When did you last see your father?

father & sons

All boys together at Noakes Grve

Remus, our ram, is at Noakes Grove for the next few weeks. He is sharing the pasture with all eight of his sons plus his lady friend Amy. Amy cannot have lambs so she can live with Remus year round.

Remus will be off to Kings Field soon, to spend a month or two ensuring we will have a good group of lambs in 2025.

Thank you for your donations

We depend on your donations for almost all the costs of running our three reserves. There are several ways to help and we will be very happy with whichever one you choose:

Donating at Open Days, supporting children's groups, or any online donations. To donate online just visit our donation page.

Buying things: apple juice, lamb meat - seasonally available - Apple Juice on sale now

Booking a birthday party - see our party page

Using Easyfundraising at no cost to yourself. Many online traders make small donations as a gift to us when you buy from them.

Enjoying a flutter with the Essex Lottery - half of your stake comes to us.

On your own in the biggest wood around. What will you see?

Usually the Wild Child Group meets at Noakes Grove or sometimes at our Scotch Patch or Kings Field reserves. The late October session was different: we visited the Forestry Commission's Bendysh Woods. Together, Great & Little Bendysh Woods are the largest block of woodland anywhere near Saffron Walden and they are fully open to the public on foot.

We were lucky: everyone had a sight of a Roe Deer walking along the field edge next to the wood. Within the wood each child was left, on its own, at watch points spaced out through the wood. Being alone on a wildlife watch was a novel experience for most of the youngsters and even the youngest survived the half-hour unafraid. One boy had an exciting view of a fox and two children were surprised to see an owl out before dark. No more deer were spotted though. Bendysh has Fallow and Muntjac deer (which also can be seen at any of our reserves) but Roe have only been camera-trapped at Kings Field).

Bendysh Woods once had a population of Red Deer - Britain's largest wild land animal - but these seem to have been shot out of existence in Essex woodlands. It is just possible that some few survive - please let us know if you spot one. They used to live in Hempstead Wood, close to Kings Field, as well as Bendysh Woods.

red deer at Bendysh

Red Deer hind in Bendysh Wood when they still bred there. Photo David Corke

Workers wanted

We now have two excellent sheep teams: one for Noakes Grove the other for Kings Field. We still need more workers for the habitat management teams. The regular Noakes Grove work parties are on the third Sunday of each month. We really need some extra voluinteers for additional work parties when and where needed. Our immediate need is for clearing the long vegetation at Scotch Patch to get things ready for planting more fruit trees this winter. If you might be able to help, please email Andrew Urquhart (Andrewuqt@gmail.com)

Scotch Patch Apple Juice

Apple tree kids

Photos: Sophie Cottrell

Thanks to the help of our Wild Child group picking and pressing apples, we have made over 150 bottles of apple juice this year and some of the children designed the labels.

If you would like a dozen bottles (price £20) we can deliver them free within four miles of Walden or Thaxted. To place an order email info@walden-countryside.co.uk

Individual bottles (£2 each) will be available at work parties or Wild Child events

The apples were harvested at Scotch Patch. Our smallest reserve, it is part of the Ellis Green Local Wildlife Site. You can visit the whole site any time you like. Click here for a description and map of the site (opens new page).

Here are some designs of bottle labels for the apple juice, created by four members the Wild Child group.

WORK PARTIES

The regular 3rd Sunday (November 17th) meeting is at Noakes Grove from 10am to 3pm

Mainly hedgerow work. Come when you like, bring some refreshments.

Saturday 9th November

Scotch Patch, Ellis Green.

Preparing ground for planting of more fruit trees and clearing where a pond will be created.

For details of how to find Scotch Patch click here

Electric fence posts for your sheep.

We have a large quatity of good second-hand galvanised metal fence posts each with five adjustable plastic insulators. Minimum order is 25 posts with insulators £40 (price new from RAPPA is £125). Larger quantities available. Interested? Email info@walden-countryside.co.uk or phone 01 799 599 643

November 2024 - Walden Countryside's news