As Summer draws to a close and Autumn patiently waits just around the corner, we at Friends of Tawd Valley return from our summer break and quickly get back into the swing of things.
We start the month of September off visiting West Lancashire College, as we joined them for their Fresher’s Week event. There was plenty of interest at the FoTV stall and we received very positive feedback from some of our sessions that took place earlier this year.
Next up, our first weekend volunteer day back saw our dedicated volunteers battle the scorching weather to rake all the cut grass from the orchard to give the wildflowers a chance to flourish next year. Many thanks to Team Tawd and the Rangers for strimming the grass over the last couple of weeks and a MASSIVE THANK YOU to all the volunteers who worked so hard in very hot conditions.
Later everyone enjoyed well earned refreshments back at the classroom.
Fantastic job, well done everybody once again.
The weekends riverfly survey brings with it the end of the riverfly kick sampling season. We had some great finds on the day and we’ve had some great finds over the season, too. The days highlights being Stickleback and a water spider. Don’t worry, we’ll be back in April next year for the beginning of the new season to see what other beasties we can discover within the river.
And we finish our weekly blog bundle off with a bit of sad news… Unfortunately, there have been further reports of American Signal Crayfish in Skelmersdale this week (close to our cloughs and small waterways). ASC are an invasive non-native species and can cause serious issues for our native water life.
The sightings have now been reported to the Environment Agency’s – Fisheries, Recreation & Biodiversity Team, who are going to follow these sightings up.
Again, we ask the community to please be vigilant and if you see what looks to be a Signal Crayfish, do not touch it, but please report it to the Environment Agency’s Fisheries, Recreation & Biodiversity Team on: 0870 8506506. And if you come into contact with any local waterways (fishing, paddling, etc), please remember to thoroughly clean all equipment, gear and wellies before and after use.
Doing these things can help keep the spread of American Signal Crayfish populations under control, which will help protect our native waterlife.
Photos courtesy of Anna Taft.
Anyway, that’s it from us for now. As always, please keep on coming back for more of your Tawd Valley Park fill. We hope you continue to enjoy the last of the warm spell before the nights draw in and the colder weather begins to make itself known. Bye for now.
