The Friends of Raleigh Park

Boxing Day Walk 2023 was on 26 December

CONDUIT STONE
Areas restored by BBOWT, OCC, and the Freshwater Habitats Trust
ROMAN ROAD
New steps
Mulled wine at the Viewpoint
Blackthorn stands (brown hairstreak butterfly eggs)
Bird feeders
Location of noticeboards (to be installed in 2024)
Carol's Tree

Brown Hairstreak egg hunt


Brown Hairstreak Egg

Brown Hairstreak Egg

Our annual hunt for the eggs of the rare brown hairstreak butterfly took place on Monday 15th January at the bottom of the Park, by the big gates to Harcourt Hill, where most of the Park's blackthorn bushes are concentrated. For those who have time and energy, there is the option of continuing the hunt at the top of Harcourt Hill, on the blackthorn bushes by the bridleway.

We located and tagged at least 10 egg sites with twelve eggs, plus some eggs from a different species.

Butterfly Conservation are keeping track of the numbers of this rare butterfly

GroWet project

We hosted an event with the Freshwater Habitats Trust on December 2 2023 GroWet project to plant out the bog plants Common cotton-grass, Ragged Robin, Flea Sedge and Marsh Arrowgrass mostly in holes made by cattle hooves in both the areas raked. The plants are marked by flags.

Path construction


Building steps
In Spring 2023 Oxford Conservation Volunteers installed new wooden stone filled steps on the path down to the pond from the Raleigh Park Road side. Due to the groundwater seepages on the slope here, this area gets very wet and almost impassable, leading to damage to the peat and the fen either side. Constructing an all-weather path floating on the peat will protect the fen and also improve the experience for park users. Oxford City Council and the ODS have kindly agreed to pay for the materials.

New house building next to Raleigh Park

The planning application to develop land owned by the Warburg family on Yarnells Hill, which adjoins the Raleigh Park fen and the Long South Western Tongue was objected to by the Oxfordshire Badger Group, the Chairman , the ecologist Judy Webb and the City among many others who have responded in full to this planning application for the building of houses next to and in the catchment area of Raleigh Park in a position below the level of the main sewer.

The Vale of White Horse Councillors overruled the Officer recommendation to grant planning and instead unanimously voted to refuse planning consent for the 3 houses that had been proposed to be constructed on the slope immediately above the fen. Had this development gone ahead it would have posed a serious threat to the quantity and quality of groundwater and set a dangerous precedent for cumulative damage to the fen's groundwater catchment which could have seen the end of this lovely and rare Alkaline Fen. Thank you for all your support in resisting this development and writing to oppose it.


Volunteer work party Feb 2022

AGM 2022 (by Teams)

The Chairman gave his report for the year. Adam Bows reported that work parties with volunteers to rake hard rush previously cut by the Parks Dept. was successful and fencing to keep the cattle off the fen while the orchids were in flower had been installed. He gave a presentation on the excellent progress in the rewetting of the fen.

Wild flower seed collected by Judy Webb has been sown. 430 common spotted orchid flower spikes had been counted.

Clive Smith gave a nest box report. Of the 11 boxes checked all had been used and had not been damaged by squirrels or woodpeckers thanks to the installation of metal plates reinforcing the entrance holes. The nests were bagged for Linda Losito to examine for invertebrates. The bird feeder was well used.

Barbara Witkowski presented the successful work of the Oxford Badger group doing badger vaccination.

OCC have resited the dog poo bin which partially blocked the Raleigh Park Road entrance and will pay half towards the Oxford Volunteers installing a gravel path down a muddy incline. They have not yet installed a proposed bench at a viewpoint.

Two signboards funded by the Friends are to be installed by the OCC at entrances to the site. A further one is planned when funds permit.

AGM Thursday 11 November 2021 (by Zoom)

The Chairman presented his Chairman's report and the accounts

Andy Gunn (BBOWT) reported on Wild Oxford. No volunteer sessions could take place due to the Covid-19 epedemic and the resulting financial constraints. However Community Group Team Wilder was launched by BBOWT to provide training for leadership roles in work parties for volunteers.

Wild flower seed collected by Judy Webb has been sown.

Adam Bows reported that a work party was planned with volunteers to rake hard rush previously cut by the Parks Dept. Creeping thistle and bullrushes need also to be pulled out. He gave a presentation on the fungi in the Park and reported that works to rewet the fen downstream of the pond have been successful and his study of the outcomes of the Wild Oxford initiative shows the benefit to the wildflowers and wildlife. Julian Cooper wrote to suggest the Parks Dept would trial cattle neck vibrators to keep them away from sensitive areas such as orchids in flower.

Clive Smith gave a nest box report. Of the 14 boxes initially erected three had blue tit and 5 great tit nests. The nests were bagged for Linda Losito to examine for invertebrates. She found fleas and body parts of weevils and click beetles. One weevil, Grypus equiseti, is a specialist on horsetail plants. One bag contained 7 live sap beetles, Soronia grisea, which must have been trying to hibernate.

The bird feeder was well used.

Swifts find it difficult to find holes for their nests and Clive has also made nest boxes for placement under the eaves of people's houses to help them.

Barbara Witkowski presented the successful work of the Oxford Badger group in the Raleigh Park badger vaccination report . The video shows a badger after inoculation. She reported that there could be no badger cull of vaccinated badgers.

The Freshwater Habitats Trust funded an invertebrate survey . They also funded the work done in rewetting the fen involving constructing leaky dams, filling in the ditch, digging ponds and clearing scrub.

OCC are to draw up a management plan for the Park in collaboration with interested parties and will lead eight work parties next year. They replaced the wooden gates with metal ones and will resite the dog poo bin which partially blocks the Raleigh Park Road entrance.

The Friends contributed to a bench erected in memory of Sue Cassettari who had given a presentation to the Friends with Jenny Miller (Forest School Leaders, North Hinksey Primary School) on Forest School Learning.

Jubilee

We had a stall by the Botley shops in the Jubilee celebrations on Saturday afternoon, 4 June 2021, 2-6pm with a display and Clive Smith showed some of his bird boxes.

AGM Thursday 24 September 2020 (by Zoom)

The Chairman's Report and a report on Wild Oxford were given by Stephen Parkinson. Adam Bows reported on the increase in wild flowers this year. and Carol Kramer reported the success of spreading ox-eye daisy seed and planting wildflowers such as wild liquorice raised from seed.

Clive Smith gave the nest box report.

The work of the Oxford Badger Group on badger vaccination was received from Barbara Witkowski. Julian Cooper reported that there would be no badger cull on City land.

A full report from the Freshwater Habitats Trust was received from Eleanor Mayhew. The range of mammals and birds at various sites including the Park was identified by their environmental DNA signatures.

An application for funding for accessibility improvements by Adam Bows with Michael Woods (Parks Support Officer) providing the information and planning required to TOE (Trust for Oxfordshire?s Environment) was unsuccessful. Julian Cooper indicated that the City had materials to construct paths and boardwalks to the pond and round the fen and a dipping platform with disabled access at the pond.

David Brown and Stephen Parkinson reported on the Viewport Signage project. The spires visible from the viewpoint in the Park have been identified and signage similar to that on other Wild Oxford Sites costed. Crowdsourcing is envisaged as a way to raise a portion of the funding required.

Adam Bows described his research project in the Park.

Judy Webb

Congratulations to the indefatigable Judy Webb for her inclusion in the Woman's Hour Power List. A just recognition of all her work for wildlife, wetlands and Wild Oxford.

Articles

The work of the Friends has been described in articles in the Sprout local magazine: Sprout article Dec 2018 and Sprout article Oct 2019 (Stephen Parkinson).

The Oxford Theatre Guild filmed the Forest of Arden scenes in Shakespeare's "As you like it" in the Park in summer 2020.

2019 AGM

The 2019 AGM was on Thursday 12 September 2019 at the Pavilion, Arnolds Way.

SPEAKERS:

Wild Oxford (Andy Gunn)

Chairman's AGM Report (Stephen Parkinson)

Wildflowers (Carol Kramer, Adam Bows)

Nestboxes (Clive Smith/Stephen Miller)

Butterfly AGM Report (Barbara Witkowski)

Butterfly surveys (Barbara Witkowski)

Badger Vaccination (Barbara Witkowski)

Bats(David Brown)

Freshwater Habitats Trust (Eleanor Mayhew)

Accessibility improvements (Michael Woods/Julian Cooper/Adam Bows)

There were around 20 Friends present who enjoyed the presentations and a glass of wine.