Due to heavy rains for the past month and the development of some wonderful plant growth, this secret little wildlife-friendly enclave to the south of Sainsbury’s carpark was flooding and making the footpath from Myers Croft to Gay Lane impassible.
OIB had been very much part of developing this little space so we put on the wellies and dug out the blockage on Remembrance Sunday. Hopefully, this will help drain out the local yards.
We last cleaned up this area in May 2013.
We counted the birds at Myers Croft Beck, Craven Street, Bremner Street and the Memorial Garden, all patches of land we have worked on, on 30th-31st Jan, a very cold, rainy weekend. We didn’t see any birds at Bremner Street. At Craven Street we saw 2 blue tits, 2 woodpigeons and 3 blackbirds in an hour. At Myers Croft Beck, near the entrance to the allotments, we saw 9 blackbirds, 3 blue tits, 1 sparrow, 2 magpies, 1 robin, 3 woodpigeons, 1 crow and 1 wren in an hour. At the Memorial Garden, 5 blackbirds, 1 sparrow and 3 pigeons were spotted. There are more birds in these little overlooked scraps of land than you might think, particularly blackbirds which seem to be everywhere.
We also counted birds in our gardens, and between us spotted 14 different species, including a pheasant, lots of blackbirds and pigeons, and most of the other common garden birds.
It’s the Big Garden Birdwatch on 30th-31st January. Organised by the RSPB, the idea is to count the wild birds that land in your garden or a local park for one hour on the 30th or 31st January. There’s a simple tick-box form to fill in and send off, for further details see the RSPB website.
We are hoping to count birds on some of the sites we’ve worked on or put bird boxes on, such as Bremner Street, Gasworks Corner, Craven Street, Myers Croft Beck, the Memorial Garden, weather permitting.
Spring is nearly here, so Otley in Bloom have been doing some spring cleaning – we’ve picked up litter from Bremner Street corner, around Myers Croft Beck, and at the garden outside HSBC, opposite the Post Office. Edie and Jacquie also did some weeding and planted some more primulas in the HSBC garden, where the bulbs are already beginning to show their leaves.
There’s an excellent new bridge (completely rebuilt thanks to Otley Town Council) over Myers Croft Beck, on the footpath behind Sainsburys that runs from Gay Lane to Myers Croft. A few Otley in Bloom members recently went to pick up litter there.
Otley in Bloom 