More than half a million people from across the UK are set to take part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch by counting the birds in their gardens over the weekend of 30-31 January 2016. They’ll also make a record of the other wildlife they see throughout the year, providing a vital snapshot of UK nature. The largest wildlife survey in the world, the Big Garden Birdwatch has been running for over 30 years, and last year 585,000 people took part and over 8.5 million birds were counted. Despite its much-publicised decline in numbers, the House Sparrow was the commonest…
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Many Tower Hamlets Homes’ estates will be a blaze of colour next spring. Staff have been busy this autumn planting wild flowers, bulbs and a hedge to make their estates more attractive for residents and for wildlife. During November, 21 new wild flower patches, or “annual meadows”, of a variety of shapes and sizes, have been created, mostly within lawns. These have been sown with Cottage Garden Wild Flower Seed Mix, which includes typical cornfield annuals and a few perennial wild flowers. These will produce a very colourful display in the spring and summer, and provide plenty of nectar for…
Amphibians in Bethnal Green received a big boost this week, with four new ponds in Bethnal Green Nature Reserve. Thanks to a generous grant from the Tower Hill Trust, six hardy volunteers from Nomad Projects and the Teesdale & Hollybush TRA braved several cold, wet days to dig out a sizeable area close to the existing pond. The hole was covered with an impervious liner then partly filled with soil, before the four pre-formed fibreglass ponds were installed. This will create a wetland around the ponds, providing new habitat for a host of wildlife. The ponds and surrounding wetland were planted with a wide…
The Tower Hamlets Bee Survey, launched in 2014, goes from strength to strength, with nearly 1500 bees logged during the survey’s second year. It’s very easy to take part in the survey. Residents are asked to count bees for 15 minutes, at least once per month, in their garden, local park or anywhere else in Tower Hamlets with plenty of flowers, and to record the results on a simple online form or post their counts to the Biodiversity Officer. All volunteers receive a free bee identification chart. For more information, see this article. Bees are very important pollinators of food…
Free bulbs are available to community groups, schools and others for planting in autumn 2015 under the Bulbs for London scheme. The Metropolitan Public Gardens Association, together with Taylors Bulbs, are offering a substantial number of high quality bulbs completely free of charge, including packing and postage. The bulbs are in packs of between 700 and 1400, and include a mixture of daffodils, dwarf iris, alliums, dwarf tulips and hyacinths – all of them good plants to provide early spring nectar for bees. The offer is site specific and applicants must clearly state on the application form the name of…
Following on from the very successful clean up by Citibank volunteers in June, the second stage of the Wapping Ornamental Canal enhancement project has now been completed. While stage 1 was largely about cleaning, stage 2 is all about greening. Six floating rafts, planted with native waterside plants, have been installed in the canal by Tobacco Dock. The work was led by officers from the council’s Green Team and Bow Landscapes staff, ably assisted by a group of local volunteers. Three large rafts now float in the middle of the canal, with three narrow ones along the southern wall. Once…
Victoria Park has been crowned the reigning Queen of all parks in the country for the second year running! The park received a huge amount of votes to win the People’s Choice Award, organised by Keep Britain Tidy’s Green Flag Plus Partnership. Green Flag Award manager, Paul Todd said, “The huge number of public votes we received show just how important parks and green spaces are to people. Victoria Park in Tower Hamlets is a truly worthy winner of the 2015 People’s Choice awards. Congratulations to all of the staff and volunteers who go the extra mile to maintain the…
Peabody has been working with residents at Shadwell over the last ten months to understand how they would like to use the open areas of their estate. In collaboration with landscape architects Turkington Martin, Peabody have developed designs in response to residents’ thoughts and concerns and are pleased to say that they have received planning permission for the landscape proposals. Works will begin on site in January 2016 and will include the following: 26 new trees; new lawn areas and a variety of planting to provide colour throughout the seasons; food growing area with a gardening club shed; timber seating…
The last week of August saw exceptional numbers of migrant birds, particularly Redstarts, Pied Flycatchers and Spotted Flycatchers, arrive at sites all over London, including Tower Hamlets. None of these species breed in Tower Hamlets, and they are less than annual passage migrants through the borough. Easterly winds are likely to have brought the birds, most of which were migrating from Scandinavia towards Africa, across the North Sea, and heavy showers then forced them to land in London’s parks. The main arrival was on 26 August, with birdwatchers finding newly-arrived birds feeding avidly in the late afternoon once the rain…
It has been another successful breeding season for Common Terns at East India Dock Basin. Nine young terns have fledged from the raft, which, while not quite matching last year’s 11-15, is the second best total in recent years. This was despite poor weather in May leading to a complete failure of all the early nesting attempts. About six pairs nested again in June, and five of these were eventually successful, producing four broods of two young and one single. We are not aware that terns nested anywhere else in Tower Hamlets this year. The rafts on Blackwall Basin were…