Category: Events

SACWG are hoping to launch a new project for 2025 – Strettons Toad Patrol.

Church Stretton Town Council has agreed to the installation of Toad Crossing signs at three vital migratory locations in All Stretton:

• The B4577 crossing to the pool on Mr Parkes’ land
• Farm Lane at the railway bridge
• Minor Road, Lower Wood

Adult toads and frogs emerge from their overwintering sites in spring and start migrating towards the pond on mild, damp evenings. Toads especially tend to return to ancestral
breeding ponds, whereas frogs will colonise a new pond very quickly. Toads and frogs will migrate along the same routes each year and are at risk of being killed on roads.

Migration runs from January through to April, and movement is most likely to occur on mild, damp evenings.  This project aims to advise drivers to be mindful of toads and frogs crossing the road. 

Supplementary to the signs, and if warranted, volunteers are being asked to step forward to help man a toad crossing.  This entails being out on an evening when toads and frogs are likely to be migrating (high visibility jackets required), carrying a bucket, and moving them to safety. 

For further details please contact Julie Cowley (juliecowley463@gmail.com; mob 07580159183).

The Church Stretton branch of the Shropshire Ornithological Society (SOS) is facing closure.

All of our board members are planning to resign at our AGM on Monday, January 27th, 2025 for personal reasons.  We intend to run our pre-booked talks on February 24^th and March 24^th,  but if we can’t find new board members to replace us we will not return in September.

The board is made up of a Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and one or more extra volunteers. However, that sounds more official than it really is.  We are not “trustees” as the local branch is not a registered charitable organization. We merely manage the local branch for the main society.  It is possible that fewer volunteers could run the branch if the jobs were divided up differently.  At present, responsibility is apportioned in this way:

Chair:

• Introduces speakers and arranges for or gives the vote of thanks
• Holds a board meeting once a year to enable discussion of any issues
• Chairs the annual AGM where they report on the activities of the past year.
  
  

Secretary:

• Communicates with and books speakers for the five talks which are held each year.
• Opens, closes and supervises set up of the hall for each event.
• Greets the speaker and makes sure they have what they need to present their talk.
• Records the minutes of the annual AGM and assists the Chair as needed.
• Arranges display around the town of a small number of posters to advertise the talks.  
  
  

Treasurer:

• Manages the funds of the branch which come from the main society and from non-members attending the talks
• Liaises with the treasurer of the main society.
• Pays the speakers
• Collects entrance fees from non-members at meetings.
• Produces the publicity posters for the Secretary.
  
  

Other Volunteers:

• Help put out and put away chairs
• Serve tea/coffee and biscuits before the meeting

We hope that some of the people who have attended our meetings and enjoyed our talks will step forward to take on and share these tasks. Please attend the short AGM at the end of January when we are looking forward to an entertaining talk about the amazing work of “Caring for God’s Acre”. If you can’t attend, but want to help, please contact me by phone or email.

Joan Arnfield – Board Member
01694 724170 or joanarnfield@gmail.com

SACWG Annual Public meeting – 7.15 on Tuesday 25th Feb in All Stretton Village Hall (SY6 6JR)

Do come along to this year’s meeting to hear about how local wildlife is faring in our various monitoring and habitat management projects. These include swifts, red grouse, native crayfish, wildflowers, bats, butterflies, bumble bees and wild-flower meadows.

We will also provide an overview of the new Local Nature Recovery Strategy in Shropshire and announce an exciting new focus on surveying Stretton gardens.

There will be an opportunity to chat informally with our various project leaders to find out what their surveying involves. Refreshments are provided

For more information, go to:

https://www.shropshirebirds.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Guide-in-the-hide.pdf

SACWG are hoping to participate in the People’s Trust for Endangered Species national hedgehog survey in 2025.  We will be the only group in Shropshire surveying hedgehogs for this study.  However, in order to participate we need access to 30 mammal/wildlife cameras that will deployed over a 1km2 area in Church Stretton during the survey season.  This is a request to anyone who has a mammal camera – would it be possible to borrow your camera for a short time in 2025?  Please contact Julie Cowley at juliecowley463@gmail.com if you are able to help.