Yet more spring sightings!

A glorious walk upstream to Fletcher Moss yesterday, for tea and cake, yet again!
And we saw a small flock of swallows for the first time this year. This made me think that I'd made a good selection of a photo for this blog!
There was also a kestrel swooping over the river near Simon's Bridge.



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Location:Boat Ln,Manchester,United Kingdom

Friends of Chorlton Meadows: Grey to Green Taster Session, Chorlton Ees

Friends of Chorlton Meadows: Grey to Green Taster Session, Chorlton Ees Sat 2nd June!

Bird watching!

When I started this blog an wrote an initial review of our year's activities I did not anticipate writing another so soon, however Spring it seems is here.


On Friday morning (4th May) I saw some chicks for the first time this year. They were 2 Canada Geese goslings being shepherded carefully by a pair of adults, presumably their parents, from the island below the weir and up the left side of the weir to the pool above. When we went for a brief walk yesterday (7th May) the family was in the same area.
On our walk upstream to Fletcher Moss and back we saw 2 herons fishing from the banks. A goosander flew over our heads at one stage which reminded me that I hadn't seen one for quite a few weeks now. At one stage I saw a small group, mixed male and female, of up to 7 almost every morning.
 In the last few days I have had several sightings of herons around the weir.

When I sat down to write this I noticed that on the Friends of Chorlton Meadows blog Dave Bishop has written a post about the importance of appreciating and recording wildlife and a forthcoming event at Chorlton Ees on Sat 2nd June. You can read more about this on their blog - see my next brief post for a link!

A report

12 months work!

During the last year the committee has continued to work hard.
We started to go to the park about once a month to do some gardening – essentially a bit of tidying and a lot of weeding together with adding to the planting.
We have also been trying to find a way to keep the public toilets open for at least a few occasions – such as after school on nice days and when there are events, small or large in the park. This has proved difficult. Although MCC has been very cooperative, and indeed offered us a small grant to support us, they want us to take over total responsibility for the block which is something the we feel we don't have the resources to do – a shame as we put a great deal of our energies into this.
We were also given a grant by MCC for some improvements to the play area. In the late autumn a small slide was added to the clambering boulders as a part of this. We should also be able to replace the hammock which was vandalised and to add a carriage to the play train.
Distracted, perhaps, by the toilets project we only began to pay attention to the state of the play area surface in the last few months. We are trying to work with South Manchester Leisure to deal with this. The surface has deteriorated so that whilst the top surface is still smooth and clear the bouncy foam under this has become solid in parts. It is only 3 years old and we don't think that this should have happened so quickly.
A little while ago some of us started an oral history project. After a hiatus we were stimulate by having a stall in March 2012 at the Manchester Histories Festival we revisited our presentations of the project and have just placed these on an Oral History section of our website. I hope that it is interesting.
We are holding our annual AGM on Tuesday 19th June at 19.30 in St. Wilfrid's Church Hall. We are working on final arrangements for this and hope to have some interesting talks by speakers about the plants of the Mersey Valley and concerns about Manchester's open spaces and parks. I'll post more details, and a reminder, nearer the date! Please come along to support us and to become involved in our small group.
Although we have had a website from our inception keeping a running blog with up to date information is something which we have only just started (April 2012).