Easter Egg Hunt 4th April
The mist early on cleared to a beautiful morning in the park, extremely enhanced the fabulous Easter Egg Hunt that was due to the efforts of a wonderful set of volunteers who came along to help with the day…….. Registration records show that 467 children (about 50/50 for each age range) attended.
Have a chat with a tree…….
Pondering with Örö Pines: Talking with Trees as an Undisciplinary Method…….
This text presents talking with trees as a method of generating material for artistic and other research purposes based on conversations with pine trees recorded in May 2022 on Örö Island in southwestern Finland. Addressing one pine tree a day for six consecutive days as part of the project Pondering with Pines was an experiment that resulted in video works and podcast episodes. The perspective was human centred and subjective while also subjectifying the trees. In this context, the focus is on talking with trees as an undisciplinary method adaptable to other circumstances.
https://www.whp-journals.co.uk/PP/article/view/953
Parus major………. Great tits are breeding and flourishing in the park. They are singing almost every time of the day. It is a small passerine bird in the tit family Paridae, widespread and common throughout Europe. There are currently fifteen recognised subspecies.
The great tit is, like other tits, a vocal bird, and has up to 40 types of calls and songs:
UK Great Tit numbers increased from the 1960s, although they have stablised since about 2010. Great Tits take readily to nest boxes, and lay one (sometimes two) clutches a year.
https://search.macaulaylibrary.org/catalog?taxonCode=gretit1
From its black head, it has been known regionally as “black capped lolly” or, in Spain, “guerrero, because it often squabbles with other birds. If you want more information from any web source, search under “parus major” to avoid unpleasant sites.
Wild birds shall have better protection in future…….hopefully
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/stronger-protections-to-help-protect-threatened-wild-birds
Park Wildlife ….. come into the park and linger quietly at dawn, and you might see one of its most elegant visitors. He/she has an exquisite russet coat and deep yellow eyes, waiting, watching and listening intently, intelligent and noble. He/she has good reason to revile homo sapiens, the foulest creature ever in creation. Usually there is discarded pizza, chips, buns……often he doesn’t even have to raid the bins………… Spatial factors predict variation in reports of human-wildlife interactions but not public attitudes towards a widespread urban carnivore, the red fox https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2026.111820
The Sycamore Gap tree lives on……
The first of 49 saplings gifted to people after the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree are being planted across the UK.
The saplings were given to individuals and community organisations following our ‘Trees of Hope’ initiative, which was launched in September 2024 to create a legacy for the Sycamore Gap tree.
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/news/sycamore-gap-saplings-planted-across-the-uk
New woodland in Staffordshire …..
Forestry England are creating a brand new 303-hectare woodland in Staffordshire, near the village of Abbots Bromley. Covering an area equivalent to over 420 football pitches, Bagots Park Wood will be the largest woodland we’ve created at Forestry England in over two decades.
https://www.forestryengland.uk/article/bagots-park-wood
Resources…….Britain and Ireland’s flora app…..
Britain’s Flora brings together data on over 3,000 plant species recorded across Great Britain, covering native wildflowers, trees and shrubs alongside the many species introduced by humans over thousands of years. For each species you can explore its origins, when it arrived in Britain, and where it has been recorded across six survey periods from before 1930 to 2019.
https://knowwhereconsulting.co.uk/maps/flora
Sheffield street trees……..
A plaque to honour tree felling protesters has been unveiled.
Sheffield Council axed more than 5,000 trees between 2013 and 2018 as part of a street improvement programme and had planned to cut down around 12,000 more.
But an independent inquiry later found the council had misled the public and courts and had plotted to kill healthy trees as well as diseased ones, while protesters were threatened with legal action.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy8kynzy91o
The ongoing war for London’s parks…….
Should there be commercial events in public parks? Please join this debate…..
US nature: Early in President Trump’s second presidency, he cancelled the inaugural National Nature Assessment, which would have provided the first full picture of the status of biodiversity in the United States. Undeterred, some scientists engaged in that process pushed ahead to produce an independent assessment, which they are calling The Nature Record. The report concludes that a third of plant species and 40 percent of animal species are at risk of extinction but also identifies a range of solutions.
On 4 March, The Nature Conservancy released a report, compiling research from 1,500 sources to identify the economic, health and safety benefits of investing in nature…..
https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/who-we-are/how-we-work/policy/natures-dividends
Environment…….The European Commission has announced an investment of 103 environmental projects across Europe…….
Commission invests over €103 million in European strategic environment and climate projects
Litter in the park…… have you ever noticed the park’s little band of litter pickers? They have identified some unlikely helpers, if only we could get hold of some hyenas…………..
Urban scavengers as providers of ecosystem services: Waste management and carbon reduction in a rapidly urbanizing African City
https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.70223
Winnie the Pooh is one hundred years old this year. For treating trauma ……
“The Hardest Part is What to Leave Behind…”: Trauma, Medicine, and the Common Goals of Winnie the Pooh and The Story of Dr. Dolittle ….. Abstract https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-020-09626-6 (paywalled)
Oak trees……..
State of the UK’s oaks…….
There are some fabulous and very old oaks in the park……..Oak trees are a vital part of the UK’s biodiversity, cultural heritage and economy, supporting more than 2,300 species and contributing environmental, social and economic benefits estimated at £0.7 billion each year.
Action Oak’s new State of the UK’s Oaks report, funded by Defra, sets out the current state of UK oaks by bringing together key information, monitoring data and a review of existing work, while identifying important evidence gaps. Find out more and download the summary analysis 2026 report
https://www.actionoak.org/state-of-the-uks-oaks
Land registry
Finding out who owns land in England is to become much simpler because a paywall will be lifted from large parts of the Land Registry, the government is to announce
Resources:
Clerical Naturalists in the Age of Enlightenment
https://www.brycchancarey.com/naturalists/index.htm
Maps…….”At the heart of the maps”, a series of short documentary films on “portolan” maps, these handwritten marine charts on parchment, essential tools from the 15th century onwards for the control of the seas and the dissemination of the results of European explorations.
https://www.bnf.fr/fr/mediatheque/au-coeur-des-cartes
Avibase……Avibase is an extensive database information system about all birds of the world, containing over 54 million records about 10,000 species and 22,000 subspecies of birds, including distribution information for 20,000 regions, taxonomy, synonyms in several languages and more.