St Nicks

It’s Recycle Week 2017 so that means it’s time for Recycling Coordinator Sam to dust off her keyboard once again… I have written quite a few blogs on waste this year, content on plastics seems popular, as does busting myths. This blog is going to be a bit different. First of all, let’s be completely […]

There are three candidates for the title ‘Daddy Longlegs’. Two of them are arachnids (spiders and their relatives) – first the thin frail-looking long-legged spiders of the Pholcus species which inhabit our outhouses and our bathrooms, and second the related harvestmen (about 25 species in Britain) which are frequently found resting on vegetation around the […]

Simply put, haybox is an insulated box which turns part cooked food into a finished meal without using any extra heat. Hay, the early insulating material, can be replaced with a variety of other materials and various forms of haybox cookers are saving firewood or gas around the world. While this method is particularly well […]

Highlights A mouse and a mouse-like bird.. best month ever for hoverflies.. we seek him here, we seek him there – but we didn’t find him! Weather Dry, 16C – 20C with some sun on the first three Wildwatch Wednesdays.. rain on the 26th. Birds Our summer visitors were recorded every Wednesday in July. At […]

Wednesday afternoons throughout July were generally overcast yet it was still very warm with temperatures around 20 degrees most weeks, though the 26th was slightly cooler at 17 degrees. Still, we had a very successful month and came across lots of exciting species. Birds Around the pond this month, we were not disappointed by our […]

Recycling Coordinator Sam Taylor looks at the  factors you may not think about when you buy coffee… Whenever we buy anything we are telling manufacturers and producers we are OK with how they package it, how they market it and even how they produce it. You may have heard the term “voting with your pennies” […]

Most of us go up and down steps and slopes without stopping to think about it, unless an injury or advancing age turns it into a conscious effort. Some of us enjoy the physical challenges and rewards of hill walking. A few serious mountaineers get kicks out of trying to get up sheer rock faces. […]

May brought us varying temperatures from 12 degrees on a particularly wet afternoon to 23 degrees on a particularly sunny afternoon. Still, there was plenty to see around the site throughout the month with some old, familiar species being spotted along with some new arrivals as well. June was a slightly warmer month with temperatures […]

You asked for it, so here it is! We hope you find this blog a useful resource for busting common misconceptions about being or going green. If there’s something you’ve heard conflicting things about, please let us know and we will do our best to clear it up for you. And if this blog does […]

Highlights More breeding bird evidence, including juvenile Blackcaps.. 10 butterfly and 18 hoverfly species.. meadow now carpeted with colourful flowers (and the flower that looks like a bee!) Weather Temperatures stayed below 20C on all the Wildwatch Wednesdays. Sunny intervals and light breezes for the first two Wednesdays. The final Wildwatch of June – the […]