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!

Friends of Park Wood invite you to join in a Dawn Chorus Bird Walk - this Spring!

The walks will be led by Mark Doveston of Dove Nature: www.dovenature.com

For those of you who have never attended a bird walk before, they are very sedate with lots of stopping, looking and listening.  We look forward to seeing you :)

Friends of Park Wood will be holding our first Annual General Meeting on Wed 26th March at 7pm in Long Lee Village Hall.

Anyone is welcome to attend, so feel free to come along and celebrate what we've acheived so far!

We are vey proud of what we've done as a group and look forward to helping the future of Park Wood.

Our woodland launch event was held on Saturday 6th June, we had a glorious sunny day to enjoy our activities, celebrations and tea & cake!

Activities involved a campfire singing workshop, led by Emma Baylin from Shared Harmonies. We all took part in learning and singing a beautiful fire song and a rainforest song. Many joined in and it was a wonderful way to meet each other and enjoy being in the woodland.

We also had a guided walk, led by our Chairman, Eric Yaffey who has extensive woodland and conservation experience.

We met some new people and made some new Friends along the way.