Many thanks to Abi from Leeds Salsa Club for organising a salsa dance class in East Keswick Village Hall to raise funds for the Save Bardsey Fields Campaign. Everyone had a great time!
On 29th and 30th October Ann Hanson and colleagues from the Yorkshire Mammal Group joined East Keswick Wildlife Trust to survey Fitts Fields for small mammals. 50 humane large Longworth traps were set on the Saturday evening and on Sunday morning we met to open the traps.
32 of the 50 traps had small mammals in them, all looked healthy and were a good weight.
We recorded: 14 bank voles, 3 field voles, 14 wood mice and 1 common shrew.
This shows that there is a very good population of small mammals in these fields and although we did not find a harvest mouse this time, we do know that they are living here.
Saturday 29th October
Meet at Fitts Lane footpath entrance on the A659 opposite Cleavesty Lane at 4.30pm to put down 50 humane large Longworth traps.
Sunday 30th October
Meet at the same place at 9.30am to open the traps and record the weight and sex of the small mammals which will hopefully include harvest mice.
We had lovely weather and many families came along to Ox Close Woods and enjoyed all the activities.
Deep concentration on the scavenger hunt!
The highlight of the day delicious pizzas! Howard our EKWT resident chef worked hard all day, lighting the pizza oven at 7 in the morning and cooking over 50 pizzas in the afternoon.
Thank you to everyone who helped either beforehand or on the day and to everyone who came and made it such an enjoyable event.
We will be holding a family day at the charcoal burn area in Ox Close Wood from 2 – 4.30pm on Sunday 10th July. This will be our first in 3 years, so we are very much looking forward to a great event!
The pizza oven will be fired up – we will provide the dough, if you can bring tomato sauce and toppings. We won’t be able to provide seating, so feel free to bring rugs or chairs.
There will be lots of fun for the children with willow weaving, a scavenger hunt and sculpture making. There will also be an opportunity to learn more about the Trust, with talks on the charcoal burn and how the woodland is managed.
The event is free for members or a minimum donation of £5 for non members.
We need to know numbers to enable us to plan activities and prepare the right quantity of pizza dough.
Please reply to thomasin@ekwt.org.uk as soon as possible if you would like to come.
We hope to see you there!
Robert and Ann from the West Yorkshire Mammal Group joined us for our harvest mouse nest survey at Fitts Fields.
Families enjoyed looking at the base of large tufts of grass for the nests. None were found, but we did find lots of field vole nests.
In October Ann and Robert will be joining us again and setting Longworth humane traps to try and observe a variety of small mammals.
Volunteers from the Trust recently joined with members of the Yorkshire Dales River Trust to plant trees alongside Keswick Beck. It was lovely to have so many volunteers of all ages taking part and learning more about the River Trust and their natural flood management plans.
The family hedge and woodland tree planting days in January at the Fitts Lane reserve had a great turnout, particularly on the Sunday, when approximately 30 people of all ages were there.
A big thank you to everyone who came to help and planted hedgerows that will be a haven for wildlife for years to come!
Anyone visiting the Fitts Reserve will notice that there’s been a lot of work clearing the boundaries in order to install stock fencing. In amongst the vegetation we came across a pair of very old stone gate posts with many nearby dressed stones in and on the ground.
In order to make use of the stones we decided to have a go at creating a dry stone wall with results shown below. By coincidence, as we were making the wall a chap walking down the path mentioned that many years ago there was a stone-built field bothy… probably used to store tools.
It was satisfying to be able to put these stones to good use again.
Since the trust took over our new site at Fitts Lane, our Friday volunteer work party has been working hard towards restoring the valuable grassland habitat.
Much of this work has been preparing boundaries; fencing and hedge planting. To provide a much-needed boost to this effort, and to introduce members to the new site, the work being done and what we hope to achieve; this month we are holding two family hedge planting days at the Fitts Lane site in East Keswick (the fields on the footpath to the river from the end of Cleavesty Lane) during January, Sunday 16th and Saturday 22nd.
The days will start at 10am and we will be there as long as we keep going! Any time that can be given is welcomed and contributes to the overall team effort, so please come along at, and for, a time that suits you.
The work itself is great for kids – with tasks suitable for all ages. We find they generally enjoy planting the whips and protecting them with canes and guards – leaving the older ones to dig the holes! And it’s great for them to see the growth of the hedges over the years to follow – something to be proud to have been part of.
We will also take the opportunity to explain the work we are doing there, plans for the site and how the trust use the Dexter cattle for conservation grazing, and (for the kids) the importance of worms! We will also have BBQs lit and available for use – an opportunity to learn about the charcoal making we undertake in Ox Close Woods, whilst you cook some sausages to keep energy levels up.
What you will need:
If you need help finding us, you can contact Corinne on 07582 561749 or Thomasin on 07944 951605. It would be helpful if you let us know if you are planning to attend, but not essential.
We will cancel the events if the ground is frozen or there is heavy rain. We will notify people in advance via our Facebook page (search for East Keswick Wildlife Trust) if we do need to cancel.
We hope to see you there!