Bentley Wood is a 1,800 acre woodland, with Site of Special Scientific Interest status, located in south-east Wiltshire. A group of people living in villages surrounding the woods have created a Facebook group called the Bentley Wood wildlife buffer zone group. The aim of the group is to create a nature-friendly buffer zone around the wood.

The villages include Farley, East and West Grimstead, West Dean, West Tytherley and Winterslow.

The group aims to share actions and ideas that improve gardens and villages for nature, create ponds, wildflower areas and native hedges and provide homes for wildlife. The ultimate aim is to link the properties in villages and the villages themselves with wildlife-accessible corridors.

So far 15 households spanning five villages have been recruited with a view to installing artificial nest cups over the winter and leaflets from HMC UK&IE will be delivered to all to try to encourage as many people as possible. Three ladder people (George, Clive and Charley) are armed with good, strong cordless drills and are raring to install the nest cups – which will be ordered from Paul Stevens very soon.

The area is on heavy London clay to the south and chalk to the north, with no rivers or streams, so artificial nest cups will be a real help to the local HM population.
We’ll let you all know how we get on!

Written by Sue Walker

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