Local spider expert Edward Milner writes: We have another new spider record from Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park. It is Cryptachaea blattea, a scarce cobweb (or tangle web) spider of the family Theridiidae. One female was trapped in Round Glade in September last year. This synanthropic (associated with human habitation) species seems to be a new arrival in Britain, with the first record as recent as 2015. It has now been found at several sites around England (see the Spider and Harvestman Recording Scheme website). This is the third London record, following records from the Wildlife Garden at the Natural History…
Author: admin
Emily Morshuis of London Wildlife Trust writes: Keeping it Wild is a three year project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, that aims to empower and inspire 600 young people aged 11-25, from backgrounds currently under-represented in the environmental sector, to gain vital skills while discovering, conserving and sharing their experiences of the capital’s wildlife and wild spaces. Over the next three years the project will enable the Trust, and other partner organisations such as the John Muir Trust, to inspire more young people to care about, and protect, wildlife and wild spaces. Alongside John Muir Trust, London Wildlife…
Charlotte Barrington of William Davis Primary School writes: The Tower Habitats biodiversity grant we received from the Tower Hill Trust has been used to pay for the following developments so far: The clearance and development of two key sites within the outdoor area to create a bee and butterfly garden and an insect investigation area. Creation of a bird watching station. The ground was cleared, which was a big job, as the photo (left) of the Bee Garden area before we started shows! Despite our best efforts, we ended up paying for someone to help us complete this in the…
Around 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 25-27 January 2020. 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 470,000 people took part and over 7.6 million birds were counted. Despite its much-publicised decline in numbers, the House Sparrow was the commonest bird…
Dave Bedford of the Lower Regents Coalition writes: We’ve just completed our first reed harvesting and transplanting event. We took over 300 plants from the Regent’s Canal opposite Mile End Climbing Wall, where they had to be removed because they were encroaching into the navigation channel of the canal. We’ve given half of them to the Wildlife Gardeners of Haggerston, who will re-house them in their stretch of the canal. The other half have journeyed south to the Regent’s Canal opposite Mile End Stadium, where we replanted them (see photo below). Hopefully they’ll like their new home and quickly establish…
Helen Morris of Canon Barnet Primary School writes: Following the receipt of an £850 Tower Habitats biodiversity grant from Tower Hill Trust in March this year, the environment and habitats for a wide selection of insects and birds has improved hugely at Canon Barnett. Two bird boxes, installed with internal lights and cameras will enable the pupils to observe birds nesting on the school roof garden. The cameras can be linked to the school wi-fi so that live footage of birds nesting, hatching and rearing chicks can be observed. Now we just have to encourage birds to find our school…
Tower Hamlets Council hosted a community tree planting day on Saturday 30 November, as part of the Woodland Trust’s Big Climate Fightback. The event saw volunteers plant a mixture of deciduous and evergreen tree species on Haverfield Green to help enhance the Mile End Park Woodland Trail, with the eventual aim of providing continuous canopy cover of trees from one end of the park to the other. Stephen Murray, Head of Tower Hamlets Arts, Parks and Events, said: “Our award-winning parks are a jewel in the crown of Tower Hamlets. It’s essential that we keep them replenished with new trees…
Local spider expert Edward Milner writes: At the end of October the pitfall traps just by the Soanes Centre in Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park produced an adult male of the money spider Lessertia dentichelis (family Linyphiidae). This is new to Cemetery Park, and in fact the only previous record in the whole of London was in 1987 (my own record) from a site in Greenwich which was redeveloped shortly after I recorded the spider there. So really, this makes Cemetery Park the only known site for the species in London. Its habitat is culverts, mines and dark places, with humidity…
Michelle Lindson, Community Development Co-ordinator for the Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, writes: The ‘Nature and Us’ project has delivered community outreach work in the Shadwell, Aldgate East, Whitechapel and Wapping area since June 2018. The project was funded by Tower Hamlets Council when Section 106 contributions from development in Aldgate East were directed to community cohesion projects, such as ours. The majority of our work has been in Swedenborg Gardens, an important greenspace in a very built up area of Tower Hamlets. Our ‘journey’ in the park has been interesting and very difficult at times. We started by…
Hasib Hikmat of Olga Primary School writes: Thanks to a Tower Habitats grant from the Tower Hill Trust, Olga Primary School now has a pond. The work was completed during October half term, by a contractor supported by volunteers. The photo below is an aerial shot of the school before the pond works were started, with the area the pond has been dug highlighted by an orange circle. The pond has dipping platforms on each side (see photo above), designed to allow amphibians to shelter underneath. Buried stumps and stones around the pond provide further cover for amphibians. The area…