Ogwild

Ogwild – Devon Local Nature Partnership Community Wildlife Group of the Year

Ogwild was set up by a group of Ogwell residents in summer 2019 with a view to developing wildflower areas around the village. Making space for wild flowers to grow will help support the insect population, which in turn supports birds and small mammals.

Ogwild’s projects to date include beginning the conversion of the small village green to a wildflower area (and the renovation of the bench), and clearing scrub and brambles from Ogwell Road / Canada Hill, freeing the native cherries and planting foxgloves, cyclamen and other wild flowers.Our strategy for 2023 is going to focus on engaging more villagers in our work if only to apply to the Devon Wildlife Trust for their Wildlife Garden Plaque, its much easier than you think, see: https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/wildlife-garden-award

May 2023 – Devon County Show 2023 – We entered our Rectory Field site, that we have managed forth Woodland Trust since April 2021, in the Community Woodland section of the show.

We are delighted to say that we were awarded a ‘Silver Medal’ which 2 of our team, Beki Flower and Louise Sessions were able to be present to receive the award at the show.

December 2022- The whole team were present to receive the award and listen to some inspiring speakers who made clear the totally deprived state of biodiversity in this country. England ranks 7th from the bottom of near 250 countries worldwide!!!

We met other groups around Devon and are arranging exchange visits with the Exminster group to share ideas and have also been asked if Ipplepen representatives can view our work.

Following the publicity surrounding the award we have been contacted by the local rep for the RHS ‘In Your Neighbourhood’ & ‘South West in Bloom’ awards and encouraged to apply. We are looking at the criteria and hoping to apply for at least one of these.

‘Ogwatch’ 2020 – Ogwell’s Garden Survey

This is Ogwild’s version of the RSPB’s ‘Big Garden Birdwatch’ but with a wider array of wildlife to watch for. It is running from Saturday 23rd May – Sunday 31st May.

Please download the PowerPoint survey (see link below) and complete as much as you can. There is no obligation to complete all sections. We will be doing a mapping exercise of our parish and publishing the results.

Ogwatch PowerPointDownload

Those who want to fill in the survey on a pc/phone/tablet can do so easily with the PowerPoint document, provided they have Microsoft Office installed. Click to download, open the document, then click “enable editing”. To fill in the tick boxes go to ‘View’ at the top then select ‘Reading View’, and the tick boxes can then be easily filled in.

Any parts that require typing (address and ‘other’ boxes) will need to be done on ‘Normal’ view. To return to Normal view, press the escape key on your keyboard. You will need Microsoft Office to do this. If the template does not allow you to tick the relevant boxes then please just list what you observe and record in an email along with your location and garden information as per page 2 of the document. When completed, please save and email your document to ogwild4@gmail.com.

If you can’t download the PowerPoint, here is a pdf you can print, then scan or take pics to send back your information.

Ogwatch pdfDownload

If you would like a copy of the survey emailed to you then please email: ogwild4@gmail.com. If you would like a paper copy of this survey then please email with your address so we can deliver.

Lastly, if you would like any other references for things you might not be able to identify then please use the list of sites below.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/natureuk/entries/428ba0ed-6e97-41c0-afa8-ec67268757d9

Amphibian and reptiles: https://www.arc-trust.org/report-your-sightings

Mammals: https://www.mammal.org.uk/species-hub/full-species-hub/discover-mammals/

Birds: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/identify-a-bird/

Butterflies: https://butterfly-conservation.org/butterflies/identify-a-butterfly

Bees: https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/bumblebee-species-guide/
https://www.arc-trust.org

Open Gardens

Later this summer we will be staging an online “Virtual Open Gardens’ event and if you are interested in making a short 3-4 minute video about your garden then please let us know.

Hedgehog awareness week

In other news, the first week of May was hedgehog awareness week. If you know of any hedgehogs that visit your garden/in the local area, why not register it on the Hedgehog Street website. If you have a hedgehog hole in your fence, register that too. There are very few hedgehogs/holes mapped in Ogwell, so it would be great if we could increase that number! If you don’t already have a hedgehog hole, please consider adding one. A small 5×5 inch hole along the fence line can make a huge difference to a hog!