On Sunday 18th June we held a nature event as part of the wider Churches Count on Nature programme sponsored by the Church of England.

We had pictures of flowers and checklists to help people find species in the churchyard. The idea being that they may also see new things that hadn’t been spotted. Some were sidetracked by interesting graves, but that didn’t matter. Those that attended were positive about the churchyard and the work we were doing to attract nature and attract people to explore God’s creation.

We did meet a garden snail, a mouse-ear hawkweed and a grasshopper on the Sunday event, but we also discovered more species in preparing for the event, such as the Chinese photinia bush that is a favourite with bees. It is an Asian plant that must have accidentally been seeded from a local garden somewhere in the community.

We have been identifying and counting nature species for the last year to establish a baseline of species. In future years we hope to see a greater diversity of species as we take actions to encourage them to visit and forage in the churchyard e.g. more wildflowers, log piles, etc. Clink this link to see the full list of species.

So overall a success even though a small number of the congregation got involved this time. We look forward to doing similar events in the years ahead including extending invitations to the Virginia Water community to help us too. List of species recorded at CCVW

Thanks to all those who took part and gave us encouragement for the work we are doing.

CCVW Eco Team