Hold on for the ride. These updates are going to come thick and fast. Fasten your seatbelts…
On the 14th April Team Tawd and the Ranger Team were out preparing the ground alongside the hedge near the pathway leading to the Half-Mile Fishing Lake. It’s now all ready for a tree planting session with The Beavers Cubs in May. Keep checking back to hear all about this upcoming event.
Not only that, but Team Tawd and Ranger Chris also conducted a litter-pick on the 21st April, keeping the park clean and tidy for the wildlife and community. Keep up the great work team!
No time to stop now! Next up, we had an absolutely fantastic turnout for the guided bat walk event hosted by the brilliant team at Billinge Bat Rescue. They gave a very informative talk at the beginning of the evening before the group headed down to the Valley to detect and get some sightings of the bat species that call the Tawd home.
And to build on this great event, the results are in for the bat species detected in the park on the night. Drum roll please…
The data below shows the bat species that were present and how many times they flew by:
Common Pipistrelle – 24
Nathusius Pipistrelle – 1
The Nathusius Pipistrelle is the first ever recorded within the Valley, which is fantastic news!
That brings the total number of bat species in Tawd Valley Park to SIX!!! AMAZING!!!
Other species found in the park include: Soprano Pipistrelle, Noctule, Brown Long Eared, Daubentons.
A big thank you to the team at Billinge Bat Rescue and to West Lancashire Borough Council Parks & Countryside Ranger Service for help to put on a fantastic evening.
TRY AND KEEP UP…! Up next, some riverfly kick sampling action down on the River Tawd on the 16th April. Three sites sampled and results recorded. We had some lovely little finds in our trays. We were made up to spot a little Bank Vole along the woodland floor also. If you’d like to take part in some riverfly sampling, we are holding a Community Riverfly Survey day in August. Check the “What’s On” page for more info.
Keep on holding tight, we are only half way through!
Last week was our last Trout in the Classroom session with the class 2 students at Dalton St Michael’s CE Primary School, before the trout parr were released into the River Tawd. The children have been so engaging and enthusiastic throughout this whole project. The knowledge they have retained is amazing. Well done, class 2.
And, the moment you have all been waiting for…
It was a momentous occasion at Tawd Valley Park on Monday, as the Trout in the Classroom project came to an end with the release of the Brown Trout into the River Tawd. Class 2 children of Dalton St Michael’s CE Primary School should be so, so proud of themselves for caring and looking after the trout until they were strong enough to go it alone in the wild.
It was a lovely afternoon within the Valley as we watched the trout parr lovingly raised by the class 2 students of Dalton St Michael’s CE Primary School being released into the River Tawd by Mike from Friends of Tawd Valley and Sam from Groundwork Cheshire, Lancashire, Merseyside.
The children, teachers and parents/guardians looked over the railings of Summer Street Bridge towards the river Tawd as they watched the little Brown Trout Parr begin their journey into the wild. Hopefully, the parr will grow and flourish within the river Tawd.
Good luck to the little Brown Trout Parr as they begin the rest of their lives in the River Tawd.
Are you still with us? Its not over yet! We’ve had a massive few weeks for trees down in the park.
First off, a huge thank you and a big well done to the West Lancashire College – Level 2 Carpentry students, who on the 25th April were out with Team Tawd planting trees from The Woodland Trust. They even brought some bird boxes they’ve made, two of which are now in position within the park.
West Lancashire College wrote: “To celebrate Earth Day, the students were taught about the various species of tree that grow locally and they planed 50 Oak and Silver Birches. Planting the trees is an intent to help Skelmersdale with its own biodiversity and wildlife, but it also provided our students the opportunity to give back to the community and offset their own timber usage.
Students also had the chance to fit new bird and bat boxes that they had made and while they were there, plans were drawn up to build various picnic tables, wooden planters and wildlife boxes which will be delivered later in the term”.
As tree planting season is drawing to a close for another year, we have been frantically out getting through some planting of the young samplings we have left.
And as we come to the end of our flurry of updates, last, but definitely not least…
A gigantic thank you to our volunteers who attended this weekends tree planting volunteer day down at Tawd Valley Park. You all did a fantastic job and we can’t thank you all enough. We had a solid turnout and the work achieved was impressive. All under the watchful eye of Bruno the dog. Thank you to Dave Gibson Wildlife Photography for these two excellent pictures.
I think you can agree that it has been a hectic couple of weeks down in Tawd Valley Park, and its not stopping there. We have a plethora of events heading your way during the next few months. Keep following us on our social media feeds and here on our website.
Thanks for reading and check back soon!
