2023-08-31-accounts - Froyle Wildlife

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FROYLE WILDLIFE

Trustees’ Report for the period 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2023

The trustees of Froyle Wildlife present their Report and Accounts for the period 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2023.

1. Reference and administrative details

Froyle Wildlife is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, registered charity number 1171997. Its registered address is:

Braemore Husseys Lane Lower Froyle Alton GU34 4LX.

The trustees of Froyle Wildlife throughout the period were:

Barry Clark (chairman) Susan Clark Alan Dyos (secretary) Jayne Fisher Nigel Hughes Jenny Matthews Jonathan Pickering (treasurer)

At each annual general meeting of the members of the CIO, one-third of the charity trustees shall retire from office. Any person who retires as a charity trustee by rotation is eligible for re-election.

Barry Clark and Jonathan Pickering have indicated they will retire and seek reelection.

Governance, management and trustee recruitment

Froyle Wildlife is run by its trustees, who meet as often as required during the year to manage its affairs. They also arrange the events which Froyle Wildlife puts on in the village, and recruit and manage volunteers to assist with the upkeep and maintenance of the Froyle Park pond and the two wildflower areas on Froyle Recreation Ground.

The trustees of Froyle Wildlife share an interest in local wildlife and the natural environment, and the importance of its conservation and protection. Potential new trustees are sought from the residents of the local area who share the values and objectives of Froyle Wildlife.

2. Objectives and activities

The objectives of Froyle Wildlife are:

(a) to promote for the benefit of the public resident in and around the villages of Upper Froyle and Lower Froyle, Hampshire the conservation, protection and improvement of the local physical and natural environment , in particular but not exclusively by identifying and recording species of flora and fauna in the local area ;

(b) to advance the education of the public resident in and around the villages of Upper Froyle and Lower Froyle, Hampshire in the conservation, protection and improvement of the local physical and natural environment.

During the period Froyle Wildlife (FW) continued to arrange a programme of activities. The trustees confirm that activities have had regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit. Our plan is to carry out the following activities, either separately or in conjunction with each other:

Providing talks, preferably illustrated, by relevant knowledgeable individuals on aspects of species, local wildlife conservation, protection and natural environmental improvement;
Providing guided walks in the local countryside, led by relevant knowledgeable individuals, to observe and where possible record various elements of the local flora, fauna and, if appropriate, related topography;
Offering opportunities to participate in the development, maintenance, upkeep and renewal of local natural facilities including, but not limited to, the wildlife pond and meadow area in Froyle Park, and the wildflower areas on the Froyle Recreation Ground;
Providing forums in which interested people can meet to discuss and share experiences, observations and opinions relating to local flora, fauna and conservation matters generally, all of which will be open to members of the public at an appropriate modest entrance fee, generally £3 (designed to cover both staging and general operating expenses) and free for members.

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Froyle Park Pond area June 2023

Wildflowers on Froyle Rec. July 2023

3. Achievements and performance

Froyle Wildlife arranges ‘walks and talks’ that support our purposes and form part of a year on year programme, see our website for more information - http://froylewildlife.co.uk/news/past events/. We continued to look after the wildflower area on Froyle Recreation Ground and the wildlife pond area near Gid Lane with volunteers.

At our talk last October, we were treated to the gorgeous Barn and Tawny Owls that Kim Boog from the Barn Owl Project Hampshire had brought along. The Barn Owl has a third ear, cannot see well in daylight and its head is not completely symmetrical. Kim spoke passionately about these serene creatures and the work she performs to rehabilitate the birds brought into her hospital so that they can be returned to the wild.

Barn Owl talk

Dave Williams from the Surrey Dormouse Group gave a fascinating talk last November. The hazel dormouse is arboreal, living in both trees and hedgerows and particularly likes hazel coppice. They usually build their nests in hedgerows, hibernate from December to March, and also sleep for half the time while not hibernating. They eat berries, insects, nectar, pollen, and of course hazelnuts. Apart from predators such as stoats, weasels, tawny owls and cats, the main cause of their decline is loss of habitat, lack of connectivity and woodland clearance.

Our talk in March about the life stages of butterflies found in Froyle, by Peter Eeles from Butterfly Conservation was very informative by someone who has spent years studying butterflies. We all learned something new about these amazing insects that are indicators of the health of our natural environment. A list of the 36 butterfly species found in Froyle were grouped into their taxonomic families. All butterflies go through four main stages: egg, to caterpillar, to chrysalis, to adult. The adults generally live for a few weeks, but some, such as Small Tortoiseshells, Peacocks, and Brimstones overwinter and can reach a year old.

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Small Tortoiseshell on Knapweed

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Duke of Burgundy sighting at Noar Hill

We were delighted to see 9 species of butterfly on our walk at Noar Hill, SSSI in May. With the sun shining most of the time, Holly Blues flitted about the bushes and on short vegetation we caught sight of Dingy Skipper. The solitary bee Osmia Bicolor was observed flying with small pieces of debris to put on its snail shell nest for camouflage. We found several Duke of Burgundy perching on cowslips after only having fleeting glimpses of them flying past earlier. Other butterflies seen on the day were Brimstone, Orange Tip, Small Blue, Comma and Red Admiral while one person also spotted Green Hairstreak and Speckled Wood.

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Black-tailed Skimmer female

Our ‘Drop-in’ Day in July at the wildlife pond area and meadow started with pouring rain, then the weather warmed up and a string of visitors arrived. The sun brought out the insects, the most numerous and colourful were the butterflies with 17 species noted including Small Copper, Brown Argus, Small Tortoiseshell and Painted Lady. Other species spotted included Dark Bush-cricket, Roesel’s Bush-cricket, 14-spot Ladybird, Tawny Longhorn beetles, Spotted Longhorn beetles, Dock

Bug and of course dragonflies.

A bat and moth evening jointly with Alton Natural History Society met at Froyle Church in July and then moved on to the Wildlife Pond area in clear chilly weather. Using bat detectors, we heard and saw bats with good aerobatic display of several Pipistrelles (both Common and Soprano) and the characteristic zipping noise as they found insects to eat. We also heard Noctule and

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bats from the Myotis family. After dark a moth lamp had been set up to attract moths to a trap for identification and later release. Considering the temperature started at 14°C and went down to 12°C it was good that we saw as many moths as we did. The list of 19 species included Black Arches, Mother of Pearl, Nut-tree Tussock, Swallow-tailed and Ghost Moths.

Black Arches at moth evening

Community involvement:

In Spring we trimmed the willow dome and sowed an area of cornfield annuals on Froyle recreation ground. The annuals flowered well in early summer with corn marigolds, cornflowers, corn camomile and poppies. In July the adjacent perennial wildflower plot had its annual cut and rake up as part of the maintenance plan. Many locals enjoyed seeing the colourful wildflowers and using the willow dome, achieved with 11 volunteers involved for 89 hours work.

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Trimming willow dome on Froyle rec. Feb 2023

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Cornfield annuals on Froyle rec. July 2023

Managing the wildflower meadow surrounding Froyle Park Pond has involved 14 volunteers for 185 hours of hands on work to maintain the habitat. With this effort, the wildflowers have thrived and the pond continues to support breeding amphibians, dragonflies and damselflies. Work included removing perennial weeds (especially field horsetail); cutting paths to enable access for visitors; and removing excess pond vegetation. The high number of plants, insects and amphibians that would otherwise be absent from the area is due to our management which includes selective cutting and sheep grazing in winter months.

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Viewing the pond dippings Aug 2023 Scything vegetation at pond area

We held four pond-dipping sessions over two mornings in August at the wildlife pond. About 25 people attended in all and enjoyed using the nets to see what they could find in the water. Key organisms of note were lesser water boatmen, great crested newts, smooth newts, a water scorpion and numerous dragonfly nymphs, diving beetles and ramshorn snails. Children and adults seemed to really enjoy being around the pond, which was surrounded by a colourful display of wildflowers. Ted Matthews said, ‘The pond dipping was good because lots of people helped me to find different creatures.’ Feddy Boote said, ‘I liked using the nets and finding the newts.’ Henny Boote said, ‘The water scorpion breathes through its bottom.’ Now in its seventh year, the pond really is teeming with life, in the water and above.

We encourage local people to send us their wildlife sightings in Froyle with photos if possible: these included Sparrowhawk, Hedgehog, Grass Snake, Common Spotted and Pyramidal Orchids, Knapweed Broomrape, Large Red Damselfly, Broad-bodied

Chaser, Plume moth, Hummingbird Hawkmoth, Meadow Brown and Large Skipper. In addition to our website www.froylewildlife.co.uk, we also publish monthly articles in the Froyle Village magazine to inform about local wildlife. We had a display of local wildlife information at the Froyle Fete in July and at the Froyle Gardens Open event in June 2023.

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Part of the display at Froyle Fete

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Knapweed Broomrape Large Skipper

Species recording:

Observations have been made to record what species are present in the local area throughout the seasons. These add to the information from previous years, accessible from our website http://froylewildlife.co.uk/recording/species-lists/. We have informally monitored the habitat at the wildlife pond and wildflower meadow and our records include: 17 species of dragonfly/damselfly; 4 species of amphibian; 26 species of butterfly; 103 species of moth and 116 species of flowering plants. Records at the pond area for the first time this year include: Pied Shieldbug, Common Broomrape and Dotted Bee-fly.

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Pied Shieldbug

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Common Broomrape Dotted Bee-fly mating

Surveying continued this summer in Froyle’s disused quarry (SINC site), a habitat with naturally regenerating chalk grassland. At this private site we also assisted with habitat management of scrub and non-native buddleia.

Flora recording this year around Froyle was led by botanist Isobel Girvan and visited 1km map squares that had not been recently recorded. This ongoing update to a 1991 survey of flora in the Parish is planned to be published next year.

The wildlife pond near Gid Lane has a good population of Great Crested Newts (GCN) that also breed there. The number of newts has increased substantially since the pond was constructed in 2016 when the first newt was recorded there. By 2021 a professional survey using bottle trapping recorded a maximum count of 28 Great Crested Newts and 23 Smooth Newts. This year 2023, we counted 35 GCN larvae on a warm day in June that were close enough to the water surface for identification with perhaps ten times that number out of sight while hiding in the pond vegetation.

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Great Crested Newt eggs on water mint Great Crested Newt larvae

In the last 12 years there have been a number of newly constructed ponds in Froyle with some in gardens and fields. Froyle Wildlife asked Pete West (from Hampshire Amphibian and Reptile Conservation) to survey selected ponds in April with landowner permission. Smooth Newts and Great Crested Newts were seen in all four ponds surveyed with evidence of breeding in two ponds at Upper Froyle. Unlike frogs and toads, newt eggs are laid singly on submerged vegetation wrapped in a folded leaf (Water Mint is a favourite). The Great Crested Newt previously had no records from Lower Froyle but it is now found there as well.

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4. Financial performance

Froyle Wildlife’s opening funds were £1,370 none of which were restricted. During the year it received no grants from either East Hants District or Froyle Parish councils. Overall however there was a small surplus of income over expenditure of £98 (an improvement over the previous year’s deficit of £141). Closing funds were £1,468, none of which are restricted. Froyle Wildlife has no debts.

The trustees manage Froyle Wildlife to allow the purchase of essential items of equipment or consumables to enable it to carry on its conservation activities, and aim to maintain a small positive cash balance as working capital to enable the production of local events. The subscription amount is set at a level to meet these objectives: the trustees do not consider it is necessary or appropriate to generate significant reserves to be held by the charity.

Other matters

Froyle Wildlife holds no funds as custodian trustee, and has not taken advantage of any exemptions from disclosure.

FROYLE WILDLIFE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2023

Income & expenditure statement

Year ended 31 August 2022 General Restricted Total funds funds funds £ £ £ 850 850 370 370 42 42 77 77 3 3 1,342 1,342 350 350 110 110 30 30 29 29 45 45 180 180 376 376 134 134 81 81 24 124 148 - 1,359 124 1,483	Year ended 31 August 2022 General Restricted Total funds funds funds £ £ £ 850 850 370 370 42 42 77 77 3 3 1,342 1,342 350 350 110 110 30 30 29 29 45 45 180 180 376 376 134 134 81 81 24 124 148 - 1,359 124 1,483	Year ended 31 August 2022 General Restricted Total funds funds funds £ £ £ 850 850 370 370 42 42 77 77 3 3 1,342 1,342 350 350 110 110 30 30 29 29 45 45 180 180 376 376 134 134 81 81 24 124 148 - 1,359 124 1,483
		1,342
		350 110 30 29 45 180 376 134 81 148 -
		1,483
£(17)	£(124)	£(141)

FROYLE WILDLIFE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2023

Balance sheet at 31 August 2023

31 August 2023 £ £ General Restricted funds funds 1,150 318 1,468 - £1,468 - 53 1,317 98 - 1,415 - 1,415 - £1,468 -	31 August 2022 £ £ General Restricted funds funds 1,183 188 1,370 - £1,370 - 53 1,368 90 (17) (124) 1,351 (34) (34) 34 1,317 - £1,370 -	£ Total funds 1,183 188
		1,370
		£1,370
		53
		1,458 (141)
		1,317
- -	- -	1,317
		£1,370

Approved on behalf of the Committee by:

Barry Clark

Jonathan Pickering

Date: 12 September 2023

FROYLE WILDLIFE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2023

Froyle Wildlife is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (no.1171997) formed to take over the activities of Froyle Nature Conservation Group (FNCG).
The accounts cover the year ended 31 August 2023.
The accounts have been prepared on a Receipts and Payments basis, as agreed by the Trustees.
The restricted funds represented the balance of grants from East Hampshire District Council for the creation of a wildlife pond on the Froyle Park Estate remaining after the expenditure incurred to date. During the prior year the remaining funds were used for maintenance, upkeep and improvement of the wildlife pond. With no restricted funds remaining, from 2023 all activities relating to the pond will be charged to the general fund.
In accordance with recommended practice, the gross income and expenditure for various ancillary activities have been shown in the accounts, rather than the net figures, which are as follows:

follows:
	Refreshments
	£
Receipts	107
Cost of sales	(58)
Net proceeds	£49