
Greening Mortimer is our local community group formed as a result of the nationwide Greening Campaign (see https://greening-campaign.org ).
We’re aiming to help reduce our daily carbon footprint by making small and simple changes to the way we live. We have two sub-groups, Space for Nature and Energy, see below for what we have been doing.
Website
https://www.facebook.com/GreeningMortimer/
greening@mortimervillage.org.uk
Energy Group – Chaired by Ali Richardson
The group is once again offering thermal imaging for residents of the village this Winter. Thermal imaging can give you pointers about where you have draughts or are losing heat from your home. We have recently trained some additional volunteers and are accepting new requests from anyone living in the village. Email greening@mortimervillage.org.uk
to arrange your visit. Below are 2 examples of what the thermal imaging cameras can show you and also the simple but very effective solution one household found when we pointed out the draught under their front door.

Space for Nature group – Chaired by Mark Hillyer
The Greening Mortimer 'Space for Nature' group received some generous funding from the Berkshire Ornithological Club in 2024 to put up 3 new barn Owl boxes in the village. They were put up after the nesting season, so when Phil Barker, Peter Driver and Clare Stafford of Greening Mortimer and the West Berkshire Barn Owl Group went to check on them in Autumn 2024 we were not expecting much. We were delighted to find a roosting Barn Owl in the first box we checked. It calmly flew off when we opened the box and Phil assured us that it would come back to roost once we'd gone. We also checked a few older boxes on our rounds and found evidence of squirrels and Stock Doves. We came to the last of the 3 new boxes and were once again delighted to find another Barn Owl roosting in it! The fact that the owls were using the new boxes is a great sign that they have been sited in places that suit the owls and this also bodes well for the 2025 nesting season.
It is crucial for Barn Owl conservation that there are plenty of nesting sites for young birds and it has been a great success story over recent decades, enabling Barn Owls to move from being 'critically endangered'. Mortimer is playing a useful role in this effort and we might be able to put a few more boxes up this year. Also worth mentioning that Wokefield Park have enthusiastically embraced Barn Owl conservation and have put up boxes in suitable sites. Hopefully all of this will mean that if you are out walking at dawn or dusk you might see these magnificent birds hunting in the fields in and around the village.
Greening Mortimer will be arranging a calendar of events for the coming year including Bat Walks, a talk on the Dormouse, practical insulation tips and techniques, a plant walk and bird watching walks, all with local experts.
We plan to arrange some practical conservation and promotion of bio-diversity, for instance making gorse piles, wildflower meadows and asking people to have ‘pollinator patches’ in their gardens.
Importantly we want the whole community in Mortimer to get involved to shape how we respond to climate change.