This afternoon the Lofthouse 2000 Brass Band gave a very good concert on the Village Green as part of Leeds City Council’s Summer Bands in Leeds Parks series.
Friends of Adel Woods took the opportunity to do a bit of schmoozing and spread the word about the work we do in Adel Woods.
It was the first time yours truly had put up the gazebo for four years and we owe a debt of gratitude to the Daddy Kool Ice cream man for helping us put it up in windy conditions!
Fortunately, apart from the odd strong gust of wind, it was a lovely relaxing afternoon and we enjoyed meeting up with and chatting with Friends old and new.
Barbara also joined us to tell people about Alwoodley Walkabout walking group.
If you would like to know about Friends of Adel Woods or Alwoodley Walkabout, send us an email or add a comment to this post.
Lofthouse 2000 Brass Band on Alwoodley Village Green
A beautiful June morning and another great turn out of twelve Friends of Adel Woods, including four new volunteers.
Most of us met with David Preston, our local ranger, at 10 am in Buckstone Road.
Four of us set off litterpicking, starting at the Village Green and the main road near Tesco’s, and then heading along Crag Lane to the picnic area. We had another regular Friend doing some freelance litterpicking too.
The rest of us joined David in working on Adel Moor – pulling up bracken, rosebay willowherb, brambles and saplings.
The reason we do this is to preserve what is the last piece of moorland in Leeds which is also home to a precious colony of viviparous lizards. We haven’t seen any for a couple of years, but I am pleased – and excited – to say that today we had two separate sitings!! We didn’t get a photograph – as they are very quick and secretive creatures, but the photo below is one we took in April 2014.
Viviparous or common lizard found on Adel moor in April 2014
You may notice that the lizard in the photo has a truncated tail. This is because, if threatened by a predator, a viviparous lizard can shed its still-moving tail to distract the predator and escape. This is called “autotomy”, which is Greek for “self-cut off”.. I am pleased to say that in this instance the autotomy was due to some previous encounter, not the result of FOAW’s intervention, and the lizard can grow a new tail. No lizards were harmed in the taking of the photograph!
These lizards are called “viviparous”, which means giving birth to live young, because the females do not lay eggs: they incubate the eggs inside their bodies and give birth to between three and eleven live young in July.
Friends of Adel Woods with David Preston: 4th June 2023
Getting back to our morning’s work, we were lucky that David was able to bring two “tree poppers” which are excellent tools for rapidly pulling up small saplings up to about a metre tall.
A large and medium sized tree popper
We were able to pull up a large amount of bracken, brambles, rosebay willow herb and many small saplings and we had a very enjoyable – though warm! – morning.
Friends of Adel Woods: tidying up at the end of the morning: 4th June 2023
Friends of Adel Woods 