In the Teign Valley
A Book of Condolence has been placed in the Church at Bridford. The Church is open daily from 9.00am – 5.00pm with access via the west door,
Floral tributes can be left without plastic and cellophane wrapping in the Village Garden. These will be removed for composting the day after Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.
The flag at the Church has been lowered to fly at half mast.
DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES, WE WERE NOT ABLE TO HOLD THE AUGUST PARISH COUNCIL MEETING, THEREFORE NO MINUTES THIS MONTH
A huge thank you to everyone who took part in our Wildlife Gardening competition! We had 15 entries ranging from tiny courtyard gardens to expansive wildflower meadows. During August’s heatwave our judge, Paul French, visited each garden/smallholding accompanied by one of Bridford’s Wildlife Wardens. It was inspiring to see so much care and attention going in to creating an exciting variety of habitats for wildlife, and everyone who entered has helped to raise awareness of the importance of gardening with wildlife in mind.
Once all the gardens had been visited we held an informal presentation in the Woodland Park to which entrants and their families came for light refreshments and to see who had won! Everyone who entered was given a Certificate to commemorate their efforts.
We’d like to thank everyone who helped to make this event possible including Teign Valley Nursery, Teign House Inn, Whippletree Farm, Bridford Parish Council and Paul French who had the difficult job of deciding who had won in each of 3 classes. More competition-related posts to follow!
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The hawk-moths are a group of large, colourful, charismatic moths that are well known for having caterpillars with prominent ‘horns’ that are used to deter predators.
Eighteen species of hawk-moth have been recorded in the UK, only nine of these, however, are resident in this country, the others only occur as migrants from overseas. Within the parish I have recorded the presence of nine species, six resident and three migrant. The three migrant species consisted of a Convolvulus Hawk-moth from 2020, a Striped Hawk-moth from earlier this year and several Hummingbird Hawk-moths. Both the Convolvulus and Striped Hawk-moths arrived during periods of prolonged southerly wind which will have assisted them in traveling to this country from continental Europe and the latter of the two species was taken during a large national influx where several hundred were recorded across the country including many from elsewhere in Devon. The Hummingbird Hawk-moth is by far the commonest of the three and in some coastal localities is likely to be breeding. They can often be seen by day, feeding on the nectar of Red Valerian or Buddleia. As previously mentioned, within the parish I have recorded six of the nine resident species of hawk-moth: Lime Hawk-moth, Eyed Hawk-moth, Poplar Hawk-moth, Privet Hawk-moth, Elephant Hawk-moth, and Small Elephant Hawk-moth. The three species that I have not noted in Bridford are all either uncommon in Devon or very specialised to a specific habitat.
Hawk-moth species are night flying only so are unlikely to be encountered by day. However, as mentioned above, the Hummingbird Hawk-moth is day flying and is most frequently seen around flowers that contain plenty of nectar. So if you have a Buddleia in your garden, keep an eye-out on a hot, sunny day for this fascinating moth. Thanks to Sam Gray for this report and picture.
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In mid-July we surveyed the Pound Lane and Butts Close grass verges again. Grasses now predominate and we found Yorkshire Fog, Crested Dog’s Tail, Perennial Rye Grass, Creeping Bent, Sweet Vernal Grass, False Oat Grass, Cocks Foot Grass and Meadow Foxtail. We also found a few new species of wildflower to add to the list of 40+ we identified in our last report: smooth hawk’s beard, self-heal, fox and cubs, and ragwort. We pulled up the ragwort as it can be injurious to livestock and we didn’t want it to seed. We also found some docks and a few thistles on the Pound Lane verges and these we cut down and removed to prevent them from seeding.
We were pleased to see how well the Knapweed was doing (see picture). Knapweed is one of the best sources of good quality nectar for pollinating insects and as well as supporting our bees, butterflies and beetles, its seeds provide food for many birds. Your grass verges are now helping to make up for the 97% of wildflower meadows destroyed since the 1930s and we would like to thank everyone in the village for their support for this vital project. The verges will get their final cut during August and we will sow yellow rattle seeds to help reduce the grass and encourage more wildflowers for next year. This project has been generously supported by Bridford Parish Council.
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HAVE JUST HEARD FROM DCC HIGHWAYS THAT THE ROAD IS LIKELY TO REMAIN CLOSED FOR AT LEAST THE NEXT WEEK AS THEY ARE UNABLE TO ORGANISE ROAD REPAIRS WHILST THESE HIGH TEMPERATURES CONTINUE
Bridford Parish Council
Update @ 15:00 – Highways has re-opened the road, but imposed a 20 mph speed limit until the road can be re-surfaced.