This is where it gets very complicated..... There are actually 3 different TCV (The Conservation Volunteers) groups working in the Park this month. TCV BAT South are working for 3 more days (9th, 15th and 16th) and are coming over specially to plant trees in the Park. The new addition is TCV BAT North who used to be our regular group. They are based in Railway Fields near Harringay Green Lanes station. Their job was to start the laying of a hedge between the old racecourse and the cricket pitch. (left) The existing overgrown shrubby trees were cut back and layed. .... and what does BAT mean? Biodiversity Action Group.

A slideshow of what has been done.

Our usual TCV group, BAT East, worked this month on the 21st, 22nd, 27th and 28th. They did a lot of clearing around the settling pond area by Redston Field and cleared vegetation from the base of trees along the edge of the Redston Field as well as doing some crown lifting (picture left afterwards).

This is where it gets complicated..... There were actually 2 different TCV groups working in the Park this month. TCV BAT South are working for 3 days and have come over specially to plant trees in the Park and several trees have gone in, a Quince on the border of Redston Field and the old Racecourse and an Elm in the Redston Field (picture left), Indian Horsechestnuts, a Red Maple, a Swamp Cypress, a River Birch as well as several Oaks. They were helped by staff from the Palace - further dates to follow.

Our usual TCV group, BAT East, have worked for four days in the park this month clearing snowberry and cherry laurel from an area to the Southwest of the Paddock Car Park (above the Farmers' Market location on the Lower Path). Then several medium sized trees were removed from the area and a dead hedge constructed. At the same time a lot of the ivy and bramble was removed from the ground hoping to encourage the reappearance of wild flowers in this area. (picture).

TCV worked this month with the Friends group in the Spinney area of The Grove. The task being to clear some saplings and small trees and open up the area to more light and encourage wild flowers.

The wood generated is to be made into a protective fence around the area with corporate volunteers doing some work under TCV leadership.

While working in the area the Friends discovered a frog and TCV a toad (pictured). Both amphibians were recovered and left in peace.

TCV worked this month with the Friends group in the Butterfly Meadow with a specific job of removing encroaching brambles from the bottom of the field.

The warm weather was a pleasant for the work party this month, but after a while of energetically removing brambles it did cause a little tiredness, luckily the shade at the bottom of the meadow did help.

Good progress along the whole bottom section of the meadow leaving the area free for the soft grasses and wild flowers to continue to progress.

TCV worked around the Butterfly Meadow in the Park this month on the same day as the Friends' volunteers. TCV spent a good deal of time clearing some saplings along the edge of the Lower Path below the meadow.

Other jobs involved removing some leaves in the meadow itself as well as helping out with the bramble clearing (picture).

The weather was extra-ordinary for February with temperatures approaching 20 degrees.

For the last workday of the year, the volunteers were blessed with good numbers and set about clearing some of the self-seeded saplings in an area down (before picture) from the Gas Hut (near the Bedford Road entrance). Mostly Ash, Sycamore and Elder were removed on a sunny, quite mild, day.

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 theme for TCV work in August was the cutting back of the Cherry Laurel by Alexandra Palace Way near the entrance to The Grove. A first session of this hedge reduction had already been undertaken by corporate volunteers.

A lot of sawing and chopping took place and this will now allow a lot more light into the area. The removed branches were loaded up and removed by the Park Contractors, John O'Conner.

One of TCV's July jobs was to open up some hedgehog holes in the old Deer Enclosures. You may spot some of these small gaps in the fence....

TCV returned to The Grove to extend the line of new saplings planted. Field Maple, Hawthorn and Rowan were in the mix this time. Holes were dug, trees put in, holes filled and finally a generous watering was applied.

With this job done, the team moved down to the area above the access road to the Paddock Car Park where some leaning Poplars had previously been felled. Saplings of unwanted species were removed - Ash, Sycamore, Norway Maple and Poplars while Hawthorns, Elder and Blackthorn were left.

With limited numbers, we cleared a large section of bramble near the old Rifle Range in the Nature Conservation area. Ash saplings (many/most suffering from Ash Dieback) allow to promote more biodiversity.

Other trees/saplings in the area included Horse Chestnut, Oak, Hornbeam, Sycamore, Hawthorn, Alder Buckthorn, Goat Willow and Guelder Rose.

Of interest....Willow Gall seen on Goat Willow caused by a sawfly.

Before picture After picture

A different job in a different area of the Park this month..... In hot Summer weather we were happy to work mostly in the shade.

Our job was to clear some of the saplings of mostly Robinia and Elder underneath the large Black Locust tree below the Rose Garden.

They were cut up and then placed around a nearby dead Oak Tree to discourage people from approaching to closely. This should achieve its purpose when combined with the bramble growing around the old tree's base.

This is the final month on the Racecourse (February we were also there).

Another day of felling mostly Hawthorns and letting the light back in to the area. Unfortunately the weather was not so kind to us with a gentle application of Scotch Mist for most of the day.

A good little group of us from at least four different countries worked on sawing, snipping and tidying away the wood into hedges in the Conservation Area. Overall a job well done.

Down in the Ditch.

This month a small band of volunteers (The fewer men, the greater share of honour.God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.) cleared over half the ditch opposite the Nature Pond.

We removed vegetation in front of the ditch and a metre behind as well as clearing debris out of the ditch.

The weather was very kind to us and large swathes of vegetation disappeared very quickly. These pictures show part of what we cleared in classic before and after shots.

It is nice working here as we usually get plenty of favourable comments for the floods of passers by typically seen on a sunny weekend since the new path has been installed.

Joking apart the good weather maybe scared away some of our regulars - come help out next month, please!

If you prefer, here is a slide show of some of the progress during the day.

We were happy to meet new TCV leader, Trudi Wilkinson, who had come over from East London to lead the project.

A few large Poplar Trees had been felled in the Butterfly Meadow area and bramble chopped back prior to TCV arriving on the scene.

A good turnout of volunteers on a lovely sunny Sunday attacked the bramble above Alexandra Palace Way near the Bedford Road entrance. We cut back and down some of the bramble and then dug out roots with mattocks. This is to try and reduce the encroachment on the grassland. Also a little time was taken to start to finish off the Insect Hotel near the Gas Hut.

Construction of a new section of the Insect Hotel near the Bedford Road entrance was the project for September.

The new sections were sawn to length and a joined together. Behind the wall, the ground was excavated before the new structure was put in place.

The earth was slowly replaced being tamped down as it went. The new section is now in place ready to be filled with suitable habitat materials.

Good weather blessed our efforts.

During the morning the Friends of Alexandra Park passed by on a Members Walk to admire our progress.

Later, a Fungi Expert, Andy Overall who leads our Fungi Walks came by to photograph (pic) and log a nearby rare red fungus, Pluteus aurantiorugosus

This habitat was first created in September 2011 see report lower down this page.

Lovely sunshine for the volunteers and all Park Users. We continued the work by the drainage ditch opposite the Nature Pond. This time, we concentrated on removing roots of the brambles - hard work, but with tea, coffee and biscuits we enjoyed the day. Hopefully this will make a significant difference and make future work in the same area much easier.

A mixed-up day weather-wise with sun at first then cloud and even the odd hint of rain. The volunteers dismantled the Viewing Platform whose view had been obscured by the high fence with a view to a new construction possibly at slightly different location.

The main work, however, consisted of clearing vegetation away from the drainage channel near the Nature Pond. The main culprits were brambles and willow herb. Over half has now been cut back to last year's position. Lots of work was done and the tea and biscuits provided were most welcome.....

It was a beautiful sunny day and almost warm for TCV work on Sunday. We concentrated on removing more bramble below the middle path, but this time the emphasis was on digging out the roots of the brambles in as large an area as possible. Obviously this meant that not such a large could be covered, but there is the expectation that this will severely dent the regrowth of bramble in this area.

Cloudy to start to the day then we were blessed with sunshine for the November workday. The volunteers finished the opening up of the view of the Nature Pond. The section that we were working contained mostly hawthorn (treacherous thorns...) and guelder rose. This latter shrub has delighted us by giving us some great Autumn colour with its brightly coloured berries and reddening leaves.

Later we moved on to clearing some of the ditches nearby.

Again some of the stumps were removed to facilitate the work for next year.

Overcast with some sunshine was the ideal weather to continue the work started last month. A good turnout of volunteers on Sunday enabled us to clear a larger area of the growth in front of the Nature Pond. Sawing, lopping and slashing all done enthusiastically. A good safe distance was always needed (and was observed) when using the slashers!

This will grow next year, but hopefully with the additional work done it should be quicker work to repeat.

With a handful of enthusiastic volunteers, some of growth in front of the Nature Pond was cleared allowing the public to get a much better view. We were very pleased to hear a large number of positive comments from passers-by. Some late flowering purple loosestrife flowers now give a great display edging the pond to all that walk along the path. (Picture before clearance - come and see what it is like now!)

In May The Conservation Volunteers returned to the Blandford Hall area slightly widening paths and removing overhead obstructions. This is designed to make wooded area more accessible and safe giving better sightlines.

With the wood and greenery removed some sections of hedging were created (picture) to protect the wildflower area created earlier.

Work took place in the Blandford Hall area. Last year an area had been drastically thinned of smaller trees in order to encourage wildflowers. Volunteers cut back the re-sprouting trees and took out some holly to further promote the flowers. The dead hedge was also built up. The picture shows the profusion of garlic mustard flowers now blooming.

On a warm day, TCV cleared five varying sized areas of bramble in the Nature Conservation Area to create further areas for wild flowers while leaving the majority of the area for nesting birds. Different methods were used (pulling brambles up by the roots in one area and cutting down all the high vegetation in another). An eye will be kept to see how the areas progress.

TCV continued with the coppicing of willows by reservoir also removing some of the young willows growing up and stacking the wood by the reservoir. Also a start was made on repairing one of the viewing platforms.

In July, TCV worked on repairing, improving and protecting the insect hotel near the Bedford Road entrance.

The April working party created two new stag beetle loggeries to encourage these beetles and other invertebrates in the park. They are under the big Robinia between the Rose Garden and Blandford Hall Area.

Ten enthusiastic volunteers cleared scrub vegetation, and removed soil, to reveal the foundations for the old Lido along the footpath that runs alongside the reservoir.

They discovered that the remains are more substantial than had been thought, uncovering what looks like a concrete path along the wall.