St James The Great

​Old Milverton, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire

​Geoff's Eco Tips

​​​​Geoff’s March Eco-Tip and Ecochurch Update

Just to remind you, this year our monthly Eco-tips are provided by A Rocha UK’s Easy Eco Tips 2026 Calendar.Easy Eco Tips 2026 Calendar - A Rocha UK. It has fresh ideas each month and will help to foster a lasting commitment to a greener lifestyle and keep you inspired throughout the year.

I hope some of you may have followed last month’s eco-tip and registered for the Climate Stewards Carbon Fast for lent – if so you will be receiving weekly emails with details of how to fast as we go through Lent. The emails are very informative and provide some simple actions that are easy to follow and also some more involved ideas to think about and maybe push our actions a little further. It’s not too late to sign up, if you haven’t yet done so and here’s the link again: Carbon Fast for Lent | Climate Stewards

Here’s the tip for the month of March:

MARCH ECO-TIP

Take part in a local litter pick or beach clean during The Great British Spring Clean (Friday 13-Sunday 29 March), the nation’s biggest mass-action environmental campaign. Litter picking benefits the environment by removing rubbish that can be hazardous for wildlife and helps bring people together. See if there’s a litter pick in your local area or consider organising your own - after church on Sunday or with a youth group for example. Pray for your local area as you do the litter pick and ask God for opportunities to share why you are doing it. Find out more and pledge to pick up a bag at Great British Spring Clean | Keep Britain Tidy

For more practical ways to enjoy, nurture and defend nature, sign up to A Rocha UK’s Wild Christian email: arocha.org.uk/wild-christian

ST JAMES UPDATE MARCH 2026.

The Diocesan Biodiversity and Natural Heritage Team are now working on the baseline information for the first 10 churches (including us) involved in the project. We have been sending them any existing records we have to assist them in formulating their baseline surveys.

Interestingly, a group known as ‘Warwick birding 100’, have been recording bird observations in the churchyard for the past couple of years and the list of birds they have identified is quite impressive. Quite often you can ‘hear’ rather than ‘see’ the birds in the churchyard. It’s interesting to listen to the calls and try to identify them. The ‘Merlin Bird’ app, which you can get for free on your phone is great for identifying the sounds to check if you are on the right track.

The Diocesan Team are planning to visit St James again to coincide with our Dog Walkers Café on the morning of the last Saturday in March (28th). They hope to spend some more time familiarising themselves with the churchyard and hopefully meeting and chatting with lots of people coming through the churchyard that morning.

Whatever wildlife (animal or vegetable!) you see in the churchyard - it could be something that pleases you or surprises you, or even just something that seems somehow noteworthy to you - please do let me know!

With love, Geoff