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Fovant Road Users

Yes, we ail use the roads through Fovant, whether it be on foot, horse, bicycle, or mechanical transport and we should all take equal care when doing so. The First three options mentioned are, in the main, carried on in a very responsible manner.

However there are a number of issues worthy of attention by those driving motor vehicles. Our roads have a 30MPH limit but is it always safe to drive up to this figure?—NO! I hesitate to single out any group of drivers but walking through the village in the mornings, it is often the young mums I see, taking children to school or perhaps going to work having dropped off the children, who push the 30 limit As the advertisement says "Calm down dear."

Now another gripe, "GET OFF THOSE PHONES!" not aimed at the mums this time, there are far too many drivers who are BREAKING THE LAW" thinking that they can get away with it as there is very little chance of meeting a cop in Fovant There are people watching who may note registration numbers, do we really want to see these printed in this magazine? It can be arranged.

The next gripe is regarding parking. Our roads are narrow enough without making it more difficult for those of us who drive with care. When parking in the high street outside our surgery, please park close to the wall, not two feet away. Whilst thinking about the surgery, DO NOT reverse from the gate into the road, it's dangerous as is reversing out of your own drive into the road. If you find it difficult to reverse into your drive or garage, practice and be a better driver. Parking on chevrons (you know what these are don't you?) is illegal and dangerous, cut it out.

Please, for the sake of everyone, our children and our pets, keep FOVANT safe.  Finally, your vehicle is taxed and insured, is it not?
Your friendly  ROADWATCHER.

water voles in Wiltshire

For the first time the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust has been able to produce a snapshot     of the state of the water vole in Wiltshire, and it turns out that five of our rivers contain hotspots for Britain's most endangered mammal.

Thanks to the efforts of 60 volunteers who went out surveying the waterways over the summer, the Trust has found that the Rivers Kennet, the Salisbury and Bristol Avon, the Wylye, the Nadder plus the Kennet and Avon Canal have colonies of the chestnut brown creatures.

The volunteers found water voles at 23 out of the 25 sites they surveyed and by using this information together with records collected over the past five years, the Trust has been able to designate local key areas representing important water vole colonies.

The whole of the River Nadder has been identified as a local key area for voles because there are records from every 2km of its length.

This information gives us a clearer picture of where we must target our work to help voles recover from the disastrous population crash they have suffered in recent years," says the Trust' Water Vole Recovery Project Officer Beth Nightingale.

"The habitat in these key areas is quite good, but some locations need altered management such as fencing off river banks to protect them from livestock trampling and overgrazing."

Most, if not all, of Wiltshire's rivers would have been home to water voles at one time. One of their favoured habitats is the chalk stream with its clear waters and vigorous plant communities, including water crowfoot and watercress. But numbers in Wiltshire have dropped by 30% over the last decade.

Despite this, the county Is still a stronghold of the vole compared to the rest of the nation, where populations have declined by 94% over the same period, making it not only our fastest declining mammal, but also one of our rarest. The two main causes are habitat loss and predation by the American Mink.

"There is no way that individuals at the Trust can survey all the waterways in Wiltshire, so the information provided by the volunteers is Invaluable in helping us map the colonies so that we can work to link them together. We'd like to give a huge thank you to our dedicated band of volunteers, says Beth.

Voles tend to group together in winter, and string out as Individuals over the summer. The size of a vole's territory depends on the quality of habitat.

If there Is plenty of vegetation for food, good banks for burrows and clean water, they can live within small territories of only 10 to 50 metre lengths of riverbank.

The Local Key Areas in Wiltshire include two sites on the Kennet around Silbury Hill, and downstream of Mildenhall; two on the Kennet and Avon Canal around Semington and Pewsey; one near Melksham on the Bristol Avon and one near Matmesbury. There are two on the Salisbury Avon, and large sections of the River Wyiye as well as the River Nadder. These are not official designations and will hopefully expand over time.

The Water Vole Recovery project Is supported by Mammals Trust UK. the Environment Agency, North Wessex Downs AONB, Cranbourne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB, Natural England, the Arbib Foundation and various charitable trusts.

Birdlife
Lucy Harris writes:

'For the second time in 2007 I have seen a kite flying over Compton Chambertayne (28 December). My bird identification book, which was printed in the 1980s, states kites to be rare and only to be seen in mid-Wales. However, media reports more recently have told of a welcome increase in numbers so it is not quite such a surprise to see the bird here.

The kite is as big as a buzzard but with narrower wings and a distinctive notch in the fan of its tail. It is usually seen over open ground but makes its nest in deciduous woodland. It eats mainly small mammals, birds and insects. It is highly susceptible to drops in rabbit numbers owing to myxomatosis, and as that horrid disease has been around here in 2007 it may have had to find other prey.

In the twenty years I have been in the village buzzard numbers have recovered wonderfully such that it is now a commonplace to see them. May we hope that our local kite finds a mate in spring and that over the next twenty years kites also become common here.'

Tales from the Wild Wood

From just before the August Bank Holiday until at least the middle of September we had wonderful weather. During that stretch I was fortunate enough to contract a sore throat, lost my voice and had to be away from work for a couple of days. Whilst not completely incapacitated, I could not have done my job. So I took up the life of leisure and cleared a load of paperwork in the house, and pottered a little in the garden. Our eleven free range guinea pigs were growing fat and possibly tipsy (how can one tell with a guinea pig? -they are gormless under the best of circumstances!) on the fallers, and the house martins seemed to be delaying their departure.

I went out for a stroll on one of these brilliant days and sat down on a the post of a farm gate to watch the fleas of the countryside - a household nickname for pheasants - looking comic in their moult, the boys with squeaky voices trying to get the right noise out and the girls being just plain timid. Sitting still with my feet on the top of the five barred gate for so long that my right foot went to sleep, I was suddenly rewarded with a sight I haven't had for some years. A weasel popped his head out of a hole at the base of the opposite gatepost, no more than four metres from me, and darted to and fro from the hole for a minute or so. Once he had worked out that I was not going to move he built up courage to run across to the hole he really wanted to be in - which was at the base of the gatepost I was sitting on.

I have seen weasels playing together before in Compton, and watched a stoat in the snow winkling out and carrying off a rat bigger than he was. But to see these things needs the sort of quietness of body that only fishermen and cats make the time for. We are so noisy and busy, and we get so used to the brazenness of birds, who know they cannot be caught and so make themselves more visible, that it is easy to believe all other types of creatures have departed. But our small mammals are still here, and anyone with feeling will take every effort to preserve the countryside so that they can yet be seen; even if not very often.

Out Walking?

Have you noticed the restored steps and new kissing gates on the Compton Chambertayne footpath from the A30 near the Pembroke Arms? You may know that these were purchased with donations from local people along with a contribution from the parish council. They are part of a programme to encourage people to take more exercise and to make paths more accessible to the less mobile.

You may have noticed them but have you thought who might have put them there? Who dug the holes, mixed the cement and wielded the hammers? If you have climbed the steps you wilt have seen a small green sign that gives the answer.

The work was carried out by volunteers organised by the local Ramblers Association group who as part of the charitable aims of the association do what they can to promote walking on the 140,000 miles of public paths which criss‑cross England and Wales.

The volunteers assist Wiltshire County Council in their statutory duty to care for all rights of way and during the last year the 'heavy gang' installed 7 kissing gates , built 2 stiles, repaired a bridge and cleared, levelled and generally made safe 3 paths. The 'light gang' cleared 11 rights of way of vegetation and way‑marked a good number of these. In all some 350 hours of voluntary work were completed.

This is in addition to the weekly walks that the group organise. At least 3 run each week with the weekday ones being 5 ‑ 6 miles usually ending in a pub lunch while the weekend walk is around 10 ‑ 12 miles.

Details of the local group including the walks programme can be found on our website http://www.ramblers-wilts.org.uk/swilts.htm or the main Ramblers Association site will give more general information http://www.ramblers.org.uk

We are Britain's biggest walking charity and have been working for over 70 years to promote walking and to improve conditions for everyone who walks in England, Scotland and Wales. 

Norman Martin and Graham Read Joint Footpath Secretaries
South Wilts Ramblers Group February 2007