|
We are pleased to welcome two new volunteers to our group. They will be covering areas at Whythop and near Embleton. We are also lucky enough to have two further new volunteers who have been carrying out Red Squirrel conservation work and Grey Squirrel management at Powter Howe, near Thornthwaite. Numerous reds are being sighted in this area and our volunteers will endeavour to protect these precious little scamps. Two of our existing volunteers have completed their LANTRA (shooting Grey Squirrels to protect Red Squirrels) training. We also have a new volunteer who will be attending this course in July. All our volunteers are fully trained professionals and fully insured.
0 Comments
This month, two of our volunteers had the opportunity to attend Grey Squirrel management training, provided by British Red Squirrel (www.britishredsquirrel.com). The training was held at the Lake District Wildlife Park in Bassenthwaite (www.lakedistrictwildlifepark.co.uk). Here at Binsey Red Squirrel group, we believe to carry out our Red Squirrel conservation work our volunteers need to keep up to date with the latest training. The volunteers which attended, reported back that the training was very beneficial. They also found it useful to network with other groups and meet members who are also volunteering in other regions of Cumbria. The training was provided by Red Squirrel South West. This training is LANTRA accredited. A huge thank you to Jackie Foott for making this possible!  Bassenthwaite Lake Station is a converted train carriage based next to Bassenthwaite Lake. They have an on-board restaurant and restored station buildings. This amazing, locally run family business, has been raising funds through January, selling books and puzzles for BRSG. Helping our Red Squirrels to Choo Choo their way through lots of yummy nuts! Visit Bassenthwaite Lake Station facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Basslakestation/  Winter can be a tough time for our wildlife, so making sure our Native Red Squirrels are provided with a well balanced, nourishing diet is top of our list. We are asking our Binsey friends to help us. If you can donate bags of feed or help us raise £250 to fund our Winter Red Squirrel feed appeal, we would be so grateful and so would our beautiful reds. Please follow the link to donate: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/winterredsquirrelfood or get in touch with us at: [email protected] Thankyou and Merry Christmas from Binsey Red Squirrel Group!   Its hard to believe that we are now in the season of Autumn, our group has been running since summer and we are already seeing very positive outcomes with our Red Squirrel conservation work and Grey Squirrel management. We are now seeing our Binsey reds starting to establish and thrive on farmland, woodland, forestry and local back gardens. Our work is only possible because of the positive partnership that we are making within our community with fellow Red Squirrel supporters and we thank you all! During the season of Autumn you will probably not as often see your usual little red visitors on your feeder boxes and this is because Mother Nature is providing a wonderful diverse larder to help our reds survive winter. Our little reds are very busy making the most of the abundant wild foods on offer, they often cashe (store away in hiding or for future use) food this time of the year for a future rainy day, relying on their amazing sense of smell they will dig up cached food not always put there by the same squirrel! Maybe Mother Nature planned all along that squirrels would forget where some of their seeds and nuts had been hidden so that new woodland life would always grow! We would still advise you to top up your feeders all through the year as this not only gives our native reds a little free treat but allows us all to monitor if invasive greys are using our feeders, we then kindly ask you to report such sightings to your local Red Squirrel group, These can be found on The Northern Red Squirrel website: northernredsquirrels.org.uk If you are local to Bassenthwaite and surrounding villages then we can help you, Check out our form above to report sightings of grey's to Binsey group. We hope you enjoy getting out amongst Mother Nature during this Autumn and are lucky enough to see a busy little red dashing about burying its winter food!    It is estimated, that there are 2.5 million Grey Squirrels and sadly only 140,000 Red Squirrels left, in the UK. The decline in our Red Squirrel population is believed to be down to two main factors: Firstly, our ever changing landscapes and loss of suitable habitat, means the reds cannot be hidden in forests and woodlands. Secondly, their biggest threat, is the Grey Squirrel, which carries a deadly virus called SQPV. This virus is spread to our native reds by: physical contact, contaminated objects/areas and shared parasites. Squirrel pox virus is fatal to our reds! So how do we save our Red Squirrels? Firstly please report,report, report! If you see a Grey Squirrel, let us know, so we can act fast! Our volunteers follow strict protocols and the C&W act for Red Squirrel conservation/Grey Squirrel management work. We hope, the next time you see a squirrel, its red. But, if its grey- please let us know folks! Email us at: [email protected]
 Well, here we are!
Let us introduce ourselves, we are a small group of happy hardworking volunteers, that in our spare time go outdoors and protect our local native red squirrels. To help us become more efficient, our group is covering a smaller area within Allerdale, where we have local connections and are very familiar with woodlands, farms and folk! This covers: Bassenthwaite and surrounding small villages. All of us have other day jobs to pay the bills, but our passion is saving the Red Squirrels and volunteering in our spare time. The volunteers regularly check the existing Red Squirrel sights in woodlands, back gardens and forestry. None of this is possible without you reporting sightings of reds and the invasive greys. Well, that's enough talking now... Time for action! So, we are off on Squirrel patrol... Please join us? It will take the whole local community to save our reds! |
