http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/ en-us Nucleus CMS v3.32 � Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/ http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=271
June marks the launch of the Islington Garden Wildlife Survey 2010. Anyone with a garden whether it’s a community or private space, balcony or even a window box, can take part in helping us gather information about the wildlife that visit them.

Gardens are very important in that they support a huge diversity of wildlife and they contribute to our own health and well-being. Without these refuges from the hustle and bustle of the city living, both wildlife and our own quality of life would be much poorer.

The survey first ran in 2008 and had a great response which generated over 1,460 wildlife sightings. These included a number of the usual suspects including foxes, blue tits and ladybirds, but also a number of our less frequently-spotted species including the hedgehog.

This year is ‘international year of biodiversity’ which celebrates our natural environment and the wildlife it supports, by asking everybody to do one thing to help their local wildlife and natural environment. So please complete Islington’s Wildlife Garden Survey and help the Council build a picture of the wildlife that relies on our garden spaces.

All you need to do is complete the survey once, at any point during June, July or August and return it to the Islington Ecology Centre by Friday 3 September 2010. There is also an opportunity to win a £25 gift voucher and something for your garden visitors.

To take part either visit www.islington.gov.uk/wildlifesurvey or contact Islington Council on 020 7527 4462.

]]> General http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=271 Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:20:41 -0500 http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=270 www.foodfromthesky.org.uk

We understand that visitors can climb the stairs and inspect the vegetables themselves, your editor will be doing this as soon as possible. What a fantastic effort from all the eager gardeners, and from Budgens who are happy to have people gardening on their roof and have not come up with a load of reasons why the project would not be possible. Please go and have a look and do your shopping at Budgens who are trying very hard to make their business environmentally sustainable and who have been in their building for decades longer than the two other (much bigger) supermarkets who have moved in alongside to steal their trade.
]]> General http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=270 Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:16:28 -0500 http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=269
In particular, right now in our neck of the woods, they are looking for a community group to take on some container vegetable growing in a paved area belonging to the Goodinge Health Centre, 20 North Road, N7 9EW. It is a long, narrow space to the side of the building, separated from the pavement by a 3.5 foot wall. Currently there is no funding available from Capital Growth, but there may be some later in the year. If you think you can collect a few neighbours and present yourselves as a community group please contact Seb Mayfield by May 25th at:
seb@sustainweb.org or call: 020 7837 1228 . The Capital Growth website is: http://www.capitalgrowth.org/

If the location is not near enough to your home, but you are looking for somewhere to grow food please contact Seb anyway as he may know of other possible locations.

Finally, in our April 2010 Newsletter now in the website Library, we have an article about the flourishing - and new - St Luke's Community Garden. Please read it and be encouraged.]]> General http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=269 Thu, 20 May 2010 10:06:24 -0500 http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=268
As well as being a plant which supports the caterpillars of a number of our most stunning butterflies, nettles contain anti-inflammatories and natural painkillers, and can be made into delicious risottos and soups (please see Library page for a recipe from the Archway herbal clinic and remember to wear gloves when gathering the nettle tips and avoid nettles besides busy roads!).]]> General http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=268 Thu, 20 May 2010 08:52:50 -0500 http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=267
http://www.islington.gov.uk/inbloom/

]]> General http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=267 Fri, 7 May 2010 06:34:50 -0500 http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=266 null null]]> General http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=266 Mon, 5 Apr 2010 18:43:39 -0500 http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=265 Islington Council have launched a new wildlife blog to celebrate nature in Islington. A large amount of wildlife lives in the Borough and a lot is happening every day in our natural environment as the seasons change. The blog will keep you up to date with what our birds, pond life and other wildlife are doing as well as telling you about our trees, plants and the habitats that exist in Islington.


http://www.islingtonwildlife.typepad.com/blog/
]]> General http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=265 Fri, 5 Mar 2010 11:06:34 -0600 http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=264
Original Photograph (Sue Lees):

null

Photoshopped version:

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This is a mega-rarity in Britain, with only 2 definite records, and extremely rare in western Europe (probably fewer than 40 records). Although the photo is rather unclear, most of the distinctive plumage features of an adult male Red-throated Thrush are visible, including the brick-red throat and breast with the red extending onto the head as a supercilium (stripe above the eye) and below the cheek; the crown and upperparts look dark greyish, and the rufous red of the breast is clearly demarcated from the whitish lower breast and belly, which appears to have a few smudgy grey streaks. The rufous undertail is hard to make out (the upper tail too should have rufous outer feathers, and in flight it may have been possible to see the rufous underwing coverts (nearest the body) rather like a Redwing's).

Unfortunately the original photograph is not the best quality, and there are other suggestions: an aberrant blackbird or fieldfare, or even a robin-blackbird hybrid (which Jonathan Elphick reckons is most unlikely, as both have been kept as cagebirds or in aviaries, but robins have rarely been bred to one another in captivity, let alone to blackbirds, and he could find no record of natural hybridisation in the wild, either in a search of the scientific literature or on the major online database of avian hybrids, which contains 3,143 unique bird hybrids from 1,950 references).

So the matter rested, until today (Wednesday 17 February), when the original spotter encountered the bird AGAIN, this time twenty feet up in a spindly conifer at the edge of the Philip Noel-Baker Peace Garden in Elthorne Park, Hornsey Road, N19, a quarter of a mile or so away from the original location. The day was bright and sunny, the bird looked blooming, with his red-brown chest and neck burnished in the sun and against a bright blue sky. He has obviously done well in the many trees and woody patches in the locality. He had departed before a camera could be obtained and so there is no photograph of this second sighting. It would appear that time in Elthorne Park and the adjacent Sunnyside Gardens (where they manage the site with wildlife very much in mind) would be repaid by a further sighting of this beautiful fellow. If anyone sees this bird, and even better, takes a photograph, please send it in to Susan(at)lees.org.uk and we will put it on the website, and send it in to the London Rarities Committee, as the original photograph is not adequate. It would be great to get a really sharp photograph of this intriguing bird to confirm his identity, and meanwhile, just consider the roller-coaster of excitement that wildlife-friendly gardening can give you and go out and plant some berry-bearing bushes or trees!


]]> General http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=264 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:29:12 -0600 http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=261 http://www.savefortisgreenallotments.com/

]]> General http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=261 Wed, 3 Feb 2010 11:54:02 -0600 http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=260 www.riverofflowers.org/
]]> General http://www.islingtongardeners.org.uk/new/index.php?itemid=260 Tue, 2 Feb 2010 17:29:34 -0600