New Ferry Butterfly Park needs your vote

Carol Ramsay, our artist in residence at New Ferry Butterfly Park Park, has put in a grant proposal (with NatWest Community Force) for hosting a wide range of workshops at the butterfly park next summer. Also for converting one of the empty shops in New Ferry into a temporary visitor centre/ art exhibition space, to help raise the profile of the park and encourage further community involvement.

In the NatWest Community Force scheme, which projects will gain funds is decided by a public vote. Voting opened yesterday (26th Sept).

Please would you sign up and vote for this, to help win some of the funding to make these projects happen:

http://communityforce.natwest.com/project/1375

New Ferry Butterfly park websites:

www.newferrybutterflypark.co.uk

www.wirralwildlife.co.uk/butterfly_park.html

www.cheshirewildlifetrust.co.uk/res_new_ferry.htm

Carol's book, showing the development of the art trail and other projects at the butterfly park during the last 2 years of her MA (fine art: archiving & site intervention) is here: www.blurb.com/books/2408319

Please do forward this on to any other interested contacts.

Many thanks,

Laura Jakobson

Tribute to Peter Saunders

Peter Saunders, who died on 11 August after many years of heart disease, was a great character - and a great supporter of Wirral Willdife.

He served on our committee for many years, drawing on his career as a local newspaper reporter to author many press articles. He knew just how to get them printed! He also inspired, started, and for a long time edited, our Newsletter, writing much material himself from "interviews" with the rest of us. Peter was very good at getting at what we were trying to say, and putting it in comprehensible form. He was always positive, never one to sit back and do nothing. John Magee wrote to say "I remember the help he gave when he received any article he had requested, he edited and livened up any story in a very professional way. He will be sadly missed by many."

Peter was also active in our sister organisations, Wirral Green Belt Council and Wirral Footpaths and Open Spaces Society. His wife Sheila supported him in many of his activities and cared for him in his later years. We send her our sympathy.

Hilary Ash remembers "Peter had a wide range of interests. I found myself meeting him in all sorts of venues: writing reviews of concerts I played, touring a model railway exhibition (where he enthralled our two sons by telling them of the time he got a footplate ride on the last steam train out of Birkenhead), at Wildlife Trust walks and talks, and simply walking across Wirral on the footpaths. he taught us all the value of good writing and good publicity."

Butterfly Park artist goes into print

Please find a link below to Carol Ramsey's Masters thesis on New Ferry Butterfly Park entitled 'Endangered Habitat: Place People Environment'.

The Thesis is an work of art in itself and can be previewed at the link below:

www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/1915727/da0c5083c231dde4428759777c06d45d372abdd1

The photography is superb and if you view it under full screen you can read the text.

It is a wonderful resource for the park and a memento of the last 18 months of hard work and achievement put in by Carol and the team of artist that she curated. Carol’s project has boosted visitor numbers to the park way beyond our expectations and at a time when we desperately needed that public support while under imminent threat of closure.

Not resting on her laurels, Carol has put forward a project to host more workshops at the park and in New Ferry town centre. See the link below:

http://communityforce.natwest.com/project/1375

To be successful in winning the award, there is a public vote starting 26th September.

The future of the park is still not certain but projects like this really keep the excitement and interest in the park going

Paul Loughnane

New Ferry Butterfly Park committee member

Seal spotting on the Mersey Ferry

Yesterday, while on a ferry to Liverpool, we spotted a seal. As we don't often do this trip we aren't sure how common this is but it brightened our journey.

Mersey Ferries are running some special wildlife cruises up the river and into Liverpool Bay. They take place on August 18th, September 3rd and September 15th. More details can be found on their website.

Badgers and Bovine TB

After the Government announcement about plans to control TB in cattle by culling badgers, you may be interested to read the information on this Wildlife Trust webpage:

www.wildlifetrusts.org/badgers-and-bovineTB

Leafhopper Identification Workshops

Saturday 20th August

National Museums Liverpool, 10.30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

To book please email Tristan Bantock

Click on the image below for more information.

Drawing and Photography Workshops at Butterfly Park

Saturday 16th July

11 - 3 p.m.

New Ferry Butterfly Park

Drawing Workshop

FREE Drawing Workshop for artists to meet, have a tour of the Butterfly Park Nature Reserve and art trail and then spend time either alone or in groups drawing within the park.

We hope to concentrate on the history of the park through drawing. The site is based on the old railway sidings of Bebington Station where industry once thrived in the form of an old water treatment plant and former brickworks. There are still relics of the past to be found on the site and the industrial waste left behind by humans provides a rich and varied soil base for plants to thrive that would not usually be native to this area.

The workshop will take a very relaxed format whereby artists are encouraged to investigate the space and draw whatever appeals to them. Workshop leaders will be wandering throughout to offer advice. We will all then meet up over tea and cake to present our drawings to the group and offer constructive criticism and advice to each other.

Bring own paper and drawing equipment and a packed lunch.

The workshop is free but as the Butterfly Park is run by volunteers and these events are non funded, any small donations, though not necessary, would be appreciated.

The Butterfly Park will be closed to the public on this day. This is an outdoor event and as such weather dependent. Booking required via email to Carol Ramsay

Sunday 17th July

11 - 3 p.m.

New Ferry Butterfly Park

Photography Workshop

FREE Digital Photography Workshop for amateur and professional photographers to meet, have a tour of the Butterfly Park Nature Reserve and art trail and then spend time either alone or in groups taking photographs within the park.

We hope to concentrate on nature and wildlife photography as there are many beautiful and unusual types of flora and fauna at the park. The industrial waste left behind provides a rich and varied soil base for plants to thrive that may not usually be native to this area, thus attracting many new species of butterflies and insects to the site.

The workshop will take a very relaxed format whereby participants are encouraged to investigate the space and photograph whatever appeals to them. Workshop leaders will be on hand throughout to offer advice. We all then meet up for discussion over tea and cake to present our images to the group (as seen through digital display panels on your cameras and possibly through a laptop) and offer constructive criticism and advice to each other.

Bring own camera equipment and packed lunch. There is no electricity on site so no place to charge cameras, batteries etc.

The workshop is free but as the Butterfly Park is run by volunteers and these events are non funded, any small donations, though not necessary, would be appreciated.

The Butterfly Park will be open to the public this day. This is an outdoor event and as such weather dependent. Booking required via email to Carol Ramsay