Tadpoles, Trees, Toads and Time out!

Due to the unusually warm dry conditions for this time of year, green algae is becoming a problem in watercourses nationwide. The pools through the scrapes are beginning to suffer and barley straw bales have been placed in these areas to help reduce the growth of this unwelcome visitor! This amazing phenomenon was discovered by monks in medieval times (so Adam reckons)!

The algae doesn't seem to be having any negative affects on the pond life so far and the frog tadpoles have now hatched from the frogspawn and are gathered in large clumps feeding on the remaining jelly.

The Toads are still active and are extremely inquisitive.

Students from the Dales School enjoyed watching the Toads and looking for the ribbons of toadspawn in the water.

They also helped to finish planting the last few trees that were donated by the Woodland Trust.

This tiny frog was found amongst the newly planted trees. Too young to breed it seemed to be enjoying the sunshine! Several butterflies were on the wing today including Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock. Working amongst the Larch trees, the cones could be heard splitting open to release their seeds.

Volunteers were hard at work all day in the hot sun planting up the last trees from the Jubilee wildlife pack. At the end of the day the Royal Oak sapling was planted close to the heathland by the access road where everyone will be able to enjoy it and watch it grow to be as tall as the tree in the Royal grounds that its acorn fell from.

It even has a red, white and blue ribbon!

After such a busy day Hugh decided to have a well earned break!

Finally, raffle tickets are available in the Field Centre for this beautifully carved wooden hedgehog made by Jez Kalkowski. Tickets cost only £1 each.