Erewash Valley Wildlife

The OPAL (Open Air Laboratories) Network have launched a new biodiversity study recently to find more about what’s living in our hedges. It’s a nationwide study and the results can be seen online. It’d be great to get a few local results into the database.

Surveys shouldn’t take long, and are a great way to put a new slant on an often overlooked part of our landscape. They’re great to do with kids too.

Details are available here – http://www.opalexplorenature.org/?q=BiodiversitySurvey. Let us know if you do a survey and what you find!

I’ve been informed that a few birding sites have been affected by a trojan virus recently – while there is nothing to indicate this site has been affected I have taken some precautionary steps to remove the “Fat Birder” and “Birder Top 1000″ widgets from this site as these are the widgets that have been reported on the Internet as having  been associated with the virus. Please note that the information I have is that these sites are all now “cured” – and the administrators of those sites have worked very hard to repair them and fix the associated security holes. However I’d rather play safe, and since these widgets don’t add much more than counters to site I’d rather remove them to be safe.

Anyone using an infected site with up-to-date virus and firewall software, and a decent browser, will be okay, but it serves as a timely reminder to everyone to keep such software up to date. I use AVG and ZoneAlarm – a quick internet search will help you find them, they’re free. I would also recommend scanning regularly with some trusted AntiMalware software too.

I take this sites security very seriously, and hope the above will reassure anyone who reads about the problems that this site is safe.

Anyone with any concerns or questions can email me: webmaster (-at-) erewashvalleywildlife.org.uk – removing the (-at-) and replacing it with @ (another battle we have is with spammers!).

Chris

How about a meet at Erewash Meadows on Sunday 19th September? Meet in the Stoneyford Boat Car Park at 2pm and we’ll do a walk around the reserve.

Car share where possible – email me: webmaster (a.t.) erewashvalleywildlife.org.uk (remove the (a.t.) and replace with an “@” sign – no spam please!)  to arrange/offer a lift if you like.

If you can reply to let me know you’d like to attend via email,  comments here, or on the forum, then great but its not necessary.

It’ll be great to meet people and put faces to names. Who knows there might even be something decent to see wildlife-wise.

Single Bird seen over the old car parks.

Does anyone have any toad records for this area? Especially the Nottingham Canal.

The toad barriers and signs installed when the site was built in the early 90′s have all fallen into dis-repair and have been removed and Chris Monk at the Derbyshire ARG has asked me if anyone has any records of toads in the area. Apparently the toad tunnels have been infilled too!

Any info appreciated. Use the comment box below or email webmaster – at – erewashvalleywildlife.org.uk (replacing the at with an @).

Still lots to do but I’m pleased with progress. I’ll prob continue a bit tomorrow. I need to get the calendar working and a few other bits, but most of the site should work.

To post new sightings registered users can use the temporary link on the left sidebar as the top bar isn’t working yet.

Any problems please comment below.

Hi all,

I will be working on the website tomorrow from about 7pm, therefore please accept my apologies for any downtime you experience during this time.

I hope it will be all up and working by the morning, I’m performing an update to the backend software and so may have to remove some functionality if its not compatible. I’ll post a note once I’m done.

Chris

Gordon from the Barn Owl Group has reported that this year they have found eight pairs of Barn Owls in their Barn Owl boxes – some of which are in the Erewash Valley. Many chicks are still very small so may not survive. Gordon will be able to give more information on the final totals when they ring them in the near future. Of the five new boxes Gordon erected at the end of April, four have breeding pairs and the other one a roosting male.

Below is a picture of some of the more well-developed chicks taken recently (though not in the Valley).

Thanks to Gordon for all his hard work and providing the photo.

Oh dear – maybe the website needs some TLC. I might have broken it importing Daves blog, maybe all that fantastic info on Bennerley has blown its mind.

I have a backup but when I have time to investigate depends on work. In the meantime I hope everyone will forgive me if there is a lull in posts. Hopefully it only affects posting sightings etc, rather than viewing the site itself.

I also plan to upgrade to a new version of the website, this may mean I have to temporarily turn off a few features. But more news on that when I get round to it.