Our hard-working volunteers were out on Portway Hill once again at the weekend. They had a great day in the unseasonably warm sunshine doing further work to expose the Rowley Rag rock face and improve the path. Here are a few photos of them at work!
A group of enthusiastic volunteers from the Black Country Geological Society were hard at work on Portway Hill last Saturday. They did a great job clearing vegetation that was obscuring the dolerite rock exposures, and improving the footpath using eroded material from the rockface – it doesn’t get more locally sourced than that! Here are a few photos of their efforts.
Our Lottery-funded Halloween event on Saturday was a great success! Surrounded by autumn colour, staff from the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham & the Black Country and volunteers from Friends of Rowley Hills helped kids to make some very spooky Halloween-themed crafts, including creepy clay models and scary skeletons! Below are a few photos from the event. Thanks to everyone who came!
We’ve just added plenty more Lottery-funded new events to our website, including volunteering days for the winter season – we will be continuing to work with the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham & the Black Country on improving Portway Hill’s access, habitats and key features.
The next event in the diary though is this Saturday when there will a free Halloween-themed family fun day at Bury Hill Park, with lots of activities including clay art, creepy crawlies and scary drawings! Come along any time between 11:00am and 3:00pm, and in the meantime check out our Events page to see what else we have planned for the coming months.
A huge amount of rubbish has recently been dumped on Turners Hill in what appears to have been a single incident. This article in the Express & Star gives the full details; the photos have to be seen to believe the scale of this disgusting incident. Clearing the rubbish is likely to take some time due to issues around ownership of the land and the sheer scale of the fly tipping.
If you know anything about this incident or saw anything, please report it to the police by dialling 101. Thank you.
We have been busy arranging lots more exciting Lottery-funded events for the coming months. See below, and keep checking our Events page as we’ll be adding further details!
Tomorrow (30th July) the Friends of Rowley Hills and the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham & the Black Country are holding a free family fun day in Bury Hill Park; we hope to see some of you there! Have a go at our amazing treasure hunt – see if you can unravel the secret animal’s name to earn your treasure! You could also have a go at some of the fun crafts for all ages, from clay art to making wildlife headbands. Botanist Mike Poulton will be leading a free guided walk over the Rowley Hills starting at 11:30 am, highlighting some of the fantastic things on the way from butterflies through to mouse-ear wildflowers. You will also be able to meet staff from The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country and members of the Friends of the Rowley Hills to learn how we are working together to improve the hills for wildlife and the community. The Friends of Rowley Hills will have a stall selling cakes and plants too. Please note – the guided walk will not be suitable for buggies or wheelchairs as the walk will be over uneven ground and over the Portway Hill site. Please wear appropriate footwear for the guided walk as the ground is uneven and paths might be slippery if there has been recent rain.
Oxeye Daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare) on bank (image © Mike Poulton)
At this time of year, if you’re lucky, you might encounter tigers in your garden…..no not that kind of tiger! We’re talking about Scarlet Tiger (Callimorpha dominula) moths, one of our most spectacular moths. These colourful creatures are day-flying, their caterpillars feed on a range of herbaceous plants, and they are on the increase. The photo below was taken in a garden local to the Rowley Hills; the bright scarlet underwings are hidden beneath the forewings but sometimes you might find a Scarlet Tiger with its wings fully spread as shown in this photo. There is also a Scarlet Tiger Project in Stourbridge, formed by local residents who have successfully protected and enhanced habitat for Scarlet Tigers in their local area.
Do let us know if you’ve seen any Scarlet Tiger moths!
Scarlet Tiger moth (Callimorpha dominula) (image © Julia Morris)
On the morning of Thursday 23 June, three representatives of FORH, Julie, Bob and Mike, along with Chris Parry, Principal Ecologist for the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country, joined Graham Worton, Keeper of Geology at Dudley Museum and Art Gallery and the two scrutineers Jari Nenonen from Finland and Jin Xiaochi from China on their UNESCO Global Geopark Evaluation Mission visit to the Rowley Hills.
To give our guests a panoramic view of the surrounding Black Country, the high point at the top of Darbys Hill Road was the first port of call. From here Graham put names to the distant hills and pointed out some of the nearby sites that had been visited during the previous two days.
From here the short journey was made to the Wildlife Trust land on Portway Hill where our visitors were able to get up really close to the outstanding geological features and we were given the opportunity to talk to them about the role the Wildlife Trust and Friends of Rowley Hills played in conserving and managing this site for its wildlife and geology.
Several other Sandwell sites were to be visited as part of the evaluation mission during the remaining part of the day, so with a tight itinerary in prospect, our visitors parted company, hopefully with a lasting impression to take back home, and one that will lead to a positive outcome when the decision as to whether the Black Country becomes a UNESCO Global Geopark site is made early next year.
UNESCO Scrutineers Jari Nenonen from Finland and Jin Xiaochi from China visit Portway Hill (image © Mike Poulton)
UNESCO Scrutineers Jari Nenonen from Finland and Jin Xiaochi from China visit Portway Hill (image © Mike Poulton)
Just a quick reminder that we have an exciting event on this Thursday (23rd June), 11:00am – 1:00pm; in partnership with Butterfly Conservation, our Vice Chair Mike Poulton will be leading a guided butterfly walk around Portway Hill, following a route Mike wrote for the the recently published ‘Butterflies of the West Midlands‘ book. Copies of this excellent book will also be available to buy at the event. This is a peak time for butterfly activity and as long as the weather is good we should see significant numbers of different species. Walking boots are recommended and binoculars would also be useful. Meet on the roadside near the Total garage on Wolverhampton Road, just below the Brewers Fayre/KFC at the entrance to the Portway Hill site (see map below).
Friends of Rowley Hills 