Caring For The Community – 27 Oct 23

The majority of owners who walk their dogs in Hagg Wood are very responsible and clean up after their pets, but sadly there is someone who wants to spoil it for the majority by smearing dog poo on the Welcome To Hagg Wood information board.

News Update – November 2023

Autumn is such an interesting time for our woodlands and wildlife. By now there will have been a dramatic display of fungi. Previous fungal forays organised by FOHW have counted in the teens of different species. There will be a gradual lessening of mammal activity although only hedgehogs, dormice and our native bats actually hibernate. Presumably the grey squirrel will be returning to my garden to dig up the food it has buried in my lawn.

Bird migration is often not so obvious in the autumn as it is in spring, with summer visitors ‘disappearing’ gradually, often without notice. Winter visitors tend to arrive over a longer time period and are not in such a rush as spring migrants; the urgency of the breeding season is not there. It’s a really exciting time though, with winter thrushes, flocks of geese and swans arriving and the dispersal of raptors to their wintering grounds. As early as late September skeins of Pink-footed geese were appearing in the sky over York as they arrived from Iceland and Greenland. Not all winter arrivals are as obvious as Fieldfares and Redwings, as some of our resident bird populations (e.g. Starlings) are boosted by flocks from Scandinavia.

Our Autumn Programme continues on Thursday 23^rd November at 2.30 p.m. in the Dunnington Reading Room when Nick Hall from Butterfly Conservation will give us an illustrated presentation on the butterfly population of Yorkshire. After a break of several years we will be holding our New Year Lunch at Dunnington Sports Centre on Sunday January 14^th. Please make a note in your diaries. Further details will follow in December’s Grapevine and be posted on our website.

We are planning to hold our next Conservation Working Parties on Saturdays 11^th November and 9^th December, meeting at the Wood end of Hagg Lane at 10 a.m, but email davidmays10@gmail.com for the final details or if you need a lift. All equipment will be provided and we usually work through to 1pm, though you are very welcome even if you can only stay for an hour or two.