Story by Christine Steers
Photos by Christine Steers and Ken Wild
The Friends of Burngreave Cemetery have contributed several events to the Sheffield Environment weeks programme, (from end of April – June 4th) some of which have already taken place and are described below.
Ecological Exhibition and Guided Walk
The Burngreave Cemetery ecological exhibition depicting the beekeeping activities, a gallery of photographs showing the fungi, bats and butterflies to be seen in the cemetery and a live internet link to the peregrine Falcon nest-box at the university.
It was opened by the Lord Mayor, Talib Hussain on Saturday 7th May. He showed particular interest in a poster of British trees named in various languages.
About 20 people set off at from the chapel on a beautiful sunny afternoon to walk the cemetery looking at the trees, flowers, birds and headstones. The bluebells and flowering cherry trees were at their best.
Bat and Moth forage
In the evening, after watching a film about Bats, walkers followed Bob Croxton from Sorby Natural History Society into the cemetery to look for them. It was a good evening and the children were excited to see so many bats flying about hunting for food.
Richard Harris set up two moth traps, one mains and one battery powered, which caught only one moth each.
These were later released. It was decided to try again later when the weather was better and the traps could be left for longer.
Our final Environment Weeks event is the Big Lunch, in conjunction with the Adventure Playground, on Saturday 11th June 12.30pm onwards. Come and enjoy the exhibition in the chapel, children’s games and a barbecue.
Visitors are looking forward to the next Cemetery walk on 11th September which will have a “Zeppelin raid on Sheffield” theme.