Golf Course Ecology Visits - January 2021
Right January, let’s be having you. I for one am glad to see the back of, dare I say it, the year 2020 and be able to get out to see you lot on a regular basis again. A normal year for your BIGGA eco guy would be something along the lines of 100 course visits, 10 full eco reports and a similar amount of reed bed developments, presentations to hundreds of greenkeepers and club members, 12 blogs and about 6 features for the GI mag. With that in mind, I went through last year’s diary and I am sad to say that only 23 clubs were visited and only a handful of eco reports were carried out. Whilst the blogs were still carried out, the features were a little thin on the ground and the greenkeeper and course member presentations were almost non-existent.
With bookings already coming in I’m happy to report that all will be back to norm soon enough so give me a tinkle and I’ll set-up a visit if poss.
....whilst Roger Myatt and the team at Doncaster have gone down the well stacked route, both these examples will do the same job so super work teams!
How about this top notch snap of a magpie riding a deer at Purdis Heath GC.
Take a look at the recycling going on at Lansdown. The earth was taken from a bunker hole and shaped with a digger – I’m thinking a selection of discreet wildflowers wouldn’t go amiss there. Smashing stuff.
I’m in the process of developing a feature on trees and where to purchase them from, which types and so on, part of this feature is ancients on golf courses so let me know if you have an oldie and I’ll record it on the Ancient Tree Initiative’s register.
Happy ecoing.
James Hutchinson.
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