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.
Friends Upcoming Events
Talk: Biodiversity in Haringey: future plans, projects and opportunities Wednesday, 20th February 7:30pm for 8:00pm  Join us for refreshments from 7:30pm with the talk starting at 8pm prompt. Space is limited, so please email allyparkn10@gmail.com to book places and we will reply, letting you know the venue. Conservation Work Party Wednesday, 27th February 10am to 12:30pm  We expect to further cut back the bramble and remove roots which should dramatically reduce any regrowth. Spectators are expected with Robins ready for any ready meals of worms revealed by our work. No special skills required; enjoy exercise, plenty of fresh air and good conversation. Please bring secateurs if you have them, but we have extras 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 Events
Members' Walk: Winter Trees  One of the Winter ID tricks was looking at the bare twigs and seeing if the buds are in opposite pairs up the stem or not. Most are not (they are on alternating sides), however, ash, horse chestnut and maples are "opposite" and this can be could clue to Winter tree ID. The ash has noticeably black buds and the horse chestnut large sticky buds. So a ID of the Horse Chestnut outside the PVC and the ash tree further down was successfully made.  Walking on to look at some Redwood trees first we spied the three Dawn Redwoods by Alexandra Palace Way which are one of a small group of deciduous conifers (those that lose their leaves in the Winter). The most well-known of this group being the Larch of which we have 0 examples in our Park. The Giant Redwood (evergreen) further along had kindly dropped some cones on the floor and we were able to spot the characteristic "lips" on those cones. (First picture taken here.) We passed by the small Monkey Puzzle Tree before walking down to inspect the poplars (white and aspen) that will soon be putting on an early Spring display. From the Lower Path, we energetically climbed the hill, admiring flowering hazel and spotting the difference between Oriental and London Plane trees - the former has commonly 3 fruit balls dangling whereas the latter has usually just one or two. Up top the Cornelian Cherry was just starting to open its yellow flowers and we finished by the Purple Plums below the BBC tower which are breaking into flower. (second picture) Talk: Everything, but the Ants  Highlights included pointing out some of the more unusual butterflies that have been attracted to the area in the last couple of years including the Marbled White, Brown Argus (left) and Silver-washed Fritillary. The talk finished off with a look at the Beetles (chewing mouthparts) and Bugs (piercing mouthparts). The colourful Rose Chafer beetle was an attractive metallic green beetle, but to end the talk, we looked at the Parent Bugs (a type of shield bug)  We followed the life cycle of the insect from the adults mating, the female protecting its eggs and the young and how the nymphs grow in stages into the adult form.  The work included further bramble and sapling removal. Also blackthorn on the edge of the area was further trimmed in order to promote regrowth and provide both habitat for birds and to give more opportunities for encouraging the Brown Hairstreak butterfly to come and breed in the Park. No sign of any flowers in bloom this month, just catkins growing on the Alder tree. By next month, there should be the first signs of   With a healthy band of volunteers supported by the last of the mulled wine and mince pies, we set out our stall for selling our calendars and promoting the Friends. We sold 5 calendars in the first half hour and continued at this rate selling out our remaining stock of calendars and more (49) by the end of the day. This is a first for us and we  One small point of dispute among the calendar sellers. Some were upset that being near the Giggly Pig stall made them hungry and others were vegetarian and..... We have re-ordered 50 calendars for delivery by the end of the week - many of which have already been taken. So if you need a copy, please email us ASAP. The Conservation Volunteers
December 2018  The resulting wood was made into posts in order to construct a small section of dead hedge. After the two lines of posts were knocked in (luckily the ground was quite forgiving) thinner, longer pieces of wood were weaved in between the posts. Finally the middle was filled with the rest of the wood along with some ivy. The next conservation session in the Park will be on Wednesday, 27th February. 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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