Common frog and common toad populations have been reported as being in decline since the 1970s.
Common toad populations have declined across the UK by 68% over the past 30 years, which approximates to a 2.26 % decline per year.
Pleased to report 11 Chavenage bat boxes have been kindly erected by Steve Parker & Nigel Tranter in an ‘out of play area’ on the course to supplement natural roosting places which are becoming rarer.
So, what is a Dead Hedge? “A dead hedge is a barrier constructed from cut branches, saplings, and foliage. The material can be gathered from activities such as pruning or clearing, and in traditional forms of woodland management, such as coppicing. Its ecological succession can be a beetle bank or hedge.”
In September 2023, it was proposed to the Club’s Board, that we develop a comprehensive Woodland Management Plan (WMP). This initiative is essential to promote greater air circulation and ingress of light in areas of play that are currently heavily shaded.
Hinckley Golf Club’s new Ecology Group reports to the club directors on its first few months
Reproduced with kind permission of Hinckley Golf Club
Upright log piles can provide a habitat for many species of deadwood feeding (Saproxylic) invertebrates in public areas of woodlands, parks and Nature Reserves, in places where standing deadwood cannot be left due to safety reasons.
When I started green keeping 18 years ago I didn’t know anything about nature, or golf for that matter, I just wanted to work outside. Over that time, more and more focus has been put onto sustainability and working in ways to benefit nature, and rightly so.
For the past five years a small team of volunteers at Market Harborough Golf Club have, with the support of the club’s board of directors, been following a series of environmental policies and projects ranging from single use plastics and recycling, to LED lighting and on course environmental enhancements.
Slow worms are neither worms nor, in fact snakes, but a small genus of snake-like legless lizards in the family Anguidae. Its identity is given away by its abilities and blink with its eyelids.
The Hornet Moth (Sesia apiformis) is the largest of our region’s clearwing moths and also one of the rarest. There are currently only seven known colonies within the East Midlands (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Rutland).