Our relocation to Headingley Campus last December presented the opportunity to enjoy a daily walk to work from Kirkstall through a variety of green spaces and up through Beckett Park to the Grange. Walking the same route everyday makes you much more aware of the effects of seasonal change.
Despite the wintry weather that greeted our move, Beth and I wasted little time in making the most of our new location and donned our wellies for our nature walks through the adjacent woodland.
It's satisfying how quickly you become accustomed to the sights and sounds and during our first nature walk a familiar tapping in the treetops was deftly located and identified as a Great Spotted Woodpecker. Result! They’re regularly seen in this part of the woodland but a sighting never fails to raise the spirits.
Winter saw the landscape transformed with snow and ice. The beech saplings retained their paper thin autumn leaves throughout, and provided a picturesque backdrop for the feathered residents of the wood.
With the coming of Spring, my favourite sights included the emerging downy Beech leaves and flowers, also the Willow catkins in the hedgerows near Headingley train station and in the gardens of South Lodge that attract bees and butterflies, the early springtime pollinators.
Spring gradually transforms the stark landscape of Queens Wood, with its bare branches and dead brambles into a world of verdant foliage. Patches of native bluebells temporarily carpet the ground.
Summer saw the butterflies arrive in force, Speckled Woods in the dappled clearings, whilst Meadow Browns, Peacocks, Ringlets, and Commas preferred areas such as the tall grassy patches to the right of the Grange which are specifically left uncut by the Estates Team to provide habitats for wildlife.
Towards the end of August, the combination of sun and rain brought out an abundance of weird and wonderful fungi on Beckett Park grassland and underneath the Beech canopies.
The marquee is currently being constructed on the Acre and later this week we welcome our new and returning students. This will be our first autumn at Headingley Campus, despite the prospect of having to dig out a fleece and gloves to wear on my daily walk, I’m looking forward to seeing the campus and surroundings take on an autumnal hue and to the forthcoming events associated with this particular season.
Find out more about the Grounds & Woodland Management at our university, and includes details of the Biodiversity Action Plan 2006 - 2016. The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is a great source of information about places and activities in the region.
Bye for now
Linda
