Category: Members

David R writes:

Jean found what looked like a dead bat on the carpet near the vestry when she opened our church in Shilton at 10 a.m. yesterday, 22 September.

David R. writes:

Following on from my blog of 27 July about an Orphan Swift, Gillian, the lady who took care of it, contacted me to say that our little Swift had put on weight and grown into a nice strong bird.

Sue M writes:

I have detected far more crickets than bats with my bat detector recently. On a recent walk near Ascott under Wychwood I pointed it, set at about 20kHz, at a sunny field edge and heard a continuous buzzing, rather like the noise you can hear near an electricity pylon.

Everyone will recognise the welcome smell of rain after a hot dry spell, but where does it come from?

Sue L writes:

It’s September. I have the window open to the morning. I hear the fluttering of wings and assume it’s a Red admiral as they often come into my room at this time of year. But it isn’t a butterfly….

Sue M writes:

For about the last 10 years, I’ve been observing the speckled bush crickets* that live in my very ordinary garden in Witney.  Each year I learn something different about them…

John C writes:

Out for a late evening walk on Friday 30 July on the Roman Road near Crawley with bat detectors to look – listen – for bats and grasshoppers we heard a very loud clicking from the rough vegetation at the side of the track.

Maureen F. writes:

I have a good population of slow worms in my garden and they particularly like to bask in the warmth of my badly maintained compost heap, under an old plastic mat that I use to keep the heat in.  

David R. writes:

Last Sunday evening Jean and I walked down to the churchyard in Shilton where Jean found a baby Swift in the grass. I took it home and put it in a cardboard box in the dark and contacted a friend who gave me the phone number of a lady who lives in the village of Laverton near Broadway. It was quite active in the box at times, scrabbling around.

John C writes:

Our annual walk in the Cutsdean area of the Cotwolds on Sunday 18 July. At 30C plus it was very (too!) warm but the compensation was that the butterflies and insects were very active. Everywhere was buzzing as I remember the countryside used to buzz.