St Nicks

Last week, Bearing Fruit went out to plant wildflower bulbs, garlic, and seed packets near the south entrance to the reserve and in a few planters close to the centre.  Also, a bunch of tree saplings of Rowan, Hawthorne, Birch, Cherry, and others arrived that day from the Forest Trust. They needed to be temporarily […]

Weather: Cloudy, fresh cool breeze Obesrvers: Diana, Ian, Janetta, Kaye, Kaj, Linda, Tom – and “Chairman Meow” (aka “Ginger the Cat”)! OK, not as silly a session as we reported on last week – except that, thanks to some local people, we found out that Ginger the cat, is actually called “Chairman Meow” – if we […]

I recently was able to go to a series of workshops hosted by York CVS, a local group that helps people find what kind of volunteering projects they’d like to get involved with. We learned hints on how to make our events better known and how to use social media more effectively. Last Tuesday was […]

Weather: cool, dry, stiff breeze Observers: Ian, Janetta, Linda, Nicole, Kaye OK so it was Halloween, and there were old scores to settle, so perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised to find the European Pygmy Flame Owl flashing ominously at us from its perch beside the culvert…  That and the persistent attentions of Ginger the […]

The Bearing Fruit group went out to transplant young Hazel trees that were growing up close together by the recycling site. If left alone, they would grow over the trail, blocking it. There were two sites in the reserve that had just enough room for some hazels to grow, one that was partially burned. The […]

Weather: Overcast, dry, calm Observers: Hannah, Ian, Janetta, Kaye, Kaj, Linda, Nicole, Tom A big contrast to last week’s Wildwatch – more observers, gloomier weather! Is there a correlation here? Although the light was poor, the autumn colours seemed to glow through the dismal light! It was time to do our monthly “Winter Thrush Survey” […]

Most of the work I had been doing in the last few weeks had been in preparation for the (Not Just) Apple Day. I’d been away for a while, busy with orientation events at the university, but I was happy to come back and jump into my internship again. The first task I helped out […]

Weather: Sunny with light breeze after heavy early morning rain Observers: Ian, Janetta The heavy rain, which lasted until 9.30 am probably put some people off coming along, but Janetta and Ian enjoyed a bright sunny morning and the emerging Autumn colours. With there being just two of us, we decided to defer the monthly […]

Now would probably be a good time to introduce myself. My name is Nicole and I will be an intern this autumn at St Nicks while I’m in York, studying abroad from Minnesota. When I learned I would be coming here for my internship, I was excited to see how a nature centre in England […]

Weather: Cool, but dry Observers: Hannah, Hazel, Ian, Janetta, Kaye, Kaj Definitely a touch of Autumn, not just in the cool air, but also in the turning of the leaves, and the increasing amount of fungi observed. We started up the Lime Tree Path, moved along the Bund Path, down the left-hand path down Tang Hall […]