the date of the LOS fieldtrip to Blacktoft Sands RSPB near Goole has been changed to Sunday 18th May. Everyone is welcome to come especially prospective new members.
Photo of the Week - Cetti's Warbler at Pennington Flash
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| Adult Male Cetti's Warbler at Pennington Flash - 11 April 2014 (c) John Tymon |
Almost impossible to see, even when they are singing just a few feet away in a bush, it's an accomplishment to even get a tiny glimpse of this bird nevermind photograph it. Many have tried and failed, but after six months of trying John has finally got the shot everyone wanted to see - naturally he is very pleased with the outcome.
As far as we know, this is the first time this bird has been photographed at Pennington Flash and only the second ever shot of one in Greater Manchester, as it's still a real rarity in this county. So well done to John and thanks for sharing this excellent photograph with us.
Peaceful protest against Hen Harrier persecution
Let me know if you would be interested in taking part and wish to be kept informed by emailing mark@markavery.info
The number of people expressing an interest is now well into three figures and emails keep coming in.
It’s time for those who are disgusted by the scale of illegal persecution of this bird to raise their voices. Remember there should be around 300 pairs of Hen Harrier in the north of England and last year there were two. That is something to be angry about – or ashamed – depending on who you are.
Hen Harriers are reported to be holding territory on National trust land in Derbyshire in a general area where they have attempted nesting before. We urge the National Trust to do everything it can to protect these birds from persecution.
Original posting on Mark's blog : Peaceful protest against Hen Harrier persecution
Wildflower Planting in St. Catherine of Siena's Wildlife Garden
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| Roy Rhodes demonstrating planting to a group of St. Catherine's pupils |
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| Greenfingers! |
Today it was the turn of Year 3 pupils and the aim was to increase the number of plants which would attract insects, spiders, moths and butterflies in the summer months when we hope to be back to do another 'bioblitz' day.
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| Getting 'stuck in' |
Roy gave each group a short talk about why we are doing this activity followed by a demonstration of how to plant the wild flowers in the holes which we'd prepared earlier in the day.
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| Teamwork |
Roy selected these plants from his garden because, fingers crossed, he thinks that they should do well in the soil conditions here.
The plants will attract insects and in turn we hope that these will attract more birds into the garden. This is what is meant by increasing the biodiversity of an area.
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| Jeff showing an interested pupil what to do |
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| The pupils were very keen to answer questions |
- St John's Wort
- Wild Garlic
- Vipers Bugloss
- Foxglove
- Mullein
- Yellow Archangel
- Dame's Violet
- Red Campion
- Jack-by-the hedge
- Feverfew
- Forget-me-not
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| Year 3 Pupils from St. Catherine's holding the wildflowers before planting them |
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| More Year 3 pupils from St. Catherine's in their Wildlife Garden |
All photographs (c) Martyn Jones 2014
You can click on any of the photographs to enlarge them
You can click on any of the photographs to enlarge them
Free Wildlife Recording Conference
The Greater Manchester Local Record Centre is holding its first Wildlife Recording Conference on Saturday 29th March at Manchester Museum. This event is supported by the National Lottery, through the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The day will be a celebration of wildlife recording and a thank you to all the dedicated volunteers who spend time recording and submitting records. The day will be a chance to discover new opportunities for recording, meet like-minded recorders and find out what happens to data once it has been submitted.
If you would like to come along to this free event please fill in the on-line application form by Friday 28th February. Because places are limited we will let you know if your application is successful after this date. Full details of the programme and the booking form can be found here: http://www.gmwildlife.org.uk/conference/
It would also be helpful if you could complete the feedback questions with the application form as we will use the information collected to feed into the day’s event and help plan our next year of activities.
We look forward to seeing you on the 29th March.
Suzanne Waymont MCIEEM, Senior Ecologist
Greater Manchester Ecology Unit
Council Offices, Wellington Road, Ashton-under-Lyne
Tameside OL6 6DL
Tel: 0161 342 2771
Website: www.gmwildlife.org.uk
Tameside OL6 6DL
Tel: 0161 342 2771
Website: www.gmwildlife.org.uk
LOSYBC visits 8th Wigan Boys' Brigade in Hindley
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| Young Birders in the Making |
You can read a full report of the evening's events on our LOS Young Birders' Website here: LOSYBC visits 8th Wigan Boys' Brigade
Our next presentation is on Monday 24 February at 13th/18th Leigh Beavers who meet at the Scout hut next to St. Thomas' Church in Bedford, Leigh.