Help us hunt for bugs!

Posted on August 18, 2020 by Kerry Hood

Have a look for bugs in our park!

Capture a pic on a smartphone and we can identify it and add it to the count!

We can’t hold our annual bug count this year, so we need you to send us pictures of all the bugs – butterflies, bees and all the other insects – that you can find on the park!

An Essex Skipper – found on this park for the first time this summer -can you see another?

A Gatekeeper Butterfly – there’s at least 6 of these in the meadow area, can you count more?

Small White Butterfly – you can tell it from the Large White, not by size (!), but because it only has grey wingtips, not black.

This pretty hover-fly is called a Dead Head hover-fly because there’s a black skull on it

Field hover-fly

White tailed bumble bee (worker) on a white bindweed flower

Red-tailed bumble bee (worker) on a Knapp Weed flower

Honey Bee on a Russian vine flower

Patchwork leafcutter bee – look for scallop-edged holes in leaves and flowers that this bee makes

A wool carder bee, she stores pollen on her tummy

A common carder bumblebee, they make cups for their larvae and stores out of hairs they shave from plant stalks

Some of the lovely wild flowers on our park

Posted on June 26, 2020 by Kerry Hood

Here’s some pictures of the wild flowers on our park. Although it can look like a large expanse of boring grass, if you look closer (and around the edges), there’s lots more to see!

Field poppies, a dandelion clock, plantain flowers and cow parsley

Exotic African birds arrive over Havelock Rec!

Posted on May 7, 2019 by Kerry Hood

This weekend the swifts arrived back over Havelock Rec. These African birds journey all the way to the UK to take advantage of our longer daylight hours to raise their families, and only stay until their youngsters leave the nest, before heading straight back to warmer climes.

swifts in the air over Havelock Rec

Our local RSPB group is looking for volunteers to help survey the local summer visitors, as their numbers have suffered a decline of over 50%: [see the RSPB page here].

The British Trust for ornithology has tracked their migrations [see the BTO page here] and it is an epic journey: over the notoriously stormy Bay of Biscay, across the Sahara, and all the way south of the equator:

migration path over Spain, Morocco, West Africa to Tanazania

BTO map of swift migrations from Fowlmere to Tanzania

Every day that a bird has a nest, and is going to-and-fro to it, increases the chances of becoming dinner for a predator, so the swifts decrease the amount of time their young are vunerable in the nest by coming north to the UK’s longer daylight hours. Swifts are very air dynamic but it means their legs are not very useful, so if you find one on the ground, they need to be thrown up in the air before they can fly away. Once they fledge, they spend about 2 years on the wing, even sleeping in the air. This means that they can’t help their young once they leave the nest, so they depart straight back to Africa.

It’s Snow Days in our Park!

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Kerry Hood

This is the weather where people will walk a long way for the nice safe slope in our park! Here’s some of our pics of this year’s snow days in our park!

And some more scenic pics:

Some nice pics of our park – can you send us some too?

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Kerry Hood

Here’s some nice pics around of our park, and we were wondering if you had some too? We (or our parent friends groups/forums) would then be able to use them for future posts on social media, if that’s ok. We think our park is ace and want to show off how great it is!

collage of photos of Havelock Rec

S.O.S – Save our Swifts

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Kerry Hood

Bromley Swift Survey from the Bromley RSPB

How many swifts are nesting near you?

Swifts have been nesting in our buildings for centuries and have been a common sight performing their aerial acrobatics over our borough’s towns in the summer. They spend the rest of their year in Africa.

Unfortunately, their numbers are in severe decline. Between 1995 and 2015 the UK lost more than half its swifts. Numbers appear to have fallen even more in Bromley over the same period.

The RSPB believes that loss of nest sites is at least partly responsible. Due to our tendency to seal up buildings during renovation or knock them down, swifts are returning to discover their nest site has gone or access is blocked.

Action is urgently needed to prevent swifts becoming extinct in Bromley.

We are running a Bromley Swift Survey between May and July this year to discover where they are still nesting. We need to find this out quickly so that action to provide nesting spaces can be targeted in the right areas.

No knowledge of swifts or previous experience of doing surveys is needed. It will be really simple and easy, and help will be available if needed, for example on how to identify a swift.

We will ask participants to go for a short walk along the streets near to where they live or another location of their choice. A balmy summer’s evening would be best as the swifts will be most active then. The walk should be repeated at least once a month between May and July – so a total of three short walks. The participant would make a note of any swifts they see flying at rooftop level as this means that the birds will be nesting nearby.

It would be great if you could take part. The more people who join in the better as we will build a more detailed picture of Bromley’s swift population.

To take part in the survey or find out more information you can either:

email our Group’s Recorder Peter Smart on bromleyrspbrecords@gmail.com
call the Group on 07392 790 719.

RSPB Bromley Local Group

We have TREES and we’re going to plant !

Posted on October 14, 2015 by Kerry Hood

brickfield_rebeccas_planting_poster e

We’ve arranged two planting sessions to put in all the little trees we’ve been sent! The sessions are on Monday (14th) and Saturday (16th December), and they’re also on Facebook here and here)

It will be exciting to see our plans to add diversity to our park actually take shape, and for our collective effort to make a little change for generations to come.

Our packs include h 15dec05_7925_hedge_whips_etc olly, hawthorn, dog rose and hazel from the Woodland Trust, and Wayfaring tree, guelder rose, and dogwood (among others) from OVO energy. For the entrance on Homesdale Road, we’ve also got some ornamental dogwood.

The hedge is following expert recommendation, this hedge will enhance the biodiversity value of our park, not just with the little trees themselves, but by providing food and (when bigger) homes for our bats, bumble bees and birdlife. They will also give shelter for other plants brickfield_hedge_wildlife col and flowers that insects, like butterflies and grasshoppers, will love.

This is one of our projects to help us, as a community keep our park, as it provides a visible sign how much it is valued and used by the community. If you have any ideas you have for our park, please feel free to fill in the survey (http://friendsofhavelockrec.org/our-action-plan/)or just email us:

bird box making on Saturday!

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Kerry Hood

We had a great time painting bird boxes and making insect feeding stations and insect hotels!

Even the weather smiled on us! Many thanks to Emma for organising the event, and Caroline and Sandy for helping her, especially as Sandy didn’t feel very well. Sandy and Emma also worked out how to make insect hotels and feeding stations (I’d never heard of either!)

Mark has very kindly collected suitable, untreated, wood for us from The Mayflower project (they are rebuilding the famous ship) in Harwich:

“I’ve got the back of the car full of offcuts from The Mayflower in Harwich. Loads of nice untreated oak for bat, bird and bug boxes.” (FB post, 11th July)