The Swift - the newsletter of the South Cheshire Group

Hon. Chairman’s Report

Following a successful series of evening lectures in our newly refurbished meeting room, we are back in the “summer” ?? of 2009. So far we have enjoyed an interesting, but wet evening at Bickley Hall Farm, where we heard from Sue Tatman about all the livestock based projects, especially the traditional Longhorn cattle. They apparently pay their way by being rented out to rural sites where the cattle are the preferred way to keep the grass short, they can go where a mower would never venture! We “swam” round a tour of the farm accompanied by Sue, and saw the areas where the land is being encouraged to return to a natural state. We thank Sue for her most interesting explanations.

Our next day out was a very educational visit to the Shire Horse Centre at Cotebrook, where Alistair King, the owner, gave us a very comprehensive tour, with detailed explanation of his shire horse breeding projects. He has had some startling results, winning many national competitions with his horses. The animals were magnificent, and it is to his, and his team's credit that this important part of our agricultural heritage is being preserved. The details how you get the right stallion with the right mare were very enlightening, and extremely educational to the younger members of the party!! It was apparent that large animals and small fences do not mix, and we were followed for part of the trip by a very friendly 2 ton horse! In addition to the horses, Alistair has rescued large birds, a lake of wildfowl, pole cats and to our astonishment, a group of otters, although he admitted that they were not the timid British otter.
The visit was very enjoyable and Alistair gave up a considerable part of his busy schedule, to escort us round.

On Wednesday 22 July we attempted to have a day out seeking Damsel and Dragon Flies near Nantwich. The weather was very showery, and it did not look very hopeful, but our leader, Stuart Burnett was not easily put off, and we proceeded to a riverside site near Hack Green, where we risked a swim, to skid down to the river bank in search of the elusive Damsel Fly. As it had only just stopped raining, we were not optimistic. But Stuart soon was able to point our binoculars at a solitary example, and some of us were able to tick the Blue-tailed version off in our Damsel Fly log books! After lunch in the rain back at Nantwich Lake, we decided to find out where the best Dragon Fly site in Cheshire is located, for possible future visits in better weather. To our surprise, the rain rolled away again and we found numerous Damsel Flies including the Large Red and a couple of Dragon Flies as well.
It has been very interesting to meet members from other Trust groups, who have joined us on some of our outings.

We have one more outing planned for early September, when the group will visit the wild life centre created by TG Building Products near Ellesmere in Shropshire.

Earlier in the year, John Wood and I attended a full day workshop at Bickley Hall, where Janel introduced her concept for the Trust in Cheshire, based on a “Living Landscape.” It as very interesting to hear how other groups operate, and we now need to find out how South Cheshire can contribute to the overall project.

I am very keen that as many of our Trust members in South Cheshire as possible, are able to attend our evening talks, to this end, I have arranged for a regular email reminder to be sent to all South Group members who have recorded their email address with Jane McCombie. (jmccombie@cheshirewt.cix.co.uk).
Also I have been able to obtain some free publicity for our meetings in the Crewe and Nantwich Chronicles. Our meetings are addressed by speakers of a very high standard and the refreshments are excellent.

Our evening meetings recommence in October, and we look forward to meeting up with you all again.
Regards
Bramham Knight, Hon. Chairman, South Group.
Tel:- 01270 623375
Email bramknight@talktalk.net

Bramham Knight

Nature Notes by Fred Boast

Having been very busy with bedding plants and hanging baskets for a few days, I had overlooked filling the seed feeders in our back garden. We regularly get 30 to 40 house sparrows, etc. visiting. What a surprise this morning, when I looked out, and saw the sparrows chasing the gold finches away from the niger seed feeders, and trying it for themselves. The niger seed feeders were very soon empty. With normal seed feeders full, normal service was soon resumed.

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