Category Archives: Wildlife Area

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch this month.

Wildlife Area

titEvery year, the RSPB conduct the Big Garden Birdwatch. It’s a wonderful incentive and great fun for the family.  In 2015 it takes place on 24th & 25th January.  We have a lovely diversity of garden birds in Queen’s Park and this is a great time to record them.

Taking part is simple but if you to register online you’ll get a £5 voucher to spend on their seeds etc.  They will send you a pack in the post or you can save the environment here.

You can either use a pen and paper to record the birds you see, or use the RSPB’s online counting tool. Just go to rspb.org.uk/birdwatch on the weekend of the Birdwatch. All you need is your laptop, tablet or smartphone and a good view of your garden.

To encourage birds into your garden so you have the most successful birdwatch possible, put some bird food out in a spot where you have a clear view. Visit RSPB’s Birdwatch pages for more tips on getting ready.

Christmas Card Recycling

Wildlife Area

Happy Holidays Don’t know what to do with your Christmas cards now?
For every 1,000 cards dropped into Marks & Spencer for recycling throughout January, a new tree will be
planted in the UK.

Last year more than 8 million cards were collected, enabling the Woodland Trust to plant more than 8,000 trees throughout the UK. With such fantastic results last year the Woodland Trust are aiming even higher this year.

The Woodland Trust hope to collect and recycle 10 million Christmas cards by the end of January 2015. This will mean they can plant 10,000 trees, creating homes for treasured wildlife such as dormice and red squirrels.

Over the past five years the Woodland Trust has planted 34,000 trees across the UK. The more cards collected, the more trees can planted by the Woodland Trust.

Look out for the special card collection bins at Marks & Spencer stores from January 2nd thru to 31st January 2015. Christmas cards with glittery or metallic covering can’t be recycled.

Towpath Taskforce: Canal Towpath Cleanup

Canal Waterways, Local Community, Wildlife Area

Come and work off those Holiday Season excesses with a canal clean up. We have planned a session of litter picking and cutting back vegetation along the towpath from Kensal Green to Little Venice (approx. 2 miles).

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We’ll meet Saturday 17th January 2015 at the back of Sainsbury’s Ladbroke Grove, W10 5AA. Starting at 10am and running through the morning until 2pm. We will be working alongside the Canal and River Trust who care for 2,000 miles of waterways in England and Wales.

The stretch of waterway we will be walking along is approximately two miles in total, so please remember to wear sensible warm clothes and sturdy shoes or boots (if you have them). On reaching Little Venice we can celebrate with hot soup and rolls.

We hope to see you there.

Your Neighbourhood! Get Involved!

For Scrubs Sake!

Open Spaces, Wildlife Area

For Scrubs Sake!London Transport are currently carrying out consultation on the positioning of the new stations at Old Oak Common – it closes on 24th November.

The Friends of Wormwood Scrubs are encouraging votes for Option C which is the one that affects the scrubs itself less.

It is worth noting for any of you that aren’t particularly familiar with these areas that as well as the particular natural habitat of the scrubs that from our local perspective and given current discussions throughout Queen’s Park on the responsibilities of local dog owners that the big and little Scrubs currently offer our easiest accessible large areas for off lead exercise of dogs and are used widely for those purposes. They also offer relatively affordable sports pitch bookings for schools and groups and non-bookable areas for organised sports and games, kite flying etc.

It is well worth taking a look at their information on this https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/london-overground/old-oak-common/consultation/intro/view and also that of the Friends of Wormwood Scrubs http://www.friendsofwormwoodscrubs.org.uk/post/99659671216/for-scrubs-sake.

We have precious few green areas of this nature in the locality, we encourage you to look at the information available and cast your vote.

Having Fun Learning in the Wildlife Area

Wildlife Area

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A huge welcome from the Friend’s of Queen’s Park Gardens to the children from the Sunrise Preschool. Staff and children started using the Wildlife Area regularly this October and are enjoying it hugely.

Nicole from Sunrise reports, ‘We have become attached to the site and have been doing a bit of litter clearing and looking after.

Recently the children have enjoyed looking underneath the logs in the bug hotels where we have seen slugs,

snails, woodlice, spiders and some really unusual fungus which I believe is called “Bootstrap” and “Deadmans fingers”!!!’

The staff at Sunrise Preschool are all Qualified Forest School Leaders as well as nursery teachers and it is really
important to them that their impact on the Wildlife garden is a positive one and a respectful one.
Nicole continues ‘Our aim is to deepen the children’s connection with nature and to encourage them to feel part of the natural world…
hopefully this will mean we have a future  local generation who understand how important the plants, trees and creatures are for our
cohesive survival on this wonderful earth.
We hope that Sunrise will be the first of many children’s groups and schools to use the Wildlife Area regularly. It is easy to arrange to have the gates unlocked for your group or class to use. Please use the contact form below…

 

Queen’s Park Gardens Visit 21st June 2014

Gallery, Wildlife Area

Queen’s Park Gardens 21st June 2014

We decided to tackle the overgrown circular area around the bush in Queen’s Park Gardens. This area has not been touched since Alex carefully planted tulips, last November. Now the Wildflower Meadow has been sown, apart from weeding  we can focus our attention on other areas.
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Unfortunately, some bulbs were dug up in the course of digging out weeds, sorry Alex. We replanted them carefully.
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Congratulations on a job well done.
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Our next task is to trim the bush.
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If you are interested in helping out for a few hours in our Wildlife Area, please come along to our next session. Click for dates and times.

Gallery Photos

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Westminster Community Award Winners

Wildlife Area
'Better City, Better Lives' Category.
‘Better City, Better Lives’.

As you know the Friends of Queen’s Park Gardens were nominated, earlier in the year, in the Westminster Community Awards 2014. We were shortlisted in the category of ‘Better City, Better Lives’. There were two other nominees in this category: Time for Paddington and Octavia Foundation.

I’m delighted to announce we came joint first with the Octavia Foundation. Two winners trophies were awarded.

This award recognises our groups time, effort and determination in bringing back the Wildlife Area to the local community.
Congratulations to the Octavia Foundation. We would like to thank Westminster Community Award judges, One Westminster and City of Westminster for making these awards such a success not only for the Friends of Queen’s Park Gardens but for all the winners.