Season's Greetings from Wapley!

 

Season's greetings to all our lovely volunteers and to everyone who visits Wapley Bushes Local Nature Reserve!

Another 30 trees planted at Wapley - Wapley Bushes work morning Sat 4 December

 

Nine volunteers took advantage of a cold but dry morning to plant 30 young trees in the Ancient Woodland - a mixture of whitebeam, oak and small-leaved lime. All were the usual excellent stock from our local supplier Landcare Nurseries in Old Sodbury.

These trees were replacements for losses to ash dieback disease in nearby areas. Our next plantings will be in the Centenary Wood - the area next to the Upper Meadow where a lot of younger ash had to be felled. We'll be having work mornings there in February and March - dates will appear here in due course. We avoid mid/late December and January because of the likelihood of bad weather.

There will also be a workday on the Primrose Bank area in Chipping Sodbury on Saturday 5 February.

The tree planting will be followed by a very different Wapley workday in early May, when we'll be planting wildflower plug plants in part of the Orchard For The Future on Wapley Common.

Great talk on Red Kites - thanks Ian McGuire!

 

Ian McGuire gave an excellent talk on Red Kites and other raptors at Abbotswood on 1st December, with some amazing photos.

Thank you to everyone that came - please watch our blog for details of more events.

Wapley Bushes Work Morning – Saturday 4 December

 

Our main task this for this volunteer session will be to plant 30 or so trees to replace the big trees that were cut back in the Ancient Woodland last winter due to ash dieback. We will also have a variety of lighter tasks, so as usual there will be something for everybody.

Meet at 10 am at the Shire Way entrance to the woodland, south Yate, BS37 8US. Please wear stout footwear and bring gloves if you have them. If not, we’ll provide gloves that you can keep until the next workday – as a COVID precaution we’re not sharing gloves.

Please come and join us even if you haven’t been before. You can bring your own tools or tools will be provided. Everyone is welcome, though children under 16 will need to be accompanied by a responsible adult.

Red Kites talk and slide show – Wednesday 1 December

Red Kite photo by Ian McGuire

Local bird expert Ian McGuire's talks and photographs are always fascinating. In this newly updated slide show Ian will talk about the magnificent Red Kites that we are now starting to see in our area.

We saw a Red Kite over Wapley earlier this year – the local rooks didn’t know what to make of it. They assumed it was a buzzard and tried to chase it away as usual, but the Red Kite just brushed them off and continued on its way.

This FREE event is at the St Nicholas Family Centre, Abbotswood, Yate BS37 4LG starting at 7.30 pm. Entrance from the Chargrove car park side of the building, NOT the shops side.

 

Wapley Bushes Work Morning – Sunday 21 November

This volunteer work morning will have something for everyone. We’ll be digging out the bed of the stream down through the woods, so that it won't flood when we get heavy rain. It's a "winter stream" or "winter bourne", hence the village name Winterbourne.

We’ll also be doing litter collection and a general tidy-up. You’ll be able to see the tree work that has been carried out to deal with ash dieback and we’ll be discussing plans for replanting and other work in the cleared areas.

Meet at 10 am at the Shire Way entrance to the woodland, south Yate, BS37 8US. Please wear stout footwear and bring gloves if you have them. If not, we’ll provide gloves that you can keep until the next workday – as a COVID precaution we’re not sharing gloves.

Please come and join us even if you haven’t been before. You can bring your own tools or tools will be provided. Everyone is welcome, though children under 16 will need to be accompanied by a responsible adult.