Category Archives: Activities

Bardsey Green Fair

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East Keswick Wildlife Trust will be at the Green Fair on Saturday 9th September in Bardsey Churchyard from 1-4pm. Come along to learn about our local nature reserves and have your say on the newly acquired Bardsey Fields.

The Yorkshire Dales River Trust is loaning their table-top Sustainable Drainage Village for children to mimic rainfall and see where it goes!

We hope you can come along and help bring our communities together. There is a very varied programme of eco activities, stalls and refreshments.

A Great Family Day!

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Last Sunday we enjoyed another great family day and even managed to avoid the storms! We had lots of activities and of course tasty pizzas.

All hands on deck to help load the 2 charcoal kilns
Debbie with her tawny owl explains the
importance of feathers
Paul emptying and identifying moths from his overnight trapping session
Fish and line willow weaving with Jinny
Izzy wizzy let’s get busy with frothy potions
Pizzas all round!

Many thanks to everyone who came and made the afternoon such a success

Family Day – Sunday 9th July

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We will be holding our annual family day on Sunday 9th July from 2-4pm at the charcoal burn area in Oxclose Wood.

This year we won’t have the kilns lit, but will be loading them ready to burn – something that children love being involved with. We would recommend bringing gloves to protect your hands. It is a great opportunity to learn about the charcoal burns too, but without the smoke!

The pizza oven will be fired up and we will provide the dough. If you can bring tomato sauce and toppings that would be great. We won’t be able to provide seating, so please feel free to bring rugs or chairs.

There will be lots of fun for the children including willow weaving, scavenger hunt and drawing. Our Trust moth expert will have traps to show the children the variety of moths that live in the woods. There will also be the opportunity to learn more about the Trust, with talks on charcoal burns and how the woodland is managed.

This 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. If you could let us know if you are coming and how many of you there will be, by Thursday 6th July that would be helpful. We are limited to the number of pizzas we can cook in the time available, so please book early to avoid disappointment. Please reply to thomasin@ekwt.org.uk, we hope to see you there!

Winter Bird Survey Saturday 14th January

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We will be meeting at the entrance to St Mary Magdalene Church, Moor Lane, East Keswick at 10.00am. You are welcome to come and go throughout the day, please bring snacks and lunch, also binoculars if you have them. From the Church we will be walking through the Marsh, then along Moor Lane to the cricket field. We will then cross Harewood Road and walk down to the river, back up Fitts Lane and into the village. If time allows we may also include Ox Close Wood.

Bardsey Fields Campaign Update

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We are delighted to let you know that our fundraising campaign has been a huge success and we raised a phenomenal amount of money in less than 3 weeks, enabling us to acquire Lot 2, totalling almost 24 acres of land in the centre of Bardsey village. The land runs from Bardsey Primary School down to Bardsey beck and beyond.

Unfortunately, however, we only raised sufficient funds to bid on one piece of land and prioritised the lower field, to the front of the school for a number of reasons. Firstly, we understood this to be the plot that we would most likely be successful with. Secondly, it is the plot with the best habitat, and it is the land which is very much in the centre of the community.

We are unable to share how much we bid as this information is confidential, but we can confirm that all donations received were used to secure this land.

We sincerely thank all those who donated to save Bardsey Fields – we couldn’t have done it without you!

If you have made a donation, please ensure you have completed a Gift Aid form, which enables us to claim back 25p for every £1 donated. You will find the form on this website in the Bardsey Fields Campaign, Donate section, or contact us at fundraising@ekwt.org.uk and we will send one to you.

The Trustees
East Keswick Wildlife Trust

Harvest Mice Hunt Results

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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.

The children who had helped to set the traps were very excited to see what we would find.

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.