I was surprised by how many people turned out today to help with the Wicks Green work party and even more surprised by how much was achieved. We have planted trees in all the larger gaps around the Wicks Green field and we have almost found all of the specimen trees in Silver Jubilee Field.
It is amazing to see how much we have achieved in a couple of years. There are flowers growing in areas that were previously overgrown, the specimen trees have been revealed in all of their glory (we even found one today that we didn’t know was there – we are just not sure what it is yet), the bulb-planting around the benches is providing colour and there are some interesting things growing in the wildflower area. The bird and bat boxes are ready for spring visitors, and the pond is full and less shaded.
Sadly, it seems unlikely that we will be able to run large work-groups for a few months. However, there are plenty of things that you can do to keep Wicks Green, or the other green-spaces in the village, looking great. Many of these tasks are things that will get you out into the fresh air and provide a bit of nature therapy whilst allowing you to practice social distancing.
If you want to do something for Binfield’s Environment in the next few months, you could litter-pick around the village (look on the parish council website for details of the sponsor a street scheme), you could visit some of our nest boxes and see if there is any sign that they are being used, you could do some biodiversity surveying, or you could do a bit of practical conservation work on your own. Please get in touch if you want to help and let us know how much time you want to give, which part of the parish you are in, and what kind of thing you’d like to do.
If you are house-bound you can still enjoy Binfield’s nature and do your bit to help. Your garden birds still need feeding. At this time of year, you can also put nest material out for them (there’s some good advice here - https://www.birdspot.co.uk/bird-boxes/nesting-material). On the subject of birds, you could take advantage of the lack of plane and traffic noise to listen to the dawn chorus and to listen out for the first of the spring migrants.
Bracknell Forest Council are starting to share ideas about what we can all do in our own gardens to help nature as part of their Year of the Garden (http://www.digforbracknell.org.uk/yog.html). There are already ideas on this site about what we can do for hedgehogs and bees.
We will try and provide further ideas as well as updates on Binfield’s nature over the next few months. We’d love to hear your ideas and updates too.