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Upcoming events and latest news from the Friends of Rawcliffe Meadows are below.

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Bird watching on Rawcliffe Meadows

A small group from the bird watching group from the Brunswick Organic Nursery Social Club paid Rawcliffe Meadows a visit on Sunday 6th May 2012. Parking the minibus in the Rawcliffe Bar Park & Ride they made their way down on to the cycle track and along to the copse. They listened and watched out for the birds as they slowly walked along the track including black cap, willow warbler and goldfinch but none of the great tits and tree sparrows that normally inhabit the trees and nest boxes. When they reached the main meadow area they diverted east to look across the newly ploughed cornfield, where a large puddle from the recent heavy rain had attracted numerous common and herring gulls. A treecreeper passed us as we moved to walk along the barrier bank top, looking down at the excellent wetland in the reservoir, unfortunately the jack snipe or other wetland species weren’t to be seen that Sunday.

The group walked along the top of the bank to the boundary with Clifton Sports Club, dropping down to look at the pond and a quick peer onto Clifton Ings before turning back north again. Trailing along the cycle track and back to the copse a few more species were spotted including tree sparrow, wood pigeon, chaffinch, long-tailed tit and house martin, whilst the sun carried on shining. Back along through the copse and upto the Park & Ride completed a short morning’s pleasant walk and the chance to identify a few birds, and some flowers as well.

The journey, including a decent picnic break took less than three hours, so if anyone wants a gentle accessible walk to do some nature watching without going outside the York ring road, Rawcliffe Meadows is an obvious choice.

First Thursday evening work party of the year

Join us this Thursday (3rd May) from 7pm til 9pm to get stuck in clearing some of the large deposits from this week’s flooding. Only the lowest part of the Meadows are currently flooded and we will be working at the pond area accessible via Clifton Park. If you’d like to come along but are unsure of where to meet, please get in touch.

Work off those Easter eggs…

Join our last Sunday work party of the spring from 10.30am to 1pm on 15^th April. Please meet at the pond and we will attempt to clear large debris from the meadow and then the difficult areas at the base of the bank – a good way to keep fit in the great outdoors. A rake or fork would be helpful but isn’t essential.

Then from May we will work on Thursday evenings  from 7-9pm on:

May 3^rd and 17^th

June 7^th and  21^s

July 5^th and 19^th

August 9^th and 23^rd

Hope to see you at our “green gym”!

Environment Agency digs in

Members of the Environment Agency planning teams based in Leeds & York got their hands very dirty helping the Friends of Rawcliffe Meadows enlarge a number of ponds in the reservoir basin. The ponds, or ‘scrapes’, should stay damp during the summer months allowing plants, invertebrates and other creatures preferring moisture to survive. The only pond wildlife seen on the day however were a number of leeches…

Managing Rawcliffe Meadows: the next 10 years

We thought we’d share this illustrated report by Martin Hammond on the past and future of Rawcliffe Meadows:

Managing Rawcliffe Meadows (0.7MB PDF)

It was originally prepared for the public meeting held by the Friends of Rawcliffe Meadows in the autumn, so if you weren’t able to make that meeting then at least now you’re not missing out!

 

Annual report 2011

As we carry on into our third decade here’s the latest
Friends of Rawcliffe Meadows annual report (PDF, 0.3MB).

(The ecological data provided in the report is the intellectual property of the recorders involved and may not be reused without their permission – thanks).

Upcoming work parties

Our next two work parties will be on Sunday 19th February 2012 from 10.30am to 1pm, and Sunday 25th March 2012 from 10am to midday. Further details to be announced nearer the time – hope you can join us.