Nest Box Week celebration

Nineteen new bird and bat boxes have been installed in the Tiffey Valley, Wymondham, to celebrate National Nest Box Week. The boxes were bought using funds donated to Wymondham Nature Group by Waitrose, under its Community Matters scheme.

Nineteen new bird and bat boxes have been installed in the Tiffey Valley, Wymondham, to celebrate National Nest Box Week.

The boxes were bought using funds donated to Wymondham Nature Group by Waitrose, under its Community Matters scheme. Members of the group, Ann Roberts, chairman, and Tony Barnes, footpath officer, fixed the boxes to trees in the Town Cemetery and on Becketswell public open space, with permission of Wymondham Town Council.

National Nest Box week was instigated in 1997 as an annual event to encourage everyone to put up nesting/roosting boxes in their area to help the local bird, and bat, populations. Natural sites, such as holes in trees and buildings, are fast disappearing, as gardens and woods are 'tidied' and old houses and barns are repaired.

Ms Roberts said: 'We are very grateful to Waitrose for the funding to buy these boxes, and the customers of Waitrose who nominated WyNG as their chosen charity. The town cemetery has hundreds of mature trees and Becketswell is also a good habitat for nesting birds and roosting bats. We have chosen boxes suitable for robins, treecreepers and other small birds, and we've also put up bat boxes, because five species of bats live in this part of the River Tiffey valley.

'We are also very grateful to Wymondham Town Council for their support."

For further information, contact Ann Roberts on 01953 604311. Wymondham Nature Group is a local group of Norfolk Wildlife Trust, www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk