Giving

St Chad's Church			St Chad's Church
St Chad's Church		Giving & Caring Charities......Eco-congregation...Gifting

The Eco-congregation

Wildlife & Churchyard

Mid Yorkshire Fungus Group Churchyard Survey

Although this autumn's weather not been the best for fungi, the Mid Yorkshire Group found over thirty two species during their annual survey of St Chad 's churchyard in October. Most of the species were tiny, found in the shorter grass, but on the graves of two prominent members of the church, we found the appropriately named Weeping Widow fungus. Beneath an oak tree, sharp eyes spotted the Scarlet Caterpillar Fungus. This looked almost like a LED protruding through the grass, and amazingly, the fungus grows on either a dead caterpillar or the pupa. After carefully excavating with a penknife, we were able to see and touch the hard pupal case, and see thread-like hyphae penetrating to extract nourishment. One of the experts was particularly interested in Plasmodia ( Slime Moulds) and showed us these bizarre organisms (which are not fungi) living beneath the bark on fallen logs. A big thank you to the Fungus Group for sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm and giving a fascinating and informative afternoon

Suzanne Dalton

! AWARD !

St. Chad's has been awarded a Certificate of Excellence in Churchyard Management at the award ceremony for the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Living Churchyard Project. Well done all concerned.

Birds, Bird Boxes, and Tree Planting

We are very grateful to Stan Kenyon for observing birds in the churchyard on 28th January, for the annual RSPB Birdwatch. He spotted sixteen different species as follows: black-headed gull (6), herring gull (1), wood pigeon (6), stock dove (1), collared dove (2), robin (4), blackbird (5), blue tit (8), great tit (1), dunnock (1), goldcrest (1), magpie (3), jackdaw (2), carrion crow (2), bullfinch (2), & chaffinch (5). The robins were defending their territories at the four corners of the churchyard!

The bird boxes have been cleaned, ready for the Spring. We have seven nest boxes in the churchyard, and five of these either had a nest, or there had been an attempt at nest-building last year. Only two showed no signs of occupation.