OOPS! I nearly forgot to thank Suke who has designed all of our flyers and taken many beautiful photographs for the club, sorry Suke. Look out for her next flyer some time in January with details of our February walk.

          Thankyou to everyone that came to celebrate the Poplar Naturewatch Club's first birthday yesterday, we spent a very pleasant couple of hours getting to know each other and planning the future of the Club, there was an eye catching display of photos of some of our adventures so far some taken by the children that have attended previous walks and some of the new equipment we have was on display too. We watched an inspirational dvd kindly lent to us for the occasion by Kenneth Greenaway from Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, we enjoyed food cooked for us by Nazma one of the ladies from the Burdett Centre and our birthday cake was a wonderful creation lovingly crafted by a lady named Val, it was almost too pretty to eat. A huge thankyou to those people for their contributions to making our birthday happen and of course the staff at Poplar HARCA for supplying the venue and man/woman power.
          The group decided that because of the coming holiday season and impending winter that we would meet for our first walk of the year on Saturday the 8th of February, we shall meet at the top of the Green Bridge that crosses Mile End Road at 12 pm and walk through Mile End Park along the Regents Canal into Victoria Park armed with monoculars, magnifying lenses and cameras, I will of course be reminding everybody nearer the time. It will be good especially for new nature watchers to get a look at the contrast of winter before everything bursts into new life in the spring, please join us even if you weren't able to make it before, next year holds lots of new discoveries for us, nature is never the same twice. Meanwhile I will still be out there with my dog Twiggs as often as possible and I'll let you know of my chance sightings and observations.

Birthday Celebration.

Well the countdown is on for our birthday celebration, I do hope you can join us this Saturday the 30th of November, 12 o'clock at the St Paul's Way Community Centre, come and see what we have been doing this past year and help to plan the year ahead. There will be photo displays of our adventures with nature, a hot drink and pasty and of course no birthday is complete without cake.

Join our 1st birthday Celebrations!

Where have all my intrepid nature watchers disappeared to? The last two walks have been very disappointing as nobody joined me! The Poplar Naturewatch Club is one year old next month and I can't celebrate alone, we will be holding an indoor event at St Paul's Way Centre at the end of next month to mark this milestone with a walk in the Cemetery Park after weather permitting, details will be posted shortly. Meanwhile there is still so much to see out there on any given day, the fungi are coming into there own right now and with less leaves on the trees our resident birds are getting easier to spot. Millwall Dock has a good amount of tufted ducks right now I spent a while feeding stale crumpets to them the other evening, unlike the coots and mallards these little ducks dive for their food the water is so clear there at the moment that it's easy to watch them, there is also an abundance of small fish and quite large pale crabs to watch out for.

Hello everyone, last months trip around Three Mills was abandoned due to the torrential rain we had but tomorrow is looking good so far. Please do come and join me at 2 pm, we'll be meeting outside Bromley by Bow tube station, learn a little of the history of Three Mills and see what we can spot in the way of wildlife, it's fungus season I've already spotted some interesting fungi.
We have also recieved another grant, this time from the Wakeham Trust, we'll have all the equipment we need for our different activities on future excursions, I'm very excited and have lots of adventures with nature in store for next year.

I have some wonderful news for our Naturewatch club, we have been given some money for reference books and a trip to Lee Valley Park with a ranger to guide us thanks to a generous donation by AJH Ashby and the hard work of Xanthe at Poplar HARCA, many thanks to them.
Please do come along and join us on the 24th of August when we visit Three Mills and surrounding area.

Hello friends and fellow nature enthusiasts, it's been such a busy month with all the green projects and summer fairs I'm afraid I've neglected you all yet again, my apologies. I do hope you can join me tomorrow Saturday July the 20th at 2 pm for another exploration of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, we'll be meeting outside the Soanes Centre as usual, please remember to bring water and sun protection the weather forecast is for slightly cooler weather but it will still be very hot, fortunately there are plenty of  large trees to offer us some welcome shade. The park will be looking very different from our last visit, I'm looking forward to seeing what it has to show us this time.

Our next nature walk is @ The Lea Valley on 24th August - Join Us!

Join us in July for some summer nature fun

I'm really looking forward to our walk this Sunday there's so much to see right now, trees and bushes are full of newly fledged birds and there appear to be plenty of insects and grubs for those hungry beaks. There are beautiful bursts of colour everywhere from all the plants cooming into bloom providing our bees with pollon and nectar and I'm expecting the ponds to be brimming with life, we will also be taking a look at the tiny but fascinating creatures that live in the bushes and trees.I do hope you can join me, the more eyes we have the more we're likely to spot.

Our next walk - Sunday 23rd June

It looks as though we're going to have typical Bank Holiday weather for our visit to Bow Creek on Sunday but a bit of rain or even snow hasn't put off our intrepid nature watchers yet, in fact adverse weather conditions are often when you get to see the unexpected and there is a place to shelter and plan our next walk if it gets too wet. I'm looking forward to introducing you all to Bow Creek Ecology Park, apart from being a very pretty place it is teeming with wildlife, it is the only place in London where I have spotted a bearded tit.
So wellies and macs on for Sunday, bring a sandwhich and drink if you'd like, we shall meet at 1pm by the bus stop outside HARCA head office at Chrisp Street and get a bus to Canning Town, please try not to be late, I shall bring pond dipping nets and monoculars. See you the nature watchers.

Join us for an adventure in Bow Creek on Sunday May 26th

Pond Dipping in Tower Hamlets cemetery Park - Saturday April 20th

Meet 2pm at Soanes Centre - just inside the cemetery park

Fran and I attended the City Bridge Trust Diamond Jubilee Growing Localities awards last evening at The Barbican. As Fran mentioned in our last post, Poplar Nature Watch Club (PNWC) got to the finals but we didn't win in the end. Though it's a shame to miss out on the funds, which would have helped the club grow, we could only celebrate those who did win. There were some truly inspiring projects - ones which had  managed to reach out and connect with their communities on a large scale.. PNWC offers its congratulations to all the winners - WELL DONE!

Exciting news.

A few months ago Nick Martin of Poplar HARCA's Green Network put our Naturewatch Club forward for the City Bridge Trust's Diamond Jubilee Programme, Growing Localities Awards, we were seconded by Kenneth Greenaway at Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park a huge thankyou to them both for believing in our little group we have made it to the short list! The awards ceremony will be on April the 11th at the Barbican Centre, if we are lucky enough to win we will be able to buy all the equipment our club needs for forthcoming adventures with nature, so fingers crossed everybody but even getting to the final is an achievement there were many entrants.

Mile End Ecology Ponds

Thankyou to the intrepid nature watchers who braved the weather to join me for a visit to the ecology ponds at Mile End Park today. We were fortunate that the rain eased off in time for us to try a little pond dipping, we didn't find very much just a few water snails, a small water beetle and a tiny fish, probably a stickleback, but spring is about to burst forth in a few weeks the trees and bushes have tiny buds all over them and some trees already have blossom. Of course we were accompanied by the calls of small birds constantly, they know spring isn't far off and are starting to pair up and find nest sites.

When we have our next walk on the 20th of April there will be a lot more wildlife to see, we have decided to revisit the Cemetery Park to see what has changed, the last time we were there it was covered in a layer of snow I suspect it will be bursting with new life. I look forward to seeing you there, we will meet at 2pm outside the Soanes Centre and I will bring the pond dipping gear, meanwhile remember to keep your ears and eyes open you can tell us about the wonderful things you have seen when we all meet again.

Pond Dipping March 16th 2013

Hello friends,

The second Naturewatch Walk on January the 19th was very well attended and we were treated to just the right amount of snow to make the Cemetery Park even prettier and as ever there were plenty of birds to make an appearance, green woodpecker, robin and wren to name just a few. We will be meeting again on the 16th of March at 2 pm outside Mile End tube and making our way to the ecology ponds in Mile End Park, just beside the Regents Canal and before Roman Road. We are going to try some pond dipping as well as watching for birds. If you are bringing small children please watch them carefully around the water, I can't swim! I'm looking forward to seeing you all for our next adventure, spring is in the air already and there are snowdrop, crocus and daffodils flowering on plenty of our green spaces and birds everywhere, in the last couple of days I have seen greenfinch, goldfinch and longtailed tit in respectable numbers. Keep your ears and eyes open there's so much to see, have fun.