2024-08-31-accounts - Froyle Wildlife

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FROYLE WILDLIFE Trustees’ Report for the period 1 September 2023 to 31 August 2024 fmWildlife

1 September 2023 to 31 August 2024

The trustees of Froyle Wildlife present their Report and Accounts for the period 1 September 2023 to 31 August 2024.

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.

Susan Clark and Jenny Matthews have indicated they will retire and seek re-election.

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.

Froyle Park Pond area July 2024

Wildflowers on Froyle Rec. July 2024

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.

Last September Rosemary Webb stunned us with a slide display of 200 of her beautiful photographs during her talk ‘Fabulous Fungi in Hampshire’. Although fungi are maligned because some are poisonous, they in fact perform an essential service in = re * Pi *[on,] s breaking down dead plant material into a form that provides nutrients for living plants and trees. Without them, years of leaf litter and ylL ¢ a aHe LZ ; 7 : ! the remains of dead trees would pile over our \ ee.=~A heads rather than enrich the soil. Some common names include: bird’s nest, stag’s ' horn, orange peel, red elf cap, jelly ear, ’ beefsteak, turkey tail and King Alfred’s cakes. Fabulous fungi talk

Fabulous fungi talk

Last November we were treated to a presentation by Barry Clark entitled ‘The story of Froyle wildlife pond’ that is located near Gid Lane. After construction in 2016, the first Great Crested Newt appeared within three months followed by toads and frogs, and by 2018 Great Crested Newts were breeding there (a recent count showed 28). There is a huge variety of insect life including water boatmen, pond skaters and great diving beetles, seventeen species of dragonfly and damselfly and a large variety of butterflies and moths in the surrounding wildflower meadow. There are ‘pond-dipping’ days where children under supervision can investigate what creatures live in the pond.

Anita Ebdon, professional falconer and owner of Hampshire Hawk Walks joined us in

Falconry talk

the village hall in March to give a fascinating and enjoyable talk on falconry, accompanied by four of her feathered friends. Anita’s first experience of birds of prey at a falconry experience day then lead her to adopt a Harris’s Hawk. She now has 9 birds and admits it is a full-time job looking after them. This includes weighing each bird every morning to maintain their ideal flying weight. All her birds are allowed to hunt as this is their natural behaviour.

Guided bird walk in Froyle Hawkins Wood bluebells

Our guided bird walk in Froyle in April was lead by Keith Betton, chair of Hampshire Ornithological Society. Thanks to his observations we were able to see and/or hear twenty eight different species of birds. We also learnt various characteristics of their life and behaviour. We were fortunate to see a Tree pipit, with its unusual characteristic behaviour of singing while it ‘parachuted’ down to the ground . This is a red listed bird that will have migrated back to the UK this year from Central Africa, and is not commonly seen. Thanks to Froyle Estate we were able to explore Hawkins Wood, with its carpets of bluebells to admire.

Marbled White

At the wildlife pond area drop-in day in July, visitors stayed for several hours to enjoy the numerous species at this biodiversity hotspot plus a display of photos taken in Froyle. The meadow surrounding the pond looked splendid with wildflowers such as knapweed, birds-foot trefoil, musk mallow, lady’s bedstraw and teasels. We saw 11 species of butterfly on the day including Marbled White, Gatekeeper and Comma as well seven-spot ladybird, soldier beetle and hoverflies.

Around the pond we were delighted by the aerial acrobatics of Emperor Dragonfly, Common Darter, Azur and Blue-tailed Damselfly. Several birds visited such as Goldfinch, Blackcap and overhead Red Kite.

Community involvement:

In Spring we trimmed the willow dome on Froyle recreation ground and tied in new growth to maintain a compact structure. We sowed an area of cornfield annuals on Froyle recreation ground although the wet spring delayed efforts to cultivate the ground. The annuals still flowered well in the 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 the help of 14 volunteers involved for 75 hours work.

Preparing the ground for annuals April 2024

Cornfield annuals on Froyle rec. July 2024

Managing the wildflower meadow surrounding Froyle Park Pond has involved 11 volunteers for 155 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.

Pond dipping for families July 2024 Scyths to cut vegetation at pond area

Adults and children enjoyed a lovely few hours in July pond dipping at the wildlife pond in Upper Froyle. It was sunny weather and we were able to find a great variety of pond life. The identification charts helped to name the tiny creatures that the pond supports. Ted Matthews (aged 6) said, “I like pond dipping. You get to find extraordinary creatures and find out what they are. My favourite were the newts.” Rosie & Seb said “We thoroughly enjoyed the pond dipping at Froyle wildlife pond. Seb learnt all about the different species of insects living in the pond, dragonflies plus fauna & flora surrounding the pond. Seb was taught how to use the net to gently collect boatman, newts and dragonfly nymphs”.

We encourage local people to send us their wildlife sightings in Froyle with photos if possible: these included Emperor dragonfly, Old lady moth, wasp spider, 6-spot burnet moth and thick legged flower beetle. In addition to our website

www.froylewildlife.co.uk, we also publish monthly articles in the Froyle Village magazine to inform about local wildlife. Our Instagram page #froylewildlife has 76 followers and our events are also posted on Facebook in the Froyle Residents group. We had a display of local wildlife information at the Froyle Fete in July and at the Froyle Gardens Open event in June 2024.

Display Froyle Gardens Open event

Six-spot burnet moth Thick legged flower beetle

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: 18 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: Blackcap, Alderfly larva, mating Willow emerald damselflies and a rare sawfly ( tenthredo schafferi ).

Alderfly larva

Sawfly tenthredo schafferi Willow emerald damselflies

The larvae of tentrando schafferi feed on either Tufted Vetch or Field Scabious both of which grow in Froyle Wildlife’s meadow and there is only one record in Hampshire for this sawfly species. One small insect can be significant as an indicator of habitat health and biodiversity. The food plants of this sawfly were once common in the

wider countryside but now tufted vetch and field scabious are scarce in our field edges and hedgerow bottoms.

The wildlife pond has a good population of Great Crested Newts (GCN) with recorded presence every year since 2016. Evidence of breeding was confirmed again in 2024 with newt larvae observed of both GCN and Smooth Newt.

Great Crested Newt seen in Lower Froyle Smooth Newt in a Lower Froyle pond

Froyle Wildlife asked Pete West (from Hampshire Amphibian and Reptile Conservation) again to survey selected ponds in April with landowner permission. Three ponds were visited in Lower Froyle that have been built in the last 12 years. Great Crested Newts were seen in one pond and Smooth Newts in all three. One garden pond was teeming with approximately 70 Smooth Newts. These records add to the four ponds surveyed last year. Unusual croaking noises from another pond were characterised from audio recording as one of the non-native pool frogs, most likely the southern clade pool frog, Pelophylax lessonae . It is unknown whether this non-native species will have an adverse effect on native amphibians.

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

4. Financial performance

Froyle Wildlife’s opening funds were £1,468 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 deficit of income over expenditure of £63 (compared with the previous year’s surplus of £98). Closing funds were £1,405, 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 2024

Income & expenditure statement

Income Subscriptions Donations Refreshment receipts Door entries Total income Expenditure Planting Hall hire Food & drink Donations to speakers Insurance Sundries Maintenance Total expenditure (Deficit)/Surplus of income over expenditure	Year ended 31 August 2024 2023 £ £ 370 440 90 349 118 107 21 36 599 932 76 90 90 90 48 58 145 130 170 130 82 253 51 83 662 834 £(63) £98	Year ended 31 August 2024 2023 £ £ 370 440 90 349 118 107 21 36 599 932 76 90 90 90 48 58 145 130 170 130 82 253 51 83 662 834 £(63) £98
		932
		90 90 58 130 130 253 83
		834
		£98

FROYLE WILDLIFE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2024

Balance sheet at 31 August 2024

Current assets Cash at bank Petty cash Net current assets TOTAL FUNDS Represented by: Capital introduced Opening reserves (Deficit)/Surplus Closing reserves TOTAL FUNDS	31 August 2024 2023 £ £ 1,184 1,150 221 318 1,405 1,468 £1,405 £1,468 53 53 1,415 1,317 (63) 98 1,352 1,415 £1,405 £1,468	31 August 2024 2023 £ £ 1,184 1,150 221 318 1,405 1,468 £1,405 £1,468 53 53 1,415 1,317 (63) 98 1,352 1,415 £1,405 £1,468
		1,468
		£1,468
		53
		1,317 98
		1,415
		£1,468

Approved on behalf of the Committee by:

Barry Clark

Jonathan Pickering

Date: 12 September 2024

FROYLE WILDLIFE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2024 NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS

Froyle Wildlife is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (no.1171997) which took over the the activities of Froyle Nature Conservation Group (FNCG).
The accounts cover the year ended 31 August 2024.
The accounts have been prepared on a Receipts and Payments basis, as agreed by the Trustees.
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:

as follows:
	Refreshments
	£
Receipts	118
Costs	(48)
Net proceeds	£70