Lilleshall Hill

 Pic: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Lilleshall Hill on Friday, January 8th, 2010 saw The Wrekin Forest Volunteers helping friends of the hill clearing scrub, opening up views and expanding wildlife areas - all in the snow!

Enter Nigel performing the annual 'Dance of the Snow Queen'

I very nearly missed this opening ceremony standing as I was in the school car park where - without checking beforehand - I assumed we were to meet based on the fact we met on our previous excursion here. No-one else arrived so I walked up the hill to see if there were any signs - no-one around. Walked back down, then re-read the info - we were meeting at the Memorial Hall! Eventually found the SWT mini-bus but everyone had long since left to head up the hill. It was around an hour later that I eventually caught up with the happy throng.

There were around 15 of us today WuFuV's and other volunteers from the village and we split into 3 groups working on different tasks although the main focus was to open up views and create new wildlife habitats. And what superb views over the surrounding snow-covered countryside.

Lunch was a congregation on the steps of the monument where we were treated to a short impromptu history of the monument, the hill and surrounding area by two very knowledgeable members of the local community - must remember to take a notepad and pencil with me in future like I used to as I could then have made a note of their names! Sorry guys but if you're reading this please make yourself known to us!

                         Pic: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And what a beautifully perfect blue sky we were blessed with all day. Cold though it was.

Incidentally there's a great panoramic view from Lilleshall Hill on the BBC Shropshire website

There are more pics in the snow, below on the slideshow but first... I've been asked by many (well... Kevin at least) when the next 'Where Is It?' competition will be... so here it is:-

OOOOPS! Wrong pic! That IS Kevin!

Where Is It?

What a fabulous place to live! All I will say, as with all the Where Is It? competitions, is that it's in Shropshire. What's the yonder hill and where is it looking from?

Answers in comments below and can someone else beat Keith Fowler to the finishing line this time PLEASE?

Diary Notes

The Moth Night programme was posted on the WuFuV forum before Christmas and I think I've also emailed everyone I know with the file but if you've been missed you can view and download this from the forum in the Files section Click Here - open to all 

Butterfly Survey. Along with Graham Statham I was recently invited to Dr Jenny Joy's house for what turned out to be a very interesting chat about butterflies and moths and their local habitats, development threats etcetera along with programmes for 2010.

Jenny, who is a very active member of Butterfly Conservation and the Shropshire Butterfly Group also runs the Telford Butterfly Group and between us we set what should be a great day in the field for all interested in looking at, surveying and helping to record the butterflies of the Telford area. No special equipment needed although, of course, if you have a butterfly net and pots you won't want to be leaving them in the shed!

So please pop Saturday, May 15th in your diary - meet 12 noon at the main Car Park at Granville Nature Reserve (SJ719125). Records from the event will be forwarded to both Shropshire Wildlife Trust and Butterfly Conservation. We would hope to see Small Heath, Small Copper, Green Hairstreak and Dingy Skipper with perhaps - just maybe Silver-washed Fritillary. We shall see!

NB: We all have our favourite field reference guides but a great one that I use is Collins Butterfly Guide by Tom Tolman, illustrated by Richard Lewisham.

Click for Lilleshall Hill Slideshow

Catch you all shortly

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