The BBOWT’s Andy Gunn invites you to a Chilswell Valley family picnic on Good Friday

When the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) started work on Chilswell Valley, a nature reserve owned by Oxford City Council on the edge of Boars Hill, we discovered there had been a tradition of family picnics and even a fair on Good Friday for many years.

This was one of the cultural aspects of the reserve that we wanted to revive as part of the Wild Oxford project. So last Easter we invited local people from South Hinksey and Botley to come and explore this really special nature reserve, bring a picnic and enjoy basking in the spring sunshine.

During the last 12 months, dozens of volunteers have been hard at work on this site creating more places for wildlife including insects, amphibians and birds in the fenland reeds, managing the scrub on the steep valley sides, opening up areas so that more butterflies will breed here, and installing new boardwalk to make it easier for visitors to explore.

In February, we planted small-leaved lime trees. These attractive trees were once common around Oxford, and it will be good to see them back thriving in Chilswell Valley. Small-leaved lime has heavily scented nectar-rich flowers, which make the trees very attractive to insects.

Chilswell Valley is known locally as Happy Valley, partly because just walking through the reserve enjoying the sights and sounds of wildlife all around you gives a sense of feeling happy, also because it’s thought the clear waters of the brook that runs through the valley have healthy properties, and I’ve heard there have been a few romances kindled there too!

This year the Wildlife Trust will be hosting the Family Picnic at Chilswell ‘Happy’ Valley from 11am to 3pm on Good Friday, April 3, with quizzes, wildlife trails, spotter sheets for children, guided walks with experts, and light refreshments.

Among the visitors we hope to see are children from Rose Hill Primary School. The Wild Oxford project has been holding weekly nature activities for them on nearby Rivermead nature park during February and March.

It’s really great to see how child-ren who have never had much contact with nature or wildlife, get excited about discovering lots of creepy-crawlies in their nets when they’ve been pond-dipping.

One week we set some small mammal traps in the undergrowth and then took the children down to the nature park the following morning to open them up and reveal wood mice and bank voles. We weighed and admired these small brown creatures with their soft fur and sparkling dark eyes, and then released them unharmed back into the hedgerows.

The third Wild Oxford site is Lye Valley in Headington, where volunteers have worked hard in some very wet conditions to open up the fenland areas and revealed tufa-forming springs. These are an important part of the underlying geology and water chemistry of this area; the tufa deposits, a type of limestone, near the springs are brittle and crunch if you tread on them.

Volunteers include students from St Clare’s in Oxford, who have been able to collect Community Service credits for their Baccalaureate, as well as get very muddy clothing.

More recently, Friends of the Lye Valley, Oxford Conservation Volunteers and the City Council’s Countryside group have been cutting down and raking away reeds, scrub and trees that together have been choking, overshadowing and encroaching on the special habitats in the Lye Valley.

The next work party is this Satur-day (10am-3pm), but you don’t have to be there for the whole session; just come in old clothes, sturdy boots and bring a packed lunch. Tools, tea, coffee and cake are supplied.