We are planning to run our annual fritillary count again this year as usual, on the 23rd April, at North Meadow, Cricklade. Last year it was a bit of a wash-out, with the initial date flooded out and cancelled, and then 2 later dates still wet - although we did manage to count most quadrats in the end with a small group of hardy volunteers.
We didn’t run our annual workshop to share findings last year, and are also not going to do so this February. However we are going to roll 2 years into one and instead plan to present the data on 1st June at an event we are planning with Natural England and the Cricklade Court Leet, to celebrate the 50th birthday of the designation of North Meadow as a National Nature Reserve, and the end of the Court Leet HLF project. More about this later on, but please keep the date free if you would like to come along. We hope there will be some good speakers and activities as well as the chance to see the meadows in all their glory.
Who knows what the weather will throw at us this year, the water is draining from the meadows now after the big floods this winter. Hopefully it will be like this count from 2022...beautful weather, fritillaries in full bloom and, of course, lovely cake!
Let us know if you want to come and count by completing this form https://www3.open.ac.uk/forms/Fritcount24/
