Wildlife Diary - An Endangered Species?

Wildlife Diary Background Notes

A keen photographer and walker I've been living in Worcestershire for the past nine years. I count myself fortunate to live in an area of outstanding natural beauty. The names of the villages -  Upton Snodsbury, Flyford Flavell, North Piddle and Naunton Beauchamp sound like the made-up names in an Evelyn Waugh novel. This is an area of mainly sheep and arable farming with a low elevation and meandering watercourses that feed into the River Avon. Pershore is the nearest town of any size. The villages have their own character and identity and there is a strong community spirit. 

Piddle Brook Meadows Local Nature Reserve

St Bartholomew's Church Naunton Beauchamp

Within walking distance from the village where I live in Naunton Beauchamp, Worcestershire are two Local Nature Reserves run by Worcestershire Wildlife Trust  - Piddle Brook Meadows and Naunton Court Fields.

Piddle Brook runs close to the village of Naunton Beauchamp and a bridge crosses the Piddle as you enter the village from the south off the B4082. 

Piddle Brook Meadows Map

Grafton Woods Bluebells

The source of Piddle Brook source is not far away at Grafton Flyford which has a beautiful woodland called Grafton Woods. The woods are stunning when the bluebells are out. It's an important area for rare butterflies such as the Brown Hairstreak Butterfly which lays its eggs in the blackthorn bushes in the old hedgerows around this part of Worcestershire. "The only colony in the West Midlands is centered around Grafton Wood SSSI and is currently spreading in Worcestershire; it’s now found as far west as Droitwich and east into Warwickshire. "

Bluebells at Grafton Wood, Worcestershire

Piddle Brook in Flood

The PR people were really doing it a bit of a dis-service by naming it Piddle Brook. It doesn't have the ring of an idyllic little stream and in fact for some parts of the year, "piddle" definitely doesn't describe it. Flooding is a major problem and on three occasions in the past 14 years that I am aware of the village has been completely cut off by flooding of Piddle Brook. Several properties were flooded in 2007 and more recently with the levels of sustained rainfall in 2012-2013 flooding of the fields was still present with the blue clay saturated for a whole year - well into 2013. 

So, Why a Wildlife Diary?

Sadly, things may change for Piddle Brook and its wildlife. In May 2013 a farmer from Powys put in a planning application for a Chicken Broiler Unit on land adjacent to Froghall Bungalow, Upton Snodsbury. The local parishes have joined together to form an Action Group and hopefully the 80,000 broiler chickens which will be produced seven times a year will not be sited in what is currently a greenfield site. 

Site of Proposed Chicken Broiler Units

For more information on the status of the Planning Application please visit the Action Group website at www.no-chicken-farm.org

The aim of this diary is to show the biodiversity of the area. It has some rare species but more importantly it has a huge range of flora and fauna that can be enjoyed by anyone walking along the Permissive Path of the Nature Reserve or along the footpath that goes along Piddle Brook towards North Piddle.  

If the application does go ahead the farmer has stated that he plans to build a house and extend to another 6 or 8 units with the ability to produce 320,000 broiler chickens or more every 8 weeks. This diary will serve as a reminder of what might be lost if it goes ahead. It is hard to imagine what changes we might see with increased nitrates, ammonia output and the potential for flooding that this proposal brings. 

Peacock Butterfly by Piddle Brook June 2013

My aim is to show the facts through photos and a retrospective of some of the pictures from my album of this area. I would like to  demonstrate why this development is completely inappropriate. I don't want to debate chicken farming, broiler units or the availability of cheap food. Self-sufficiency for the UK in food is a good objective to some degree. 

I would like people to see what might be lost if this beautiful bit of Worcestershire is given over to an industrial type of business which is completely at odds with the local plans and the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

Brown Hare by Piddle Brook 2013

On a recent walk I had a close encounter with a hare. I'd seen it earlier in the walk just beyond the Nature Reserve on the Public Footpath. I was messing around with my camera, totally engrossed in why my last shot was completely over-exposed when I felt something touch my foot. I looked down straight into the eyes of a hare.  He took off and I managed to get one shot of him before he disappeared! Wrong settings but you can't win them all! 

You never know what you're going to see on a walk along Piddle Brook.