August 2025 Newsletter

We've just sent out our August 2025 newsletter - and it's a bumper edition! 

Featuring news about swifts, how we helped celebrate Chapel's 800th birthday, and upcoming activities you can get involved in - from water surveying to reporting Himalayan Balsam. 

If you want to receive our news direct to your inbox, sign up for the mailing list in the box on the right hand side of this page. 

Or you can read the web version here.

UPDATE! Bug Hunt and other nature activities POSTPONED

UPDATE! The rain is not letting up this morning ☔ No one wants to paint rocks in the rain ⛈️so we are postponing the nature activities until a little later in the summer. We'll keep all the little treats safe ready for a rescheduled activity day. Keep an eye on this website and on our Facebook group for the new date.

🐛🐜🪲🐞🦗🪳🪰🐛🐜🪲🐞🦗🪳🪰🐛🐜🪲🐞🦗🪳🪰🐛🐜

As part of the 800th Birthday celebrations for Chapel-en-le-Frith, we've organised nature activities for children in the Memorial Park this Sunday 2-4pm. 

There will be.... 

- A bug hunt 🐛🐜🪲🐞🦗🪳🪰

- Rock painting 🎨🖌️

- Tree drawing 🌲🌳🌴

And we have some little treats to take away at the end 😊

Pop by any time, no need to register. 

Under 18s with a parent or guardian please.

See Nature based fun for the children | Facebook

Supporting and saving our amazing swift populations in Chapel-en-le-Frith and beyond!

A guest post from Deb Pitman, who is leading our Chapel Swift Walk on Saturday 28 June 2025. 

As the summer solstice passes by the swifts have had their longest feeding day! They consume the largest range of insects of any birds that call the UK home. They form them in to a delicious bolus with their saliva and then divvy it up amongst their chicks in the nest. 

Back in the depths of winter, with no swifts to admire, I applied to two funding pots with the intention of helping swifts. Derbyshire Wildlife Trust were offering grants of up to £3000 and High Peak Borough Council had £1000 on offer to support nature. With the help of my local group, Nature New Mills, I was successful. The Chapel en le Frith Biodiversity group had requested an allocation to buy materials to make boxes and I was able to deliver it. Jason Adshead contributed his council allowance to grow the fund. It's been so great working together for the good of the High Peak swifts. As time passed, and the swifts' return was imminent, the decision was taken to buy ready-made boxes from the legend John Stimpson, a true champion of swifts. He's devoted his retirement to making swift boxes. He ships them, more or less 'at cost', all over the country passing the 10,000 mark at the last count. His boxes are now available on homes in the town, for when the youngsters need a place of their own, thanks to great work by volunteer installers. 

The mantra of all swift surveying is to know where the nests are so they can be protected. This has proved instructional this summer as nesting swifts have been located at the Chapel Milton viaducts, just as a programme of renewal begins. Network Rail are communicating with us about scheduling the brick work patching towards the tail end of the project. It's against the law to disrupt a nesting bird, it's eggs, or nest. They're covered by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

Back to the bolus of saliva and insects! Join us on a swift walk around the town Saturday 28^th June 8pm to find out just how many they do eat and lots more interesting information besides. Finger's crossed we'll see swifts feeding, playing and entering nest sites. Register for a free ticket below. 

Swift Walk - Chapel En Le Frith Tickets, Sat 28 Jun 2025 at 20:00 | Eventbrite

This is 'year one' of Chapel en le Frith's Biodiversity Group's initiative to help swifts. If you want to join in, all are welcome. There's grants to be applied for, ladders to climb and stories to tell, all by way of helping these marvellous birds.

Announcing our children's picture competition!

Prizes!

As part of our Parish's 800th anniversary celebrations, we are launching a nature drawing competition for creative kids, kindly sponsored by Bluebird's Nest, 27b Market Street.

Can you help us create a beautiful window display at Bluebirds? 

We are looking for budding artists to create a picture of a colourful butterfly, Bugs that you may have spotted whilst out walking, Busy bees and insects you have spotted.

You can make your creations as colourful as you like.

Please do drop your creations off at Bluebirds nest before the 18th of June with the child’s name and contact on reverse of artwork.

The children’s creations will all be given a number and 3 will be picked at random and will win 1 of 3 prizes from Bluebirds.

Winners will be announced on Monday the 23rd of June.

We can’t wait to see your drawings!

Supporting swifts

 

Swift boxes have been going up all over Chapel - have you spotted one? Have you got one?!

We now have at least 16 new Swift Boxes up around the Parish in the first phase of our Swift Conservation effort, and we are hoping to make more boxes will be available throughout the next few months so please get in touch if you could host one.

Swifts have been spotted since early May, including at the allotments, Eccles Road, Bowden Lane, and Beresford Road. Keep posting sightings on our Facebook Group!

While we're all super keen to see swifts nesting, we know it’s unlikely the boxes will be occupied in the first year. But eventually, as colonies build over the coming years, we will be helping this amazing little bird thrive in our Parish. 

If you want to know more, have a look at our page on swifts or join a swift event:

There's a few events in Derbyshire that are being held as part of Swift Awareness Week Sat 28th June - Sun 6th July 2025.  See Action for Swifts: SAW events 2025.  

Our friends in Nature New Mills are holding a New Mills Swift Walk on 7 July. 

Our March 2025 newsletter is out!

Featuring updates on find out about toad patrols, litter patrols and swift boxes, and details of how to get involved with local citizen science initiatives, including water quality testing and biodiversity surveying.

Read the latest issue and sign up via the box on the right to make sure you never miss an update!

Join the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch - 24-26 January 2025!

Starling

The RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch is this weekend! 

It's easy to get involved. 

Tell the RSPB!

1. Register here: https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/big-garden-birdwatch/submission

2. Choose one hour on 24, 25 or 26 January 2025 

3. Count the birds you see in your garden or in one of our local parks. You can do this online or download and print this pdf.

4. Send your results to the RSPB (even if you saw nothing, it still counts).

Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker

Tell us too!

5. (Optional) Tell us too! We are monitoring biodiversity in the Parish and would love to know how birds are doing here. Comment on this post, email us at chapelbiodiversity@gmail.com or comment on our Facebook page.