Issue 13 - October 2011 (PDF - Chipping Norton Times

The Cotswolds Area of
Outstanding Natural Beauty
North Cotswolds
Hedgelaying
Competition
Saturday 19
November
8.30 to 3.30pm
Hitchen Farm, Ford.
10th Cotswolds annual
Dry-stone Walling
Competition
at Adam Henson’s
Cotswold Farm Park
Sunday 2 October
Organised by the Cotswolds Conservation Board, in partnership
with the Cotswolds branch of the Dry Stone Walling Association
of Great Britain (DSWA), the competition will see four classes of
competitors - beginner pairs, novice, amateur and professional -
vying for the prestigious walling trophy and up to £120 cash
prize under the expert eyes of Master Craftsmen judges from
the DSWA. There is an additional prize for the best waller under
age 21.
Depending on which class competitors enter, they will have to
strip and rebuild a limited length of wall to the correct
specification. The rules associated with the competition are
strict with marks awarded for quality of foundations, cope
stones, sides, middle filling, batter and straightness.
The draw for stints starts at 8.45am with work completed by
4.15pm. Prizes awarded at 4.30pm.
Anyone wishing to enter the competition can phone Cotswolds
Conservation Board on 01451 862000 or register online at
www.cotswoldsruralskills.org.uk
Cotswold Farm Park Ltd, Bemborough Farm, Guiting Power,
Cheltenham, GL54 5UG
Every year the Cotswolds
Conservation Board runs
the North Cotswolds
Hedgelaying Competition with the support of the National
Hedgelaying Society. Winners in each class receive prize
money and a trophy and 2nd-3rd places receive prize
money. The competition is free to enter and has the
following classes – Open, Intermediate, Junior and
Beginners, Veteran.
For more information please contact David Molloy, our
Rural Skills & Grant Officer on 01451 862002 or online:
www.cotswoldsruralskills.org.uk/competitions/northcotswolds-hedgelaying-competition/
Spying on our river wildlife
GREYSTONES FARM NATURE RESERVE AND THE COTSWOLD
RIVERS LIVING LANDSCAPE
By Will Masefield - Community Wildlife Officer,
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust
Using a motion-sensor camera to sneak footage of secretive
wildlife seems like a good idea until you realise just how much
motion there is out there. And yet having to watch through
endless snippets of grass moving, water moving and shadows
moving only makes it more exciting when, eventually, there’s
a bona fide animal moving. With an eagerness born more of
naiveté than experience, I set about watching through 218
one minute snippets of footage from a motion-sensor camera
set on one of our mink-monitoring rafts on the river at
Greystones Farm Nature Reserve last month. The varnish was
wearing thin on my eagerness as early as clip 16, and by clip
80 it had been almost entirely eroded away. Two clips of a
wood mouse leaping up onto the raft and running around
with a feather temporarily resuscitated it, before my
beleaguered eagerness was fully restored by the appearance
of one of our least-known river mammals. This diminutive
character entered stage left, bustling around the raft, snaffling
up aquatic insects as if its life depended on it. In fact, its life
probably did depend on it, for this is an animal that lives life
at a hectic pace. The Kurt Cobain or James Dean of the animal
world, shrews live fast and die young (although it would
probably be safe to assume the similarity ends there). Their
metabolisms run so fast, in fact, that they can die if they go
three hours without sustenance. This particular shrew, with
black fuselage and grey undercarriage, was a water shrew, a
species that we had not seen here before. They spend their
time fossicking around the banks for insects, diving
underwater for caddis-fly larvae and shrimps, and
occasionally tackling fish or frogs, which they immobilise with
venomous saliva.
With my eagerness gauge now fully charged, I watched
through the last hundred and forty clips until finally, on clip
216 of 218, a much larger and rarer denizen of our waterways
made its cameo. Having spent so much time watching the tiny
mouse and water shrew, it came as something of a shock
when the blunt, bewhiskered snout of a much larger animal
hove into view. A chunky round body followed (thankfully –
disembodied snouts don’t half give me the willies), with a
shortish, hairy tail in tow. We know we have water voles at
Greystones Farm, but it was thrilling to see this one in the
flesh, if only for a few seconds. You can see it too, as well as
the mouse and water shrew, at
www.facebook.com/gwtcotswolds.
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s Cotswold Rivers programme,
kindly supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, is working
with local communities and landowners to improve these
mammals’ chances of survival. The water vole, especially, is
on a knife edge.
If you are interested in joining us (however little time or
experience you have at your disposal) please contact me at
will.masefield@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk, or ring me
on 07793 307056. You can also reach us on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/gwtcotswolds.
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