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www.withymead.org
Bird Song ID Sat 25 Apr.
10am – 12 noon

ACCTion for WILDLIFE!
APRIL / MAY 2015 No.8
'Newsletter of
ACCTion for WILDLIFE! (The Anne Carpmael Charitable Trust).
Conserves our wonderful but declining local wildlife, & inspires others too.
Owns and manages Withymead Nature Reserve and Little Meadow Reserve, Goring.
Hosts Forest School, runs Wildlife Club for children, puts on events & courses.
MARCH / APRIL SIGHTINGS AT WITHYMEAD -
Dog Violet
Oak Beauty Moth
Otter and cub
‘An Otter cub! ‘Great news as although making a welcome comeback, Otters are still
very sensitive to waterborne chemicals; they largely wiped them out last century. So
female otters live just now for about 3 years but...they only become sexually mature
at this age too, so the cub is very special :-) Brimstone, Peacock, Red Admiral,
Comma, Small Tortoiseshell butterflies; Large Red Damselflies. Chiff Chaff, Cuckoo,
Sedge Warbler Apr. 23: Cetti’s Warbler still calling: Withymead NR.
EVENTS:
Withymead Nature Reserve LODDON LILY Open Days –
All Sundays + Bank Holiday Mondays in April & May 11 am - 5 pm

Teas /cakes available NEW! Cream teas beside the river* 2.30pm – 5pm
(*except 10 May)
 Loddon Lily Open Days
Please drop in to relax and
take in the beautiful
surroundings and the
Wildlife, not least the Loddon
Lilies - Withymead NR has the largest remaining
population of this native and nationally scarce flower (thousands, a
 VERY POPULAR!!! Our busiestbeautiful sight) related to the Snowdrop. Cakes and tea / coffee are
ever day so far was 19 Apr. 2015
available in the Study Centre through the car park from 11am – 1.30pm;
NEW! Cream Teas are served on the new landing stage by the river 2.30pm – 5pm. See photo –
above, left  Thank you to Fiona and Rebecca who are helping serve teas on the landing stage, Fiona for
two days + to Helen and Michelle for manning the Study Centre on 10 May in the afternoon. We are
looking for more volunteers please - please get in touch, especially for 10 May 11am – 1.30pm :-)
All money raised on Loddon Lily Open Days will be used to fund our new exciting, very large pond
and water feature in the Study Centre garden. Thank you to Gerry and Robert who have planned and
excavated the pond + built a wooden dam for it - this pond is going to be on two levels with seating to
view the freshwater life close up at eye-level. This is especially great as the lower half of the pond
will be host to a small population of native fish - Roach.
More watery fund-raising…Monday 4th May – Withymead Open Day & South Stoke Fair.
We are having an ACCT ion for WILDLIFE! stall that day. Thank you to those who
have made or donated craft items for us to sell to raise funds for native pond plants
for our new ponds. Withymead has a good, healthy population of amphibians (and
reptiles) and these animals are severely declining elsewhere - it makes sense to
boost them here and native pond plants will really help them.
For the first time frogs have laid eggs in the new larger pond in the Study Centre
garden – see photo below. We had a
Withymead 'Special' volunteering
session + craft event on 18 April - we had a great time making
things – see photos .SAT. 2 MAY - another chance to make craft
items at our regular monthly VOLUNTEER MORNING, along with
other tasks. It'll be FUN!
We will be potting up plants into our donated planters for sale at the Fair and
making bubble-print writing paper sheets, decorating terracotta pots with clay
animal faces, making animal mini-clipboards and pebble animals.
CRAFT DAY PHOTOS
Say Hello to Froggee at
Withymead by the
Wishing Well. If you shake
hands too she’ll sing you 3
songs, then you can make
a wish and throw a coin in
the Well – all funds raised
will be used to fund our
big POND PROJECT (see
above) to help Froggee
and friends. 
OUR FIRST EVER FROG SPAWN IN OUR
NEW PONDS!!!!! We are allowing our
amphibians to find the ponds naturally
to avoid spreading disease and
invasive non-native, aquatic plants 

FROGGEE

THE JELLY protects the eggs but is permeable so
lets oxygen in and carbon dioxide out 
SPONSORED WILDFLOWER BOUQUETS - thank you to the
donors. 500 wildflower bulbs were planted (special thanks
to Shirley for this) at Withymead Nature Reserve. Visitors &
wildlife will benefit in future from a beautiful display of
Snakeshead Fritillaries, Wild Daffodils, Native Bluebells,
Wood Anemones, Wild Garlic, Lesser Celandine, Common
Mothers Day planting
Star of Bethlehem . Some Wild Daffodil are flowering now!
BLUEBELL UPDATE - 12 people planted 500 native Bluebells along the Ridgeway Trail
at Withymead last autumn - they are starting to flower  At the ACCTion for
WILDLIFE! monthly volunteer session on Saturday 2 May (10am - 1pm) we will be
removing Spanish Bluebells at Withymead - this introduced species is hybridising
with native Bluebells, threatening their survival. The UK has more than 50% of the
world's Common Bluebell so we have a special responsibility to conserve them.
VOLUNTEERS – THANK YOU

Thank you to Robert for numerous jobs
including repairing the board walk and
small bridge, Isaac for mending the
reciprocating mower, Mike & Bill for a
beautiful job strengthening and finishing
hurdle fences + donating & planting native
tree saplings, Tom & Lisa for supervising the
bonfire at Little Meadow + cutting nettles,
Shirley, Heather & Robert for all sorts of
Thanks to Isaac for mending and servicing
machinery for over 3 years now.
wildlife gardening jobs with the Monday Morning Brews Club, Helen for biodiversity
project help, Fiona & Kathy for newsletter production; Chance for invaluable help
with book-keeping; Will for help weekly, Tiegan for Honeysuckle monitoring, Kim for
publicity.
DONATIONS
We are very grateful
to the Dorothy Holmes Charitable Trust for the
generous £1,000 for conservation and education. Thank you to Elaine and Lisa for
lovely Frog craft items; Tom and Mike for tree saplings; Peter for a lot of new safety
goggles, planters, snow / ash scoops, storage boxes and many other needed items;
Mike R for lovely taxidermy specimens; Steven and Neil for paving stones; Alan for
children’s seed kits; John S for the mini clipboards to sell on the Craft stall; Claire
and Jamie for various useful items; Martin for becoming a Friend of ACCT; Bill for
bug houses; Joyce and Brian for a rose for the Pet Memorial Garden; our
anonymous donor for generous match-funding for our new bat and bird
sponsorship project (see page 6)
Mike planting the tree
saplings alongside the
hurdle fence he and Bill
made.
Tubes in Bill’s bug box
from last year – Leafcutter bees and mason bees have used them.
Wallingford Green Gym completed a programme of work on ‘Tara's Piece’- part of
Withymead NR in March, preparing ground and sowing Cornfield Annual seed - these
should really brighten up the Ridgeway National Trail in summer. A small plaque
was unveiled on the fence which they constructed, to thank them.
They also very positively tackled a big tidying and clearing job in the work area on
the following session too! It was a great job 
National Trails Volunteer Work Day 
Thank you to the hard-working and cheerful
National Trails team who enabled the cutting
and clearing of the last part of this year's Reed
Fen cut. The rare Reed Fen’s 5 sections are cut on
rotation, conserving the habitat and resulting
in plants coming back from the seed bank; quite
rare Yellow Loosestrife has bounced back like this
giving quite a yellow 'forest' of them.
THIS
LEADS TO
THIS 
ACCTion for WILDLIFE!
volunteers at Little Meadow 
Clearing brash and varnishing
the benches. Thank you so much
for the great turn-out in
March!!! This clearing of the
old meadow cuttings is crucial
for boosting the new flower
growth see the Cowslips and
Lesser Celandine at the meadow now – beautiful!
Several Snakeshead Fritillaries are flowering too 
BIRD NEWS Blue Tits are nesting in the box with the camera again at the back of
the Study Centre. Two Teal s were using Reed Fen section 2 recently - we knew these
have been at Cholsey Marsh but this is our first record at
Withymead in the last three years.
To encourage Starlings we are offering a limited number of
FREE
NEST
BOX
OFFER
nest boxes for this species to individuals and groups in the
local community – within a 10-mile radius of Goring. If you
can show that the area you intend to put the box up in is
Starling-friendly please contact us with a request.
The boxes are ‘woodcrete’ – a mix of sawdust and concrete with
good thermal insulation . Starling numbers have plummeted - they need nest sites
in summer and fat-feeders help in winter. A good supply of invertebrates close-by is
crucial especially when they are nesting. Garden and ‘lawn-care’ pesticides (and
others used in the countryside) hit them hard. To encourage them don’t use
insecticides – Starlings will naturally remove leatherjackets etc. from lawns, aerating + fertilising them . You
then have the pleasure of wildlife-watching. Thanks to Joe
for raising these lawn issues. A gloriously-glossy pair of
Starlings in breeding condition was at Little Stoke recently
WILDLIFE CLUB NEWS: These amazing poems were written by members of our
Wildlife Club below:
Matthew reached 1000 points to achieve his
Wildlife Art Badge and prize. Here he is being
presented with his prize by Toby 
Look at the Spring…
I look around
and what do I see
spring is coming,
setting nature free
Because the trees are changing,
the leaves are emerging quite new.
The animals are playing and
the skies are now blue.
The flowers are smiling,
the bushes are green.
The birds in the sky
in flocks are now seen.
The berries are orange
the blossom is cream
the world has unfurled
to reveal a dream,
of new life and hope,
of the coming freshness and heat.
And the smells in the air
are amazingly sweet.
By Abigail C
Look Outside
Look outside and see the trees,
See the flowers swish in the breeze.
But this could change in a year or two
If polluting is all we do.
We’re responsible for the world outside
So polluting should be a crime.
If the world can’t help itself,
What’s the point of all your wealth?
Help me and I’ll help you
To show the world what we can do…
By Beth
HELP BATS AT WITHYMEAD by sponsoring bat boxes:
2 for the price of ! Special Offer – 10 sponsorships available.
sponsor 1 box for £27
and we can buy
and put up 2 !!
Bats are quite rare now
because they need lots
of insects in their
habitat and insecticides
have reduced these.
We have 5 bat species
at Withymead as we
have insects but…they
need roosting and
breeding places that
are safe and stay the
same temperature.
A mystery donor will
match-fund your
donation – you can
name your boxes and
write the names on
them yourself – offer
comes with a Gift BAT
GREETINGCARD
explaining how bats
have been helped.
Bats at Withymead NR:
Pipistrelle Soprano
Common Pipistrelle
Daubenton’s Bat
‘Woodcrete’ bat boxes made of wood and concrete Brown Long-eared
are good for bats – they use them 10 times more Bat
than wooden boxes. The boxes at Withymead are
Noctule Bat
old, wooden ones which need replacing
 SPECIAL BAT BOX SPONSORSHIP SCHEME –
help bats at Withymead with the generous help
of our mystery donor 
Common Pipistrelle
An easy way to help bats at home is to nail
up old planks at head height with small
batons behind so that a tiny space (2 cm –
as wide as your thumb) is left for bats to roost and rest
(they don’t fly continuously all night).
ACCT ion for WILDLIFE! forum update - the forum now has 10 members - a great
place to share wildlife sightings, thoughts and ideas. Please join up - it's free and
secure - none of your details appear online except your chosen user name - most
people choose a nick-name in fact. To join visit www.withymead.org - press on the
FORUM button at the top of the home page and follow the instructions which are
detailed on the 'How to join the group' thread. If you have any problems get in
touch and we can help - one thing I discovered is that when you're first asked to
choose a 'user name' this is not your name on the forum but your email address
and you can use your existing one.
Thank you to Sarah for setting up and moderating forum.
STUDY CENTRE DEVELOPMENTS - thanks to Will and Robert, the aquaria are now in
place and beginning to be populated with native wildlife. Thanks to the Basildon
Country Neighbour Association's generous donation; a set of Wildlife Guides are
being purchased for the Study Centre library, plus 5 small
mammal traps for monitoring. Repeat surveys will be
carried out at Withymead and Little Meadow
THE STUDY CENTRE AND WILDLIFE GARDEN is open on
Monday and Wednesday mornings from 9am -1pm for
members of the public to drop in, view the exhibits
including the new, live wildlife , use the library and
microscopes and discuss Nature Conservation.
Robert is creating a new professional paved surround to the Centre reusing
old slabs donated by Steve & Neil – it’s level and will be mud-free in wet weather:
VOLUNTER ROLES –
Can you help boost biodiversity and wildlife enjoyment / education locally?
This year we would like to accelerate the development of the Study Centre and grounds volunteers are very welcome to help with gardening, maintenance, planning – you may be able
to develop a part of the complex as your own project - please get in touch. The Monday Morning
Brews Club meet each week from 10am - 1pm but Wednesday or Saturday mornings are possibilities.
The Study Centre and grounds will be a community facility for Wildlife enjoyment and education.
Monitoring at Withymead Nature Reserve – adopt a patch to call your own  You are
invited to choose a small area at Withymead Nature Reserve and call in once a month for
about an hour to generally survey it – we’ll provide you with a map, simple chart and guidance.
All you do is record simple wildlife happenings of note – for example what wildflowers are present and
how many – you don’t need to know anything at all to start this – you can photograph plants you don’t
know and work with us. We are carrying out conservation work and planting at Withymead and need
to monitor how the wildlife is faring – all information is valuable to chart progress and enable changes
to be made if necessary.
For example, from our observations – wildflowers and butterflies are increasing but we now need to
record these changes formally from season to season and year to year. Anybody can record useful
information and will learn all sorts of interesting things about wildlife as they go along – this would be
a good role to share with family and / or friends (including children of 8 years and up) or do on your
own individually. Saturday mornings would be a good time to do the surveying – contact us to find out
more. We’re hoping to recruit a team of people – this should be an interesting social group too 
Bird Box Scheme volunteers – two or more volunteers are needed for this interesting job..
This will involve an annual check on the bird boxes, (This will involve climbing ladders), recording
occupancy success, basic cleaning and repair, and monitoring occupancy of sponsored boxes around the
reserve and the wider environment. This will include Little Meadow, Tara's Piece, and other properties where
boxes have been placed.
Included in this will be maintenance of a register of donors and the production of an annual report to
donors of boxes.
Quarter Master / Mistress
Are you an organised, resourceful, person who can track down supplies for volunteer projects on
the reserves – this will be an important role 
Thank you to New Volunteers this month 
Many thanks to Kim and Joe who have volunteered as Publicity Officers – this is
already making a big difference!
Thanks and welcome to Marja who has joined the Monday Morning Brews Club
and already contributed to Wildlife gardening in the Study Centre grounds and
in the Pet Memorial Garden.
WHAT’S HAPPENING SOON...
Dates for your Diary and to book( BE -Booking Essential)

Loddon Lily Open Days – in April and May, every Sunday and Bank Holiday
Monday; 11am – 5pm. Cream teas on the landing stage 2.30pm – 5pm.

Saturday 25 April 10am-12noon Bird song ID talk / walk with Mike Rogers BE

Saturday 25 April 9.30am – 12.30pm – Withymead ‘Special’ volunteering
session – join Sonning Common Green Gym completing the well path , tee-pee
and path marking. Drop-in event

Frday May 1 – dusk ‘til late - Regular monthly Moth Night. Drop-in event

Saturday 2 May – 10am – 1pm
ACCTion for WILDLIFE! Monthly Volunteer
session with Abingdon Green Gym joining us  Landscaping around the Study
Centre and Wildlife gardening .

Monday May 4th 11am – 5pm – Loddon Lily Open Day + ACCTion for WILDLIFE!
Craft stall at Withymead Nature Reserve. 11am – 5pm

Tuesday May 5 - Withymead ‘Special’ volunteering session – join Wallingford
Green Gym building dry storage areas for equipment. Drop-in event

Thursday May 21 - Withymead ‘Special’ volunteering session – join Sonning
Common Green Gym building dry storage areas . Drop-in event

Saturday 23 May 10am – 2pm - Invertebrate Monitoring Event at Withymead
NR with Ivan Wright, Shotover Wildlife BE

Saturday 30 May 10am-12noon Club-tailed Dragonfly event Little Meadow BE
ACCTion for WILDLIFE!
Charity No. 1102152
Contact us at Withymead Nature Reserve, Bridleway, Goring on Thames, Oxfordshire, RG8 0HS
Tel: 01491 872265 or 01491 875357 (Mobile No. 07553 112447) www.withymead.org
Email: [email protected] (NB – double ‘c’) or [email protected] for info. &
to receive email newsletters monthly. Newsletter Team: Fiona Kathy Dot Keith
Newsletter team: Robert, Dot, Keith, Fiona, Kathy, Jake