News Spring 2022
Over 1900 amphibians helped across the road this spring!
What was initially thought to have been a poor year turned out to be quite good, with 1734 toads, frogs and newts helped across the road to their breeding ponds in Woodhill Lane and a further 186 in Lords Hill. It is reassuring to know that the amphibian population here seems to be stable. To see the results in detail click here.
A big thank you to Sean and the Woodhill Manor Estate for allowing us to install the fence, and to everyone who helped with the toad patrol to ensure another successful migration event!
New Ducklings on the Pond
*Great news: there are now 15-16 ducklings on the Duck Pond, first seen by Claire Jenkinson on Easter Saturday. She immediately headed to Notcutts to buy some floating swan and duck food!
Tiny but very athletic, they have already risked their lives by heading into Barn Cottage garden in Woodhill Lane on Easter Monday and Jane and Ian very lovingly managed eventually after about one hour to lead Mother Duck and entourage back to the duck pond.
It will be interesting to see if we have even more, after some 23 ducklings survived last year - some of whom may return to raise ducklings of their own. Claire and her allies who feed the ducks on a rota system will of course continue to do so, but for the moment will now only feed the floating food, and we will have to hope no one unintentionally feeds them anything which may be harmful to ducklings.
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* a sad footnote to this news: Claire reported about 10 days after first seeing 15 ducklings that only two remain. This photo was taken on 7th May, and mother duck was taking very good care of her remaining offspring and keeping well away, but despite her efforts even the last two seem to have disappeared now. Let's hope for a second brood.
It appears that the soft plastic will mainly be recycled by the supermarkets to make more packaging but some items with multiple layers may end up being incinerated to produce energy. These schemes do not accept hard plastic, plastic bottles, tubs, pots, trays and caps or compostables.
Thanks to all of you who took part in the crisp packet recycling scheme in Shamley Green Stores. Hopefully we can now use the bigger schemes that supermarkets offer.
Walkers crisp packet recycling scheme in our village store Ending 25th April 2022
Walkers Crisps has decided to stop its crisp packet recycling scheme this month because there are now more than 3,500 local supermarket collection points where soft flexible plastics, such as crisp packets, can be recycled. This includes local supermarkets such as the Co-op (Bramley and Cranleigh), Sainsburys (Cranleigh) and Tesco.
Soft flexible plastics include items such as plastic crisp packets, bread, cheese and pasta bags and chocolate or biscuit wrappers, plastic film lids on yoghurt pots, soft fruit punnets and ready meals. If you’re not sure if it is soft flexible plastic, scrunch it up and see if it pings back, if it does it is likely to be soft plastic. Soft flexible plastics cannot be placed in recycling bins at home.
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New pages for wildflower enthusiasts
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Check out our new wildflower diary page to see what is in flower now, and also our wildflower planting page to see what you can expect to find now and later in the year in our newly planted areas.
Marker posts installed in planted areas
If anyone wonders about wooden posts with flowers painted on that have appeared on common land, they are to mark areas where wild flowers were planted by the Shamley Green Environment Group in autumn. They show the mowing contractor where to avoid until after they have set seed and also indicate areas people could try to avoid walking.
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In all we planted 42 species as seeds, bulbs, plugs or turf : to see what you can expect to find in these areas go to our Wildflower Planting page.
Lord Lieutenant visits Shamley Green
Such a pleasure to show the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey around Shamley Green on March 17th to celebrate the Queen's Green Canopy Jubilee projects.
He also learnt about other environmental activities at WSG and Longacre schools and met with representatives from the Shamley Green and Wonersh Environment Groups and heard about the various projects we have been developing over the last two years.
The Lord Lt also wanted to thank all the local organisations like SGcare and pubs and village shop for all they did to support the community through the pandemic. Huge thank you to everyone who came together to make this day happen.....especially the person who organised the Weather!
Toads are on the move now - watch out!
New signs are up around the Lords Hill/Norley Lane area of Shamley Green to remind everyone that toads and frogs are on the move at this time of year.
Thanks so much to all involved particularly Robyn (purple hat) from WSG school who painted these great signs and others from SGEG and the Toad Patrol who were involved in a combined effort.
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The Village pond, Woodhill Lane, Stroud Lane and Madgehole are other areas where extra care is needed. Please Drive Slowly
Horseshoe Bats return to Sussex
During the last century, greater horseshoe bat numbers fell by over 90% in Britain, by some estimates, and the species became confined to parts of Wales and south-west England. Today, however, there is some much-needed good news. The population is showing signs of recovery, with small colonies now found outside of this core area. This includes one pioneer breeding colony recently discovered in an old stable block in Sussex by none other than Scotty Dodd, the ecologist who did our invertebrate survey!
This is a sign of possible eastward spread and for this reason, it is a site which must be protected. With help, this small but hugely significant colony of greater horseshoe bats could become a real biodiversity success story, a species on the road to recovery and now returning to one of its former haunts after an absence of more than a century.
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Sussex Bat Group, Vincent Wildlife Trust and others are working hard to safeguard this rare bat species by purchasing and restoring this roost site , which will be owned by Vincent Wildlife Trust as a bat roost in perpetuity. It will be managed by the Trust in conjunction with the Sussex Bat Group. Right now, this is probably the most important greater horseshoe bat roost site in Britain and the most significant find since the group was formed in 1984.
If you would like to find out more about this amazing project and how you can help click here
Keeping an eye on the health of our trees
In February 2022 the Tree working group spent time clearing vegetation from some of our trees in order to keep an eye on fungal fruiting bodies.
Tree Planting in the Village - for wildlife, villagers and climate change
As part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee year we have joined in the Green Canopy Project: we have planted 10 crab apples and hawthorns at Hullmead, 3 at Lords Hill and 3 on the green by Spring Cottage and Little Tew. The sites were carefully chosen after much discussion with neighbours and the parish council.
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Planting trees can be a way of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and ours will also provide flowers with pollen and nectar for insects, and fruits for birds. In addition fruit trees such as these age more quickly than other deciduous species, rapidly developing ‘veteran’ features such as rot holes, hollows, and fissures, all of which support rare wildlife, including saproxylic insects that feed on the decaying heartwood.
It was a beautiful winter’s day and Claire Merriman and her team (Darren and Martin) did a fantastic job with plenty of us watching on.
Hopefully seeing these beautiful new trees growing in the village will encourage us all to plant trees in own gardens, particularly this year. The official planting season for the Project is October to March. If you don’t manage to plant this Spring all is not lost because the tree planting will commence again in October 2022, through to the end of the Jubilee year. Or you could plant a container grown tree at any time of year, but in the summer months newly planted trees may need a bit more looking after.
We are thrilled to know that Wonersh & Shamley Green School and Longacre School are also taking part in this project.
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If you feel you have an area near you that could do with some trees or lend itself to some wildflower planting then do contact us here.
Upcycled display cabinet draws admiring crowds
In January 2022 we put up our own ‘upcycled' cabinet outside the village stores - in an attempt to keep every one informed
Crisp packets recycling scheme takes off!
The new crisp packet collection enterprise started in December 2021 and hosted by the village stores has really been embraced by Shamley Green villagers. By the end of January 2022 several bin loads of plastic which would previously have gone to landfill had been collected and sent for recycling. Well done Shamley Green!