The Making of Beetle Bridge, Ercall Woods

Another project and another skill to learn!

This was a project that took a differing number of Wrekin Forest Volunteers just 5 days over a 5-week period to complete. A testament not just to teamwork but to the organisational skills of Pete Lambert who not only had to get bodies in the right place at the right time but also to ensure the supplies of wood, tools and other materials arrived in time too.

Anyone reading this post but not actively involved with the volunteers and would like to see the bridge just head to The Wrekin and park either at Forest Glen and walk up to Buckatree Hotel or park opposite the hotel at an entrance to Ercall Woods. As you head into the woods you'll see a large marker post and then the bridge which now connects 2 popular paths.














On the first day - Monday Feb 16 - there was just a small nucleus of us - 4 in total: Pete, Keith, Les and myself. We had a full day with quite a lot of ferrying wood from truck to stream to start with and then negotiating the slope in order to get said wood to the bottom.














Looks like someone was feeling the cold!
Is that Les tucked inside Keith's coat?
















The following Wednesday saw the handrail go up and the start of the steps.

The next 2 visits progressed at an excellent rate and then on to the last day


Time for lunch break:

Brian Goes Bananas

Only in England would this happen:

It's winter and one of the coldest, snow-filled winters for nearly 2 decades. A group of people sit on the cold, damp earth for a picnic in the woods. A tall white-bearded man stands up and announces that it's 'Go Bananas' day and we're all to eat a banana in an attempt to beat the banana-eating record!

It's just quintessentially English eccentricity at its best and don't we all just love it! Thank you Brian! No idea whether we beat the record or not but it certainly wasn't for the want of trying on our part!

Actually, this was really all about raising awareness for Faretrade Fortnight and the aim was to have 250,000 children all over the world eat a banana over a 48-hour period. So it wasn't Brian just indulging in a passion for odd-behaviour it was in fact something very worth-while.

Why Beetle Bridge?
The name for the bridge came about initially through a Beatles pose - for those old enough to remember - on the famous Abbey Road album cover with the famous four striding over the zebra crossing. It was Pete's suggestion on our first day that he take a photo of the 3 of us in similar fashion.

Doesn't quite have the same zing though does it?

Not only that but... a chance remark on the last day of bridge-building was picked up by Graham when I mentioned the names of the 2 female members of the south bank step team (sounds like a River Thames Aerobics group doesn't it?!) - Penny and Elaine which was quickly shortened to Penny Lane and another Beatles reference.

Not only that but... again on our first day we were joined by a young boy who was stream-dipping for wildlife and was catching shrimps and water-beetles.

And so the name was born (or is it borne?).

What was this flower?

Brian ID'd this early spring flower and I can't remember what it was. I don't think Brian accesses the blog so can anyone help?

Bridge and steps complete

One of the 2 marker post teams: Graham, Joe, Jackie & Brian

On this final day of bridge-building at Ercall Woods, along with forgetting my flask cup I also left behind my camera (you'd think that would be an essential piece of equipment for the blogger photographer wouldn't you?). So thanks go to Graham, Nigel and Les for jumping in and taking a few pics for the blog. Cheers guys!


Garden Moth Scheme
Just wanted to briefly mention this. I'm involved for the first time in an organised moth-trapping scheme which has been running for 6 years collaborating moth records from around 150 UK gardens. I'm one of the few representing Shropshire.

It involves trapping and recording moth visits each Friday night between March 6 and November 6. At the end of the season all spreadsheet records are then uploaded to a national database and results published to participants.

The aim is to track species activity year-by-year to ascertain how rapidly certain species are declining in the UK and hopefully help towards discovering all the reasons behind this and ultimately perhaps what can be done to reduce the decline. Worryingly, sixty-two moth species are believed to have become extinct in Britain during the twentieth century. This, of course affects the whole bio-diversity and reduces essential food for bats and birds to name but 2.

So in a very small way I hope to help!

I will upload a pic or two of my attempts over the coming months. Last Friday was the first night and I trapped just 3 moths - which was slightly better than the scheme's creator who recorded a big zero! Some summer nights can bring moths to a trap in their thousands so it can only get better from here on in!

A few weeks ago we discussed with Pete the possibility of a moth night for the WuFuV's so hopefully we can get something sorted for later. Anyway, here's one of my first moths trapped - it's a Hebrew Character...


I also trapped a March Moth and a Satellite.

Incidentally, when I say 'trapped' I don't mean they were clamped in vicious leg irons eventually dying an excruciating death - I mean just kept snugly in a nice warm box out of the elements for a few hours, spoken to very softly and then carefully released into garden foliage hidden from predators, possibly to return to the same trap a week later!

For more pics of the bridge-building please click the collage below

And if anyone's interested here's a short 'Nearly Spring' movie with a great bit of foot-tapping, head-nodding piano (ignore the sunset slides at the end - it's a draft for a promotional thingy!)