Happy New Year, everyone. Hope you had a great Christmas break and perhaps even some lovely presents. We were so thrilled with our present from Heather Cooper, our website superstar. We knew she was planning to make all her presents last year, but we were just blown away by her wonderful present for us and the woodland. It was a handmade bird box for tits or dunnocks with a message saying “Keep up the good fight!”
Our resubmission for retrospective consent for the hub, the table and bench and a hedge has finally gone live. We give big thanks to Councillor Eleanor Laming for her sterling work in getting the Broads Authority to accept this being heard by a planning committee instead of an individual. Thanks also to Councillors Davis and Knight for supporting this request so strongly.
The planning committee will convene on 3 February after they have read the planning officer’s report. We are inviting them onsite to see the woodland and meet us. We know it is so important for them to see what we have created in less than 4 years. You can see from the website comments just how vital our work is.
On Saturday we had a visit from Professor O’Riordan OBE, Emeritus Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia. As president of CPRE Norfolk, he is their figurehead, promoting the charity wherever possible and raising awareness of their work. It was Henry Cator who suggested we invite Tim to the woodlands. It was so lovey to have an impartial expert who could understand both us and the Broads Authority planners and suggest a way forward.
Tim says:
We are demonstrating good Broads' management practice.
Involving UEA students with Professor Iain Barr for their research.
Inviting local schools to make use of the site.
Demonstrating ongoing involvement with local groups with new open days being arranged and plans for talks to the Green Group.
We tried out the mothballs at home to protect Steve’s complete collection of native bonsai trees and the bird feeders from the squirrels, with some success, so we have tried it out at the woodlands. We have put a wildlife camera up to gain evidence of its effectiveness. We need to put a wildlife camera in our garden too.
We are so pleased to have found The Shoulder of Mutton pub. The staff are friendly and helpful. They will often fit us in even though they are planning to shut the kitchen for the evening. The food is excellent and we are happily working our way through the specials menu!
Steve has been in touch with Secret World Wildlife Rescue with a view to rehousing badgers at the woodlands. They have been triple vaccinated and are no threat to cows. We have a meeting soon to see if we and the woodlands fit their needs.
Steve also saw a Goldcrest (Regulus regulus) down by the willow coppice. It is one of the UK’s smallest birds. They have a length of 9cm, a wing span of 14cm and weight 6g. They're dull greyish-green with a pale belly and a black and yellow stripe on their heads, which has an orange centre in males. Their thin beak is ideally suited for picking insects out.
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