The sunny days in September enabled the Church to gain credit from solar panel export to help towards this winters heating expense.
Autumn is now in full swing, a lovely season, an artist’s palate of changing colours. This is usually a time of pruning, tidying and deadheading in preparation for the dormant season of winter. However we need to provide for wildlife, so leave seed heads and berries for birds, piles of dead wood or better still, a dead hedge with all the garden cuttings. Dead Hedges make brilliant refuges for small creatures e.g. hedgehogs to hibernate in or move about secretly away from predators.
Check out the Churchyard for wood piles and hedgehog droppings. If you are able, make a bug hotel from short pieces of hollow canes tied together, old tiles, and bricks stacked leaving small gaps where insects can hide and make nests.
Volunteers from ECO Church and BAEG will recommence this Autumn managing Michael’s Wood for the environment and wildlife. This wood is between the town and school playing fields. Do enjoy a walk through there and observe the changes to the trees and undergrowth as autumn progresses.
Clean all your bird feeders to avoid the spread of disease. Keep them stocked and put up a nest box well in advance of breeding season. A nest box could also prove a cosy spot for small birds to shelter in on any particularly cold, wet winter nights.
Gill Perrott