Lower Windrush Valley Project Annual Forum

We had a good turn out for our annual forum event, which took place at Stanton Harcourt Village Hall on 27^th November.

We kicked things off with an update on the Lower Windrush Valley Project activities during the last year, including work carried out at Rushy Common and Standlake Common Nature Reserves, the results of the Clean Water for Wildlife survey carried out in May (more on this soon) and a new walks and leisure leaflet, created with the support of Witney Town Council and local businesses.

Lucy updates on the LWVP

The presentation also covered some of the project activities coming up – keep your eyes peeled for further updates on access improvements, the Yellow Fish Scheme and a ‘Friends of the Lower Windrush Valley’ group.

Following the project update we had two fantastic presentations. The first, from John Melling on Birds of the Lower Windrush Valley, looked at trends in numbers of wintering wildfowl as well as highlighting a few of the valley’s more unusual visitors from recent years.

John talks about the Birds of the Lower Windrush Valley

Finally, we heard from Julia Lofthouse of BBOWT who spoke about Water Voles, their habitats and distribution, reasons for their decline and the importance of controlling American Mink populations.

 

Julia tells us about Water Voles and the populations on the Windrush

A stuffed Water Vole