Category: Wildwatch
Wildwatch summer (June – August 2019)
Written by St Nicks Wildwatch members who meet every Wednesday to record wildlife in the nature reserve. All photos were taken at St Nicks by volunteers, including Lewis Outing, during the given period. Highlights Painted Ladies star in abundant butterfly summer while Shieldbugs and Hoverflies are everywhere. Warblers stay to sing all summer and […]
Crayfish on the Foss
Written by St Nicks’ Natural Habitats Manager Jonathan Dent. This autumn, thanks to funding from the Postcode Local Trust, we have been privileged to assist wetland ecologist Martin Hammond to survey the upper reaches of the River Foss to determine to state of native white-clawed crayfish populations. White-clawed crayfish are the UK’s only native freshwater […]
With a little help from our friends: St Nicks volunteers making a difference
Our hard working and hardy volunteers have been at it again, day and night, come rain or shine. Apart from our regular weekly sessions, we offer plenty of drop-in opportunities if you’d like to volunteer with us to look for wildlife or to help York to bloom and buzz. Here is a summary of recent […]
Heworth Holme BioBlitz results
Our 24-hour BioBlitz in Heworth Holme revealed signs of over 200 types of wildlife, including otters, bats, frogs, owls, foxes, mice, beetles and water scorpions as well as trees, grasses and other plants. We have been working at Heworth Holme for three years to improve its habitat for wildlife after many years of neglect. The […]
Wildwatch spring (March – May 2019)
Highlights Summer migrant warblers put on a good show while Red Kite surprised everyone. Beetles, Hoverflies and Bees were the stars of the insect world. St Nicks’ trees sprung into leaf and flowered as beautifully as ever, whilst cowslips and fritillaries led the way in brightening up the meadows. Weather After an exceptionally warm […]
Wildwatch winter (December 2018 – February 2019)
Highlights Over-wintering Chiffchaffs are followed by St Nicks earliest ever Chiffchaff song. Other bird winter visitors disappoint, but the reserve’s Gorse Shieldbugs, Sage Leafhoppers, Seven-spot Ladybirds and Rosemary Beetles defy winter and appear most weeks. Weather Winter Wildwatch began (on 5th December) with heavy rain, but that was the last we saw of it, […]
Spotlight on… Winter Buds
This months spotlight, written by Wildwatch volunteer, Kaye, is all about winter tree buds —proving we can identify trees without leaves and flowers! Many people believe deciduous trees are hard to identify in winter. Not necessarily so! Some of our native species have very distinctive twigs and buds. Get to know these, and even without […]
Wildwatch autumn 2018 (September-November)
Highlights The year’s butterfly showing continued to disappoint, but lots of bugs and hoverflies brighten up Wildwatch mornings… Unusual bird visitors included a Common Snipe and Water Rail… Two new plant gall records. Weather Wildwatch days in September were disappointingly overcast and often windy, but brightened up for October which gave us a number […]
Wildwatch summer 2018 (June-August)
Highlights An early winter visitor…20 new invertebrate species recorded…a great summer for hoverflies. Weather Except for one warm sunny day in June, indifferent and cloudy (though dry) weather greeted most Wildwatch mornings until mid-July, after which Britain’s long hot summer dominated our Wednesday walks until the last two meetings of August which were duller. […]
Spotlight on…Thistles
28 species in the Collins Flower Guide have the word “thistle” in their name. They are all members of the large and often confusing family of Asteraceae.[1] Sixteen of them are classed as true thistles, and at least ten of these are native species. For the purposes of this spotlight, we’re going to concentrate on […]
