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News Archive 2012

Nest Boxes (2012)

The 2012 nest box clearance was carried out in December.
as usual. 16 of the small holed nest boxes had been used, mainly by
Tits. Of the 4 "Tree Creeper"boxes only ons showed signs of having being
occupied. The"Open fronted" boxes usually favoured by Robins or
Flycatchers again only had one out of 4 used. The "Owl box" had been
used as had both"Wren"Boxes". The Kingfisher box was however not
checked. With 21 out of the 28 boxes checked showing usage this equates
to a 75% occupancy rate overall.

The 2012 breeding season despite the weather seemed to be quite
succesfull.The following species have been confirmed as breeding along
the Emm .Song Thrush, Moorhen, Goldfinch, Woodpigeon , Great-spotted
Woodpecker Collared Dove, Blue Tit, Blackbird, Mistle Thrush, Starling,
Swift, House Sparrow, Greenfinch, Chiffchaff, Swallow ,Nuthatch, Jay,
Magpie, Mallard, Great Tit, , Long-tailed Tit and Blackcap, Chaffinch ,
Chiffchaff, Goldcrest & Green Woodpecker. These observations are
based on sightings of parents with young birds or parents feeding young
at nest sites.

29/12/12 A new arrival in the open space
to the rear of Brookside in Area 5 is a English Oak
Quercus robur this is one 60 standard English oak trees
planted across the borough to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
More information can be found by following this link. Jubilee Tree
Planting

02/10/12 On Tueday 2nd October 2012 members
of the FOTEB Committee went for a walk round the area of [soon to be]
Public Open Space behind Blackberry Gardens, Winnersh. There were 7 of
us on the walk. People got an appreciation of how rough the terrain is -
fortunately without incident. We saw the different levels of vegetation
from the short arable edge, through the medium and tall grass, to the
Marsh Thistle. Also the Blackthorn and Hawthorn bushes, Oak, Ash, and
Field Maple trees. Many of the plants were rather past their best and
the lack of sun coupled with the time of year limited the number of
insects however we did find some sawfly larvae on a Water Figwort plant,
see an adult Common Frog, have a good look at Argiope's lawn (the area
of cut grass beneath the web of this spider), and found one bush cricket
and a rather past it Dryad's Saddle fungus. The ground is becoming
increasingly wet as the year progresses - providing a natural means of
determining the levels. I am finding several of the 4 Spotted (Dotted?)
Orb-Weaver (Areneus quadratus) - though they remain quite difficult to
photograph.

11/09/12

WATER MAIN RENEWAL

If youv'e walked along the Emm behind Morrisons or on the
path from Brookside over Dragonfly Bridge in Area 5 you may have noticed
a few gaps have appeared in the Brambles. This has been due to the
laying of a new 11 inch water main by South East Water. This is part of
the ongoing works in Wokingham and will join up with a new main in
Brookside and runs to the Woosehill Spine Road. This work has been
undertaken with the minimum of disruption by using directional drilling.
This has allowed the pipe to be placed beneath the Emm Brook without the
need for an open trench

14/05/12

BROOK DECULVERTING

Well worth a look is the deculverted section of the Emm in
Area 2 . This section of the brook can be seen from Ashville Way off
Molly Millars Lane. Now that the wooden fence has been removed the works
undertaken by Cala Homes can be seen in all their glory. The culvert
(pipe) has been removed and in its place is this magnificent two- stage
open channel. A two-stage channel emulates the operation of a natural
floodplain, in which the usual flows are contained within a smaller
channel and flood flows occupy a much larger second stage channel.

23/07/12

BIG BUTTERFLY COUNT

This national event runs until Sunday, August 5 2012. With
butterflies particularly hard hit by the endless rain,sightings are
likely to be down,but this is an opportunity nevertheless to monitor
these fragile and endangered species. It simply involves counting
butterflies for 15 minutes on a bright sunny day. You can submit
seperate records for different dates and for different places that you
visit. For more information vsit http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/

04/04/12

WOKINGHAM TOWN TREES REPORT

Wokingham District Veteran Tree Association (WDVTA) has
published a report on special trees (Veteran and significant ) in
Wokingham town after six years of work by 40 volunteers. The report
includes several trees alongside the Emm. The report can be viewed here
Wokingham
Tree Report