WORK PARTY
Sunday 18th August

At Noakes Grove from 10am to 3pm

Snake House

Photos - Steve Jenkins

This grass snake nest box was constructed at last month's work party by Andrew Urquhart & Steve Jenkins. The first sign that grass snakes lived at Noakes Grove was when one of the Wild Child group found a caste grass snake skin. Since then there have been two sightings of living snakes.

Preparing for the harvest

Scotch Patch is a one acre orchard which Walden Countryside manages as a nature reserve. I

This year it looks as though we should have a bumper crop of all our traditional varieties of apples.

Between the trees the grass has grown very high: too high for our ride-on mower, unless it is brush-cut first. We would be very grateful for a couple of stalwarts ready to put in a few hours brush-cutting.

Please phone or text 07 583 076 790 or email david@walden-countryside.co.uk

Scotch Patch is the southern end of the Ellis Green Common local wildlife site

Hurdled Sheep

Remus and his companion Amy (she is sterile) in their shared hutrdled pasture.

hurdled sheep

Metal hurdles have been used succesfully at Kings Field. We will be going over to hurdles at Noakes Grove by mid-August - we hope the new fences will keep the sheep where they are supposed to be and make moving them to new blocks of pasture easier for the shepherding team.

Great Crested Newts at Noakes Grove

male newts

The above newts are males in the breeding season. Drawings by Claire Appleby from Nature of Essex book

We have known that Great Crested Newts inhabited Noakes Grove even before we had created our first pond. We found them under bales of damp hay and below logs. They must have had a long walk to their nearest breeding pond.

As soon as our first (and biggest) pond was dug, smooth newts adopted it as a main breeding site. Then we identified some of the newt-poles as Crested rather than Smooth Newts. Crested Newts are fully protected and it is illegal to catch them deliberately. We built a smaller pond near the schoolroom building, for dipping by our children's groups.

Soon this pond was full of both species of newts and their tadpoles. The pond-dippers were delighted to catch fully grown adult crested newts. It is less than clear as to whether children pond-dipping and catching Great Crested Newts "by accident" are breaking the law. The maximum penalty is six months in gaol. We have contacted Natural England (under the Freedom of Informatiion Act) for information on how many children have been gaoled for newt-dipping. They have not replied so we assume they are still counting.

Is yours a Home-educated or School Wild Child?

A holiday Wild Child session, open to holidaying school children, is scheduled for each Thursday afternoon in August. These sessions will only run if there are at least five chilodren and a few places need to be filled. Contact David@walden-countryside.co.uk or phone 07 583 076 790 ASAP.

"Wild Child" is based at Noakes Grove nature reserve, Sewards End, and is a chance for youngsters to get to know the wildlife and enjoy playing in the countryside.

The children catch wild mice (using catch-alive traps), use a moth trap, pond-dip for newts and count butterflies as part of the national survey by Butterfly Conservation. They also run about exploring the reserve.

Wild Child Fridays is for six to ten-year-olds and meets on alternate Fridays from 2pm to 4pm. It is only for home-educaated children. Some of the present group joined four years ago when they were six. They are now facing retirement! - so there are a few vacant places.

See walden-countryside.co.uk for more informationn.

email David@walden-countryside.co.uk

Wild Child is free but many parents make donations

Photo:The present Wild Children at the gate of Noakes Grove

Wild Child

August 2024 - Walden Countryside's news

WORK PARTY Sunday 18th August