St Nicks

Absorbing and relaxing, helpful, welcoming and friendly, and giving people the chance to learn new things about nature are just some of the ways people describe the Ecotherapy programme at St Nicks. In this blog, three of our participants share their personal stories about their Ecotherapy journey, showing that we really do help people in recovery from […]

Highlights Golden swimmer in Tang Hall Beck, butterflies in November, a galling season and a big “charm”! Weather Autumn weather for Wildwatchers included two completely sunny calm mornings, but was otherwise mostly dull and cloudy with a few sunny spells. There was little or no rain on our walks, and windy days were rare. These […]

We saw a slight drop in temperature as autumn took hold in October and though there were a few less invertebrates to be seen, we had some great afternoons for bird spotting and there was still plenty of flora to be seen around Derwenthorpe. Birds We saw a lot of the regular bird species each […]

When looking at ways to lead a more environmentally friendly lifestyle, I have often thought about reducing my drive to work by cycling part of the way. Achieving the same reduction in my carbon footprint through simply cutting animal products out of my diet, even if only a couple of days a week, seems like […]

August was a fairly warm month with temperatures varying between 16 and 21 degrees Celsius. Generally the afternoons were rather overcast but on the 16th we had a particular warm and sunny afternoon. September was slightly cooler, the temperature stayed around 15 degrees each week and like August the afternoons were overcast for the most […]

Imagine acres of fields, over-flowing with wildflowers of every colour imaginable, the likes of yellow rattle, bird’s foot trefoil and even the occasional bee orchid bobbing gently on the wind which carries the sound of hundreds of buzzing insects and birdsong. I’m Eithne Phillips and I’m the project intern for St Nicks Scything for Grassland […]

Highlights Plenty of galls.. Nine new insects for St Nicks.. Woodpeckers and Kingfishers brighten up the month. Weather One or two showers and the 23rd was a washout! A rather cool and damp August, but with a few sunny intervals on the 9th and 16th. Invertebrates With August Wildwatch Wednesdays often dull and chilly, insect […]

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 […]

Written by Ivana Jakubkova, Events Officer 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. […]