St Nicks

Weather: Overcast, some drizzle, cool breeze. Observers: Carrie, Ginny, Ian, Kaye, Kaj, Linda A rather damp start to our walk, but not as wet as we thought it might be! Water levels in both becks had dropped over the past week, but there was still a good flow of water through both of them. There […]

This morning we held a “taster” morning, aimed at showing people what our Wildwatch Group gets up to every Wednesday morning. Nine people attended the event, including members of the Wildwatch Group. We split up into two teams, with Kaye leading the “Trees and Plants” spotting group and Ian leading the “Bird and Mammal” spotting […]

Weather: Mild, sunny intervals, light NW breeze Observers: Carrie, Ian, Janetta, Kaj, Kaye, Linda, Phil, Rachel The snow has now all melted, but the pond at the Environment Centre remained frozen. Melt water resulted in high levels in both becks. Although only mid-February, there were some early signs of Spring. With so many observers, we […]

Weather: Cloudy & dull, cold, no wind Observers: Kaye, Linda, Ian, Phil Saturday night’s snow covered St Nicks to a depth of 4 – 5 inches, and very little has melted since then. The eco-volunteers have been busy clearing some of the main paths, but much of the reserve remains blanketed under snow. The dull […]

Present: Jonathan, Paul, Stephen, Steven, Eileen, Darren Today work started on creating an area to grow a selection of soft fruits at St Nicks. After spending so much time planning last week, everyone was excited and ready to get stuck in. With his horticultural background, Paul took the lead of this project and soon a […]

Present: Jonathan, Paul, Eileen, Stephen and Darren Secure in the knowledge that St Nicks’ Community Orchard was finally in the ground and waiting for spring to come around, the Bearing Fruit Core Group could now concentrate on what interesting projects Year Two of the project might bring. Two such projects will include taking over the […]

Weather: Bright, still, often sunny, but bitterly cold. Observers: Kaj, Janetta, Phil, Kaye. The reserve looked beautiful, with the sun highlighting the stems of Dogwood and greening Willow, but the sheet of ice on the pond should have warned us…. Birds: Setting off from the Centre, we stopped to try and count the House Sparrows […]

After nine months of planning and preparation, St Nicks’ very own community orchard is finally in the ground, ready to flourish and provide a free and delicious food source for the surrounding community! Bearing Fruit ended up hosting four separate planting sessions to get all of the trees in, but it was worth it as […]

In cold, still, sunny weather, ten visitors joined Ivana and three Wildwatch regulars to take part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. We decided we had enough confident observers to cover seven different areas of the reserve, including the Environment Centre garden. Between us we found 20 species – not quite as high as on […]

Weather: Cloudy with occasional sunny spells; light breeze sometimes freshening; fairly mild but with distinct wind chill factor. Observers: Janetta, Linda, Phil, Kaye After a very wet Tuesday, some of the unmade paths were muddy and water levels in the Becks were fairly high, but Spring was cautiously back in the air, with singing birds, […]