We held our Chalk Celebration event on Saturday 21 July at Coombe Bissett Down. It was a warm summer’s day the straw bales were out and so were the bugs. Many people drifted in from their Saturday stroll to find out what we were up to. We had families from the local Coombe Bissett School come specifically for more minibeast hunting after their school visit earlier in the year. I’ll let the visitors describe the day with their feedback, and it started with a:
Celebrating Chalk in Style!
We held our Chalk Celebration event on Saturday 21 July at Coombe Bissett Down.
Friendly welcome at a beautiful venue.
At 11am, we had a guided walk with Ashley White (the Coombe Bissett Down Reserves Officer) which was a great success, exploring the old arable reversion and looking at wildflowers.
Local artist Gemma Dunn ran lino cutting and printing taster sessions which some participants took home to frame others to send as cards to friends.
Local naturalist, Phil Read brought an impressive skull collection to test our knowledge, with surprising outcomes! We painted plant pots for sowing seeds and caught a multitude of minibeasts. When asked what they loved about today on visitor wrote:
Everything! Minibeasts, skulls and lino printing!
The day allowed people to enjoy and experience chalk downland as they hadn’t before. To find learn something new, discover for themselves, challenge what they know and be inspired.
The activities provided were really inspiring. My boys loved using the nets to catch minibeasts. My son loved lino printing for the first time. Very friendly staff.
The site in general has a huge impact on visitors some had visited the reserve many times and yet said they were always surprised by “the diversity of wildlife and flora”. Others had never been and were astounded by “how beautiful the area was – can’t believe we had never been here before – yet live so close.”
Of course amongst all this wonderful nature was the essential tea, coffee and cake at the village hall and a barbeque on the reserve!
All of this wouldn’t be possible without our wonderful team of volunteers and staff so a big thank you goes out to them! This had an impact on a visitor all the way from Madrid (to visit family possibly not especially for the chalk celebration)!
I liked especially the friendliness of all the people here today.
We are a lovely team and project to be part of and if you are interested in being involved please get in contact by emailing CBDproject@wiltshirewildlife.org
If you feel you missed a chance to explore the site don’t worry we have a guided walk suitable for families and all ages on Sunday 19 August. We also have more events later in the year like our ‘Looking after local birds’ which you can find out more about on the events page.