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Welshpool’s link with Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
Over the years we have been frequently asked the whereabouts of the grave of Gary Holton, the actor who was famous for his role of Wayne in the 1980’s comedy-drama show Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. Gary isn’t buried in the churchyard here at Christ Church, but his ashes are interred in neighbouring Maesgwasted Cemetery with his grandparents. Gary’s parents once owned…
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Bats
In the evenings there have been bats coming out of the roof and flying around the churchyard. Pipistrelle bats are the most common bat in the UK. Did you know that they are the smallest bat in Britain? They have a length of 5cm and a wingspan of 23cm. Normally bats give birth in June to July and have one…
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Bird watching
Yesterday I sat outside in the churchyard for half an hour to see what birds we could see and hear. 2 peregrines flew over us, squawking as they looked for their prey. I recorded my sightings on the Bird Track app on my mum’s phone. Here is a screenshot of what birds we saw. As I was looking for birds…
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Bookshelves
One of the outstanding House-build jobs we had yet to complete was to build a wall of bookshelves in the ‘dining room’ area of the ground floor. It has always been daunting to start as we knew that it would need a big chunk of time to complete. Lockdown has very generously given us that time. Working from one of…
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Squirrels
Very recently I have been seeing a few squirrel families around the churchyard, (I even saw a baby one!). I decided to put some nuts out for them and set the wildlife camera up to see what would happen. The next day I saw that the squirrels had eaten the nuts and that the camera had recorded them. Here are…
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Baby birds
Very recently I saw a blackbird nest in the ivy by the church. Then a few days later I saw 3 eggs in the nest. Last week I was hearing cheeping noises and decided to take a video of what was inside the nest… A blue tit family have made a nest in the wall of the church. You can…
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Slow-worms
On this week’s blog post I decided to do it on slow-worms as I have been seeing a few of them recently. At this time it is mating season for slow-worms. Did you know that slow-worms can bite? But they are not venomous and they will only hurt themselves trying to bite us. Normally slow-worms hibernate in groups of thirty.…
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Badgers
There are trails in the churchyard that we think are from badgers, but just to make sure we put the wildlife camera out to try and get some videos of them going across the trails. After a while we tried to get some better footage. So I decided to see what badgers eat. I found out that they mainly eat…
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Hawthorn
Hawthorn blossom normally comes out at May that is why some people call it the May tree. The flowers are signs that summer is coming and they were used in May Day celebrations. Here is a stop motion animation of the blossom coming out… Victor’s Wonderful Wildlife: Part 8
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Dawn Chorus
On Sunday I got up very very very very very very very early to listen to the dawn chorus as it was International Dawn Chorus Day. It was very lovely seeing the sun rise and listening to the birds sing. Did you know that it sounds louder because the air is cool and still at dawn? This year was special…
