Friends of Park Wood & Friends of Low Wood have had reciprocal visits to each others woodland, where we took part in facilitated walks. We learned about the geographical composition of both areas, the plant and wildlife that is in abundance and the work that each Friends group is doing.

John Preshaw from Friends of Low Wood commented, "Despite a dire weather forecast we went ahead with our planned visit and the weather remained benign until the end at which point we were refreshed by a deluge. Eric and colleagues led us on a comprehensive Grand Tour of the wood with commentary along the way. Many thanks to Eric and friends for a fascinating and informative tour."

It was a great chance to share ideas, problems and solutions between our two Friends groups, we look forward to continuing this dialogue and would also like to open the offer of similar activity to other woodland Friends groups.

If you are involved in a Friends group for your local woodland, no matter where you are in the country, we'd love to arrange reciprocal visits to the woodland or have representives from your group speak at one of our meetings. If you're interested, contact info@park-wood.co.uk

Today Mark Doveston of www.dovenature.com gave nine of our members a walk around the wood listening, observing and identifying 23 different species of bird in just two hours!

They were (deep breath): treecreeper, jay, long tailed tit, crow, rook, blue tit, robin, wren, great spotted woodpecker, great tit, blackbird, nuthatch, woodpigeon, dunnock, song thrush, chiff chaff, cockerel, magpie, coal tit, jackdaw, siskin, black cap, sparrow.

Mark also informed us that peregrine falcons have taken up residence again this year in the chimney of Dalton Mill (visible from Park Wood but only with good optics). If we want a wide range of bird species in the wood - and we do! - he recommended leaving dead wood, both standing and fallen, as nesting sites for woodpeckers and habitat for invertebrates like beatles that many bird species feed on. He stressed the need for more understorey in the wood to act as cover for song thrush and black cap.

On Sun 25th May  there will be another bird walk like this one. If we identify the same species as on the first walk then it is highly likely those species are nesting in the wood. We'll meet at 7am at the intersection of the snicket and Dale View Grove (same as first walk).

Thank you to Mark,  we are all looking forward to the next one!

As part of the Friends of Park Wood work party meet up, we walked around the wood and assessed for projects for the spring and summer. 

We came up with the following: 
-  Dry stone wall repair including training for us
-  Litter picking (particularly on the down side of the cobbled path    about 1/2 way down)
-  Footpath repair near Delph Croft View
-  Adding retaining stakes by the footpath near Parkwood flats
-  Identifying with the Council an area of beech in which to create a clearing
-  Clearing up a set of steps by 31 Kendal St
-  Species Richness list

For next month: clearing up the set of steps by 31 Kendal St and litter picking the area. Eric is going to arrange pick up of litter by Council.

Friends of Park Wood is now part of Project Dirt! 

Project Dirt is the UK's most active network connecting and resourcing environmental and community projects. 

Visit the website for more info: www.projectdirt.com

Cheong, Sean, Kieran, Katie, Peter and Karl, all achieved their John Muir Bronze Award discovering, exploring and conserving in Park Wood over two days in December.

We made maps of the wood adding to blanks just what we thought were significant landmarks in the wood. Interesting results! We did some tree ID and took lots of photos of the different habitats in Park Wood (dry stone wall, grassland, ASNW, PAWS and rotting wood). Ed, a member of FoPW and a resident who lives right by the wood, gave us a talk on what it is like living so close. Deer coming in to the garden!

Later on we returned to look for bats (well, listen for) but being winter we weren't lucky. It was still an exciting nighttime walk though! We stayed at Howarth Youth Hostel which was fantastic, really spacious and comfortable. Thanks to YHA for that!

The following day we did a day's graft in the rain. We lopped and sawed down beech tree seedlings and stacked them into habitat piles for invertebrates and small mammals. Beech is over-dominant in the wood and other species need light to grow. Evelyn, from Friends of Park Wood, gave us a talk on the health benefits of woodland.

Last of all we visited Brook's Fish and Chip shop on Lawkholme Lane for a treat! The whole course was designed to fit in with the John Muir Bronze Award, a conservation award given by the John Muir Trust (a charity aimed at protecting wild places). The whole course was organised by The Conservation Volunteers based at Hollybush Conservation Centre in Leeds.