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October 2023 October 2023

The Bell Ringer I am sitting on the edge of my seat, WILD WOODBURY
Waiting for the clock to strike three.
I noticed it pealed slightly early, After speaking about Autumn migration last month,
When the church bell did its stuff. I would not want to miss the event. there has been a particularly exciting bird found at
It wasn't that much of a problem. I might be in wonder and awe, Wild Woodbury since. Whilst bird ringing at the
beginning of September, I caught a Nightingale. I’m
I think it was near enough. But it would never be my intention, sure many of you are familiar with these lyrics from
To wait for the clock to strike four. Eric Maschwitz:
In fact, it’s reassuring. “That certain night, the night we met,
It can never be that its wrong, I sit here in simple humility, There was magic abroad the air,
Especially at two in the morning, As the bell ringer, I applaud, There were angels dining at the Ritz,
When awaiting the second dong. Along with the rope and the pulley.
They should never be ignored. And a Nightingale sang in Berkeley Square.
My appetite is whetted now. Indeed, the Nightingale is steeped in history, with
I am up, with a cup of tea. Paul J Openshaw (September 2023) several references in the arts, including the works by
Homer, T.S Elliot, Shakespear, and Keates. This isn’t
difficult to believe given the powerful and melodic song of the Nightingale. With
trills, fluted whistles, ripples, and gurgling notes, it easily captures the attention of
It’s a shame for the holidaymakers anyone who listens. The very naming of the bird stems back to Anglo-Saxon times,
An Indian Summer That this has just come too late; translating as ‘night songstress’, and although technically incorrect as it would be
But for anyone able to enjoy it the males singing, clearly the bird has had a pull on people for a long time.
Oh the bliss of an Indian Summer!
To feel the welcome warmth of the sun, It’s a bonus to appreciate! The Nightingale is known as a bird of scrubland, needing a big thicket or bush to
hold its territory and nest in. They’re mainly restricted to southern and eastern
To enjoy this late sun in September So let’s hope October is the same! England, and like many of our songbirds, have seen a massive decline in the past
Before Summer is over and done. That the birds will continue their song, 50+ years. The bird at Wild Woodbury was not a breeder, it was a bird passing
That blue skies and sun will cheer us all through on migration, but the fact that it had chosen to use the site as a stopover
We hoped it would be a good Summer, on its way back to Africa is very encouraging. I can only hope that it remembers
But it turned out no better than the rest And maybe Winter won’t seem so the site and comes back to breed next year.
long!
A few sunny days here and there Given the history of Wild Woodbury, particularly the Court Farm area which was at
But Autumn is giving us her best! Eileen Richardson different times in the ownership of the Royals and the D’Urbervilles, the fields
closest to the village are Scheduled Ancient Monuments. For this reason, we are
restricted in what we can do with them, but they lend themselves very well to be
turned into wildflower meadows. The past
use of these fields has left the soils high in
nutrients, the opposite of what is needed for
floristic diversity, so we will need to reduce
the nitrates as much as we can to help the
finer species of flowers establish themselves.
To do this, we will be taking multiple cuts
each year off the fields and will remove the
cuttings to take away those nutrients from
going back into the soil. We will also start

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