EVENTS
Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th January
Coppice Weekend with Wirral Countryside Volunteers
Starting 9.30am
Lamperloons Coppice, Thornton Wood
Meet on Thornton Common Road where it crosses over the M53 Motorway.
Wirral Countryside Volunteers are hosting a Coppice Weekend at Thornton Wood, an ancient woodland and part of Dibbindale SSSI.
They have already extracted 288 hedging stakes and 70 tree stakes from the coppice. The tree stakes were used in Brimstage Hall Orchard. There are plenty more stakes to harvest. Woven hazel hurdles can also be constructed from the thinner lengths of hazel. To aid the coppice regrowth and ground flora some further shade will be removed from above the coppice.
Contact: Paul Loughnane by email or telephone 0151 645 8937.
Cleaver Heath Workday
Sunday 1st February
Starting 10am
Cleaver Heath, Oldfield Road, Heswall
O.S. Grid Ref: SJ 256826
what3words: digs.front.froze
Are you interested in helping to maintain this lowland heath with its special plants and animals? Practical work could involve removing invasive birch and bracken, maintaining paths or spreading heather seeds to help with the recovery and regrowth of heather where heathland regeneration work is taking place. You will also enjoy beautiful views over the Dee estuary.
If you are interested and haven't been before please register by emailing info@wirralwildlife.org.uk
You will be invited to come along to a workday to get a 'taster'; for what we do and if you are then interested in coming along on a regular basis you would fill in a Cheshire Wildlife Trust volunteer application form.
Sunday 8th February
New Ferry Butterfly Park Workday with Wirral Countryside Volunteers
9.30am - 4pm
Howell Road, New Ferry, CH62 5BJ
Free volunteering event. Come for the whole day or join in and leave when you want to.
Activities will include hedge laying, coppicing, turf removal and other maintenance tasks. Please bring lunch and stout footwear. Tools, training and tea provided.
Cycle and car parking available on reserve. Good public transport links available.
Contact: Paul Loughnane by email or telephone 0151 645 8937.
Friday 13th February
Talk: 'Creation of New Lowland Heath to Save a Population of Silver-studded Blue Butterfly at Prees Heath Common Reserve'
7.30pm
Thornton Hough W.I. Hall, Thornton Hough, CH63 1JL
A talk by Phil Putwain, Honorary Research Fellow at Liverpool University.
Admission: £5
The Silver‐studded blue butterfly (Plebejus argus) is a species of conservation priority in the UK due to severe declines over the past 100 years through loss of habitat extent and quality. Prees Heath Common in Shropshire has supported the last population of the butterfly in the Midlands and the North of England on very small areas of relict heathland. Butterfly Conservation purchased half of the Common in 2006 to safeguard the relict population and to undertake re‐creation of former lowland heathland on areas of arable land and thus attempt to ensure the long-term persistence of the butterfly population. This is the story of how heathland creation was achieved and consequences for the butterfly over the past 19 years.
Phil is a former academic (Senior lecturer at Liverpool University in Environmental Biology) with a research focus on ecological restoration. At University and during 20 years of retirement he has delivered a wide range of habitat creation and ecosystem restoration projects focusing on soils and habitat creation in rural, post-industrial, urban and active mineral extraction settings with a focus on heathland.
The talk will be followed by complimentary tea/coffee and homemade cake, with an opportunity to meet like-minded people.
Cleaver Heath Workday
Sunday 1st March
Starting 10am
Cleaver Heath, Oldfield Road, Heswall
O.S. Grid Ref: SJ 256826
what3words: digs.front.froze
Are you interested in helping to maintain this lowland heath with its special plants and animals? Practical work could involve removing invasive birch and bracken, maintaining paths or spreading heather seeds to help with the recovery and regrowth of heather where heathland regeneration work is taking place. You will also enjoy beautiful views over the Dee estuary.
If you are interested and haven't been before please register by emailing info@wirralwildlife.org.uk
You will be invited to come along to a workday to get a 'taster'; for what we do and if you are then interested in coming along on a regular basis you would fill in a Cheshire Wildlife Trust volunteer application form.
Sunday 8th March
New Ferry Butterfly Park Workday with Wirral Countryside Volunteers
9.30am - 4pm
Howell Road, New Ferry, CH62 5BJ
Free volunteering event. Come for the whole day or join in and leave when you want to.
Activities will include hedge laying, coppicing, turf removal and other maintenance tasks. Please bring lunch and stout footwear. Tools, training and tea provided.
Cycle and car parking available on reserve. Good public transport links available.
Contact: Paul Loughnane by email or telephone 0151 645 8937.
Friday 13th March
Talk: 'Retrofitting a Listed Building to Passivhaus Standards'
7.30pm
Thornton Hough W.I. Hall, Thornton Hough, CH63 1JL
A talk by Andrew Hobson.
Admission: £5
Andy and his partner, Janet, have transformed a semi-derelict Grade 2 listed property, empty for over a decade, into a highly energy efficient family home fit for the twenty first century. The talk will describe the technical and bureaucratic hurdles that had to be cleared before building work began but will focus mainly on the resource-saving interventions installed on the property to make it, officially, the most energy efficient building on Merseyside and the most energy-efficient listed building in the world.
Andy is a retired factory manager and management consultant who retired to the Wirral 5 years ago.
The talk will be followed by complimentary tea/coffee and homemade cake, with an opportunity to meet like-minded people.
Friday 10th April
Talk: 'From Wirral to Wales - Otters, Badgers & Other Creatures'
7.30pm
Thornton Hough W.I. Hall, Thornton Hough, CH63 1JL
A talk by Malcolm Ingham
Admission: £5
Mal Ingham was formerly Head Ranger and Wildlife officer for Wirral Council and set up and ran the Wildlife Rehabilitation Unit based in Thurstaston. As wildlife officer, he assisted the police in investigating wildlife crime and gave expert prosecution evidence. After retiring, he moved to Denbighshire where he currently does the same for the North Wales Police.
His talk will consist of a bit of history regarding his time on Wirral and the Wildlife Rehab Unit, followed by his life in Wales monitoring otter and their interaction with fox and badger. Mal will also talk about monitoring of small mammals and a little of his wildlife police work.
Sunday 12th April
New Ferry Butterfly Park Workday with Wirral Countryside Volunteers
9.30am - 4pm
Howell Road, New Ferry, CH62 5BJ
Free volunteering event. Come for the whole day or join in and leave when you want to.
Activities will include hedge laying, coppicing, turf removal and other maintenance tasks. Please bring lunch and stout footwear. Tools, training and tea provided.
Cycle and car parking available on reserve. Good public transport links available.
Contact: Paul Loughnane by email or telephone 0151 645 8937.
