Welcome to Alexandra Park in North London
Alexandra Park is a delightful mixture of informal
woodland, open grassland, formal gardens and attractions such as the boating
lake, cafés and the pitch-and-putt course. It covers 196 acres around Alexandra Palace in North London. The Friends of Alexandra Park is a voluntary group that promotes the use of the Park, encourages the conservation of its wildlife and protects the Park from unwanted development.
 We are very pleased to hear that Alexandra Park has retained not only its Green Flag and Heritage Awards for 2018, but has received silver gilt awards in the Large Park (over 25 acres), Large Conservation Area and Heritage Garden categories from London in Bloom. This is due to the effort of the Park Manager, Mark Evison, the Trust's staff and volunteers, the Park Contractors, John O'Conner and ourselves! Picture courtesy the Park and Palace Trust.  Friday, 2nd and Saturday, 3rd November Tickets are on sale for the Fireworks Festival in the Park with further events in the Palace itself. For more details see the dedicated website. Some surrounding streets will be closed to general traffic on Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd November with resident access only. Friends Upcoming Events
Autumn Tree Walk Saturday, 20th October 2pm to 3:25pm  We will look at the diverse collection of trees separating the old Park Boundary from Hornsey Recreation Ground (now the Redston Field). Meet in Redston Field by the Park Avenue North entrance. No Booking Required. Fungi Walk Saturday, 10th November 2pm to 3:33pm  On the Spring Fungi walk, we encountered Stinkhorns in Rose bed wood chippings which can seen from Spring to Autumn. Check out this link to take you to reports of earlier walks. This is one of our most popular events so booking will be required. This will be open about a week before the event at which time the meeting point will be confirmed. Talk: The Plight of the Bumblebees Wednesday, 14th November 7:30pm for 8pm  "The Plight of the Bumblebees" is the title of the talk. The challenges facing our bumblebees will be highlighted and also some advice will be given on how we can help to safeguard the future of these important pollinators. We will meet up for a drink and a chat from 7:30pm with the talk starting at 8pm promptly. Conservation Work Party Wednesday, 21st November 10am to 12:30pm  The trees will be barer maybe allowing us to see any birds a bit more easily although don't expect any butterflies... Do join us if you are free. No special skills required; enjoy exercise, plenty of fresh air and good conversation. Bring gardening gloves and secateurs if you have them, but if not we have a variety of tools you can use. We usually work from 10 am to 12.30 pm, but come for as long as you want. Meet at the Butterfly Meadow, if you know it, or at the finger post where the path from North View Road meets the Lower Road at 10 am. Friends' Recent Past Events
October Conservation Work Party  On the work front, there was more cutting back of the grass which some people enjoyed (picture) and others were rooting out the bramble on another lovely sunny day. Members' Walk: Plant Galls  We looked first at Pear Rust in the Railway orchard - orange colouration on one side and a strange growth on the other, a gall caused by a fungus. The party then moved off to leave The Grove and cross Alexandra Palace Way. We observed a gall on the ash keys of a Golden Ash which were caused by mite and then proceeded to look at the first of many galls on oak all caused by gall wasps, the first was a spangle gall on the leaves. Some of the other galls seen on oak leaves were oyster galls, smooth spangle galls and silk button galls. Gall on the acorn was found knopper gall and one on the acorn cup caused by Andricus grossulariae. Away from the oaks, there was a mite gall caused by Aceria macrochela on Field Maple and one caused by a midge, Iteomyia capreae on a willow. We finished the walk looking at a couple of mite galls on a willow on the South Slope. The willow red bean gall and one caused by Aceria tetanothrix. After the official end, we passed by a Silver Maple and saw the mite galls pictured left. A special thank you to Kate who spotted the marble galls... A list of the galls found and a little extra information can be found via this link. September Conservation Work Party  Previous Conservation Work Party days Bat Watch A warm day, followed by clear skies after sunset, are ideal conditions for bat watching, and we had just those conditions for the bat watch at the Boating Lake. After a short explanation from Gordon of the anatomy and habits of the bats we were going to see, bursts of clicks from the bat detectors alerted us to their arrival. Then it was easy to see the bats zig-zagging over the water, and our heads, searching for their ‘breakfast’ of flies. New technology helped us to decide that there were definitely soprano pipistrelle bats present, as well as the common pipistrelles, but still no sign of the Daubenton’s bat which we hope to see skimming across the lake. The Conservation Volunteers
September 2018 The Conservation Volunteers helped out in the Butterfly Meadow this month cutting back huge swathes of bramble from where it has been encroaching. This help is invaluable and will help to further boost the number of butterflies in this beautiful, quiet area of the Park. The next conservation session in the Park will be on Wednesday, 31st October. Meet at 10am. To book or for more information contact Tom Nandi our BAT East Project Officer, email t.nandi@tcv.org.ukor call on Tel: 07917 267 573.
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