Adel Crag, partially concealed by two fallen oak trees. Photo taken by Val Compton
Two teams today: one to pick up litter, and the other to clear up some of the trees toppled by Storm Lilian on the 23rd August. Two trees which are beyond our capacity to tackle are two mature oaks blown over onto Adel Crag. We are hoping that the Forestry Department will clear the trees away.
The tree team
Five of us set off from the Stairfoot Lane car park along Crag Lane. Our first target was a fallen tree about 50 yards along which someone had partially cleared from the path. We spent ten minutes clearing it fully from the path, before moving on to the picnic area.
The picnic area, looking southwards down the Meanwood Valley Trail
At the picnic area a large silver birch had blown over the course of the Meanwood Valley Trail. It had also fallen onto a small oak tree, breaking some of the branches from the oak. The branches from the trees covered one of the picnic tables, rendering it inaccessible.
A tangle of birch and oak branches
We set to with loppers and bow saws and it turned out to be a much bigger job than anticipated, taking us nearly an hour and a half to clear the debris.
The picnic table covered in birch and oak branches
After we finished, the picnic table was completely cleared – and it was a pleasure to see some people sitting at it enjoying a picnic a few days later.
Happy Friends of Adel Woods relaxing after a job well done!
We ran out of time to clear away all of the birch, but the tree trunk was really a job for a chainsaw. We are hoping that if and when the forestry department clear away the oak trees from Adel Crag, they will spend an extra five minutes removing what is left of the birch tree.
The litter pickers
While the path clearers were with saws and loppers, our happy team of litter pickers were busy on Stairfoot Lane and in the woods – picking up five bags of litter.
Sadly, they found a lot of flytipping – two carpets, tyres, tiles, garden waste, and bags of rubbish.
Tyres dumped in Adel WoodsRubbish awaiting collection in the Stairfoot Lane carpark
JOIN FRIENDS OF ADEL WOODS
We hope that you have enjoyed reading of our activities.
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events such as bat walks, fungal forays and birdsong walks. We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods, and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, just come along to one of our work parties or get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.
Our next events
Our next work party is on Sunday the 13th October 2024 when we will be litterpicking and working with David Preston, our local countryside ranger, to dredge Adel Pond and clear the ditches feeding it.
On Saturday the 2nd November we will be litterpicking and working with David on Adel Bog
For further information, please have a look at our home page.
At 10 am today two Friends joined David Preston, Leeds City Council ranger, in carrying out further work to improve the orchid meadow (aka “the cricket meadow”).
FOAW had spent a couple of mornings mowing the meadow already (see our blog posts for the 16th August and the 18th August) but had only managed to mow about a third of it. Mowing is important because it encourages bio-diversity and in particular a range of wildflowers.
Pulling up Himalayan balsam
While David set to with the brush cutter, yours truly got to work with a scythe, and our second plucky volunteer, Sharon, got to work pulling up Himalayan balsam around the northern edge of the meadow.
Scattering yellow-rattle seeds
Although it was a lovely day, heavy rain the day before made the mowing heavy going as the grass lay flat along the ground and so, after about an hour, David ceased mowing and he and Sharon raked up the mowings and turned to other tasks.
Part of the meadow had largely turned to a dense crop of grass and so, having mown it this morning, David and Sharon scarified the area and then scattered yellow rattle seeds.
Yellow-rattle is an annual that thrives in grasslands, living a semi-parasitic life by feeding off the nutrients in the roots of nearby grasses. For this reason, it is now often used to turn grassland back to meadow – by feeding off the vigorous grasses, it eventually allows more delicate wildflowers to grow. It is called Yellow-rattle because it has yellow flowers and when they turn to seed the seed pods give a distinctive rattle. If you would like to know more, click this link
Sowing wild flower seeds
Having scattered the yellow-rattle seeds, they scarified another area of the meadow and scattered some woodland edge wild flower seeds.
In the meantime, yours truly was still scything away.
We finished work at about 12.30.
JOIN FRIENDS OF ADEL WOODS
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events. We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, just come along to one of our work parties or get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.
Our next events
Our next work party is on Saturday the 21st September when we will be litterpicking and path clearing.
Our next educational event will be on Sunday the 29th September 2024 from 2 pm to 4 pm when local naturalist Steve Joul will be leading a fungal foray. Please note, this is not an event for collecting mushrooms to eat, but an opportunity to learn about the many species of fungi to be found in Adel Woods.
For further information, please have a look at our home page.
A fine evening for a bat walk led by our local council ranger, David Preston, ably supported by fellow ranger Toby Amos from Gotts Park in Armley. We had thirty five attendees – twenty six adults and nine children.
We met in Alwoodley Village Green car park at 7.15 pm and, after introductions, David distributed bat detectors and information about the seventeen species of bats which breed in the United Kingdom.
Bats come out at dusk and fly around silently (to the human ear) at great speed. Unless you are a real bat expert, the only way to identify bat species is by using a bat detector.
A pair of electronic bat detectors
Bat detectors pick up very high pitched sounds made by bats in flight and convert them to a pitch which humans can hear. Different species of bat make sounds of a specific pitch so that it is possible using a detector to identify the type of bat you can see whizzing through the air above you.
The seventeen species of bat which breed in the UK
Armed with our bat detectors, we made our way along Crag Lane to Old Leo’s Rugby Club’s car park. Here David gave us some tuition on how to use the bat detectors.
David explains how to use a bat detector
Bats are able to see, but do not have very good night vision, so they use send out regular high pitched shouting sounds which we can’t hear and use the echos that come back from the objects around them to navigate their way through the trees and around their local area, and hunt for insects while flying. This is a process called echo-location and it is the high pitched shouting sounds which bat detectors pick up. There are various types of bat detector and we were using ones which you can adjust to different frequencies to identify bats in the vicinity.
Listening for bats in the vicinity of the bat boxes in Adel Woods
From Old Leo’s we made our way into the woods to look at some bat boxes put up by Friends of Adel Woods In January 2010. While having a look at the bat boxes, we got our first clicks from some of the bat detectors, but we were unable to spot any bats flying around.
Bats don’t build a nest but find somewhere they can roost or raise their young in holes in trees, caves or buildings – or in tailor-made bat boxes. Bat boxes are different from nest boxes for tits and sparrows in that they don’t have a hole in the front. Instead, there is a thin slot in the bottom of the box and bats land below and crawl up into the box through the slot.
Having said the above, bats will sometimes roost in bird nest boxes. A few years ago, when Friends of Adel Woods were cleaning and surveying our nest boxes, we were amazed to find a noctule bat hibernating in one of them. We were even more surprised the following year to find a noctule bat – presumably the same one – hibernating in the same nest box. On each occasion we immediately closed the box and put it back up causing as little disturbance to the bat as possible.
In the picnic area: “Look – there’s a bat!”
From the bat boxes we made our way along Crag Lane to the picnic area where we got our first clear clicks from the bat detectors and sightings of bats in flight. It is always an exciting moment to hear the bat detectors start to click away and spot a bat flitting to and fro as it hunts for insects around the canopy of the trees. A pipistrelle bat will eat 3,000 tiny insects in a single night and it is awe-inspiring that it catches these insects using only sound echos to identify where they are, their size and shape, and their direction of travel.
Adel Crag
From the picnic area we made our way to Adel Crag, where we saw and “heard” more bats.
An interesting fact about Adel Crag, is that the sculptor Henry Moor said that the landscapes which most influenced his work were the slag heaps of Castleford and Adel Rock. Today the Crag’s magnificence was partly obscured by a huge oak tree which had fallen over it, blown over by the recent Storm Lilian.
Looking for bats in the disused practice rugby pitch
From the Crag we made our way back to the picnic area, along Crag Lane and around the disused rugby pitch, where we spotted more bats. Finally, we went down to the cricket pavilion before returning to the Village Green car park at about 9.10 pm.
On our journey through the woods we detected four different species of bats: pipistrelle; soprano pipistrelle; Nathusius’s pipistrelle; and noctule, our largest species. Nathusius’s pipistrelle is a surprise: the Bat Conservation Trust say that Nathusius’s pipistrelle is a rare bat in the UK though its numbers have increased in recent years.
All in all it was a very enjoyable and exciting evening, and we are grateful to David Preston and Leeds City Council for making it possible – and grateful to all our enthusiastic participants.
ABOUT FRIENDS OF ADEL WOODS
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events. We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, just come along to one of our work parties or get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.
Our next events
Have a look at our Home Page for details of our next work party
Our next educational event will be on Sunday the 29th September 2024 from 2 pm to 4 pm when local naturalist Steve Joul will be leading a fungal foray. Please note, this is not an event for collecting mushrooms to eat, but an opportunity to learn about the many species of fungi to be found in Adel Woods.
A lovely morning for litterpicking and mowing the orchid meadow.
Our three litter pickers had a bumper morning, picking up five bags of litter. Starting in Buck Stone Road.
Their very first task was to pick up two large piles of dog poo on the path down to the Slabbering Baby – kudos to them for doing it, but it is something that they should really not have to do. After that, they made their way along Crag Lane to Adel Crag. The worst area for litter was around the picnic tables near Adel Crag, where assorted litter had been mown into little pieces.
Mowing the meadow with scythes
While our litter pickers were doing tasks beyond the call of duty, six of us joined David Preston, our local countryside ranger, in mowing the orchid (or cricket) meadow with scythes and raking up the mowings. David and yours truly had started mowing the meadow on Friday – as can be seen in our blog report for 16th August which gives a hint of how the meadow looked before mowing.
Looking southwards across the meadow – some of it mown and raked and some pendingFive of our seven mowers and rakers (or movers and shakers!)
The haystack in the foreground of the photograph is a small fraction of the total shifted into the woods for composting.
Looking northwards, a clear line between the area that has been mown and raked and the area yet to be done.
We have managed to cut and rake about a third of the meadow. We may put in another session this Autumn to do some more. This is why we do it….
Some of the wildflowers in the meadow in June 2022
ABOUT FRIENDS OF ADEL WOODS
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events. We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, just come along to one of our work parties or get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.
Our next events
Have a look at our Home Page for details of our next work party
Our next educational event will be on Sunday the 29th September 2024 from 2 pm to 4 pm when local naturalist Steve Joul will be leading a fungal foray. Please note, this is not an event for collecting mushrooms to eat, but an opportunity to learn about the many species of fungi to be found in Adel Woods
Steve Joul guiding a group in the orchid (or cricket) meadow in June 2024
Friends of Adel Woods have been looking after the orchid (also known as the cricket meadow) since 2014. It is home to many beautiful common spotted orchids which flower in July each year, as well as other wild flowers.
The northern boundary of the orchid meadow on 15th August 2024
To keep it in good condition, we need to mow it in August each year and rake off the mowings. As you can see in the photograph above taken today, by August, it is in a pretty unruly state.
Today, your correspondent and David Preston, Parks and Countryside Ranger, spent the morning mowing the meadow – your correspondent using a scythe, and David using a brush cutter – so that Friends of Adel Woods can rake off the mowings in two days time, on Sunday. It was a beautiful morning.
In the course of our work, David came across a number of toads in the vegetation including the little toadlet in the photograph above, and the mature toad in the photograph below.
We worked from 9 till 12.45 in which time your correspondent had scythed the area shown in the photograph below (the same area shown in the second photograph above)…
The northern boundary of the orchid meadow after a morning’s scything
…and David had mown with the brush cutter a much larger area as shown in the photograph above.
You can find out more about the meadow by clicking here
On the way home, your correspondent went to have a look at Adel Moor – another area where Friends of Adel Woods have done a lot of work over the last fifteen years – and it was looking magnificent!
Adel Moor today
ABOUT FRIENDS OF ADEL WOODS
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events. We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, just come along to one of our work parties or get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.
Our next events
Our next work party is on Sunday the 18th August 2024 when we will be litterpicking and working on the orchid meadow.
Our next educational event will be on Wednesday the 28th August 2024 from 7.15 to 9 pm when David Preston will be leading a bat walk.
This afternoon Steve Joul, a local naturalist and FOAW committee member, led a Stream and Pond Safari in Adel Woods.
At 2 pm, we met in the Village Green carpark. Steve gave an introductory talk to an enthusiastic group of adults and children, and handed out various fishing nets and containers for transportation to our first port of call – the “beach” next to the bridge across Nanny Beck behind the cricket pavilion.
Once there, Steve moved a few stones in the bottom of the stream, collected a sample of mud and emptied into a tray so that we could see what he had collected.
What have we got here?
What seemed at first to be inanimate organic material soon turned out to be full of life – as can be seen from the video below.
In the video we can see freshwater shrimps darting about. Other creatures in the sample were water mite, bloodworms and sludge worms. In the video Steve can be heard to mention “bullheads” – small fish, similar in size to minnows and sticklebacks. We did not find any in Nanny Beck, but we did later on in Meanwood Beck and there is a photograph of one below.
When we had all had a good look Steve returned the creatures to the stream and we made our way down to Adel Pond.
Adel Pond
At the pond one of our party soon spotted a newt and Steve caught a couple so that people could have a good look. In the UK we have three species of native newts: the great crested newt, smooth newts and palmate newts. In Adel Pond we have palmate newts, so called because the males have webbing on their back feet. Another distinctive feature is that the males also have a a thin filament at the end of their tails during the breeding season.
A palmate newt
We also caught some fearsome dragonfly larvae in the pond.
A dragonfly nymph
Finally, at 3.30 we made our way down to the bridge over Meanwood Beck leading to Spring Hill. Here Steve collected a further sample of material from the bottom of the beck.
Looking the sample from Meanwood Beck
Among the creatures found in this sample was a bullhead – a small fish which lives on the bottom of fast stony rivers and streams, feeding on such things as mayfly and caddisfly larvae and the eggs of other fish.
A bullhead from Meanwood Beck
By now it was 4 pm and time to make our way home.
In case you are wondering, no creatures were harmed in the course of our safari, and all were returned safely to their natural habitat.
Thank you to Steve for a very interesting afternoon which certainly caught the imagination of all who attended – not least the youngsters.
Pond dipping in Meanwood Beck
ABOUT FRIENDS OF ADEL WOODS
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events. We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, just come along to one of our work parties or get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.
Our next events
Our next work party is on Sunday the 18th August 2024 when we will be litterpicking and working on our orchid meadow (also known as the cricket meadow).
Our next educational event will be on Wednesday the 28th August 2024 from 7.15 to 9 pm when our local countryside ranger, David Preston, will be leading a bat walk.
Further details will be given on our homepage and sent out via our mailing list.
The Buck Stone is a local landmark from which the local housing estate gets its name. It has appeared on local maps for at least two hundred years. Until about twenty years ago it was a place where children could play, and where you could sit and enjoy nature, but over the years it became concealed under the spreading branches of an oak tree.
In 2012, responding to requests from local residents, Friends of Adel Woods restored it to its former glory, and we have carried out further maintenance work in the years since. You can find out more in our entries for 18th March 2012 and the 30th March 2012.
As you can see from the photograph below taken on the 6th July 2024, nature moves in quickly! So today it was time to do some further tidying up!
The Buck Stone on 6th July 2024
If you don’t know where the Buck Stone is, it is in Adel Woods just behind the houses on Buck Stone Avenue. About twenty yards from the junction with Buck Stone Way, there is a ginnel marked by a public footpath sign between two bungalows. Go down the ginnel and follow the path to your right, and you will find the Buck Stone.
A small but international group of us met in Buck Stone Avenue at 10 am. International because one of our number, Jen, a former stalwart of Friends of Adel Woods, had flown in from her home in Australia, just to help Friends of Adel Woods!
As can be seen in the photographs, the bracken and Himalayan balsam surrounding the Buck Stone and on either side of the path was very thick and as much as eight to ten feet tall. We started by clearing bracken and Himalayan balsam from around the Buck Stone and then cleared it from the paths. Disappointingly, a dog owner had used a small area in front of the Buck Stone as a dog toilet, so we had to start work by removing as much as we could and covering the rest with a layer of bracken and balsam.
Deep among the Himalayan balsam we found this perfect nest – no longer in use, so we assume that its occupants had successfully fledged. It was a very small nest – the inside of the cup was about 5-6 cm across – so our guess is that it was a robin’s nest. If anyone has any other suggestions, please let us know!
The path running along the back of the houses on Buck Stone Avenue had been overgrown until it was almost invisible. We opened it up again as can be seen in the following photographs.
Looking eastwards along the path behind Buck Stone Avenue on the 6th JulyThe same path at 11.44 on the 20th July
Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers for the work they did this morning – and to Jen for joining us from Australia!
Friends of Adel Woods
ABOUT FRIENDS OF ADEL WOODS
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events. We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, just come along to one of our work parties or get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.
Our next events
Our next work party is on Sunday the 18th August 2024 when we will be litterpicking and working on our orchid meadow (also known as the cricket meadow).
Our next educational event will be on Wednesday the 28th August 2024 from 7.15 to 9 pm when our local countryside ranger, David Preston, will be leading a bat walk.
Further details will be given on our homepage and sent out via our mailing list.
At 2.00 pm this afternoon, about twenty of us met up with Steve Joul in Alwoodley Village Green car park for an enjoyable and educational stroll through Adel Woods. Steve is a very knowledgable local naturalist and a member of the committee of Friends of Adel Woods. He has many years of experience of working in Adel Woods and studying their flora and fauna.
This was a talk which Steve initially arranged with Alwoodley 2030 with the support of Friends of Adel Woods. Alwoodley 2030 is a community-driven initiative to make Alwoodley zero carbon, nature positive and socially just by 2030.
Examining bark on a tree in Alwoodley Plantation
Having given a brief introductory talk about the ecology of the area and the variety of habitats in Adel Woods, Steve led us into Crag Lane and then to the right into Alwoodley Plantation – an area where there are a number of Scots Pine, beech and larch trees, presumably planted for commercial purposes: the main species of trees to be found elsewhere in Adel Woods are holly, birch, oak and sycamore.
The former quarry in Alwoodley Plantation
Within Adel Woods there are many outcrops of rock and Steve took us to have a look at a former quarry within the plantation.
The flowers of one of the many brambles or blackberry plants in Adel Woods
From there we went to have a look at our very own scheduled monument within Adel Woods- a Romano-British carving of a human figure on an outcrop of rock. It is in fact the only known example of Romano-British rock carving in West Yorkshire. The figure is holding a shield and spear and it is believed, from the style of the carving, to represent the Celtic deity Cocidius, a warrior god worshipped in northern England a the time of the Romans.
Inspecting the carving of Cocidius
If you look very carefully to the right of our young explorer’s head you can see a carved head, shoulder and a shield.
From there we went to look at Alwoodley or Adel Crag.
Alwoodley Crag (also known as Adel Crag)
In a 1963 interview, the sculptor Henry Moore said that the landscapes that most influenced his work were the slag heaps of Castleford and Adel Rock (ie Adel Crag). For more information, have a look at this article on the website of the Tate Art Gallery: tate.org.uk.
From Adel Crag we walked down to the orchid or cricket meadow, home for a couple of thousand common spotted orchids – though unfortunately they were difficult to see from a distance due to the height of the grass.
Steve has led Friends of Adel Woods in doing a lot of work to preserve the meadow over the last ten years – see 12th August 2023
Common spotted orchids in the orchid or cricket meadow on the 30th June 2024
Finally, we walked down to have a look at Adel Pond, breeding ground for many frogs and palmate newts.
In the last fourteen years, each Autumn Friends of Adel Woods have dredged the pond and cleared ditches around it, initially under Steve’s leadership, and now with our new local ranger, David Preston.
Steve explains the history of Adel PondAdel Pond on 30th June 2024
ABOUT FRIENDS OF ADEL WOODS
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events. We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, just come along to one of our work parties or get in touch by leaving a comment on this website.
Our next events
Our next work party is on Saturday the 20th July 2024 when we will be litterpicking and clearing scrub and bracken from around the Buck Stone.
Our next educational event will be on Sunday the 21st July 2024 from 2 to 4 pm when Steve Joul will be leading a stream and pond Safari.
Further details are given on our homepage and will be sent out via our mailing list.
Adel Moor on 9th June 2024 – two Friends of Adel Woods in the distance
Another lovely morning spent in Adel Woods, litter picking and working on Adel Moor with David Preston our local Parks and Countryside ranger.
We had one person litter picking today, and she gathered one and a half bags of rubbish.
Six of us worked on the moor with David, focusing on the bottom or western end.
We had a very successful morning on the moor, cutting back tree branches from around the edge of the moor to give the heather a chance to thrive, and removing saplings and seedlings – a job made much easier with the use of our own and the council’s tree poppers. For more information about the work we have been doing on Adel Moor, see our blog entry for Saturday 25th May.
David Preston with four happy Friends of Adel Woods
ABOUT FRIENDS OF ADEL WOODS
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events. We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, just come along to one of our work parties or get in touch by leaving a comment on this website.
Our next events
Our next work party will be on Saturday the 20th July when we will be litterpicking and clearing scrub from around the Buck Stone. Details of the meeting place will be given on the homepage of our website shortly and via our email mailing list shortly.
Our next educational event will be on Sunday the 21st July from 2 to 4 pm, when Steve Joul, our expert naturalist, will be leading a stream and pond life safari. Again, more information will be given on our website and via our email mailing list.
Both of these events are suitable for children, provided that they are accompanied by a responsible adult.
Adel Moor on 9th June 2024: bilberries in the foreground, and heather in the background.
Friends of Adel Woods on Adel Moor on 21st April 2024
This evening we held our Annual General meeting, attended by seven members of our committee and one Friend, with apologies from two members of our committee who were away, and two Friends.
The minutes of last year’s Annual General Meeting were approved.
The Chair gave a report of the past year’s activities and thanked the committee and all volunteers for the work done. His report can be read below.
The Treasurer presented the Income and Expenditure account for the year. The funds held on 31st March 2024 were £88.82. Since then a grant of £159.96 from Alwoodley 2030 has been received giving a current balance of £248.78.
Thanks were given to Rob Hall for auditing the accounts.
Rob Hall was re-elected as auditor for the forthcoming year.
All the existing members of the committee chose to remain in office. Roger Gilbert was elected Chair; Judith White was re-elected Treasurer; Sue Chambers was elected as minute secretary.
All present unanimously gave a vote of thanks to David Preston for all the work he has done in Adel Woods and with Friends of Adel Woods in the last year.
The Chair proposed votes of thanks to Judith White and Stephanie Clarke, who will shortly be leaving Alwoodley, for all the work they have done as Treasurer and Secretary respectively, and as committee members and members of Friends of Adel Woods over the last fifteen years. This was unanimously approved.
The Chair’s Report
We are just about to complete our fifteenth year of FOAW and in the last year we have had a successful year with many work parties and educational walks and talks.
Work Parties
Repairing the Stairfoot Lane steps on 30th September 2023
Starting with work parties, we have had 18 work days comprising:
13 mornings of litterpicking
7 mornings working on Adel Moor – removing bracken, brambles and saplings. Three of these took place on a Wednesday.
1 morning on Adel Pond and ditches with David Preston
2 mornings on Adel Bog, one with David Preston and one with David and Heather Wagstaffe
5 mornings of path clearing – including repairing the Stairfoot Lane steps
1 morning clearing scrub and bracken from around the Buck Stone
2 days of nest box cleaning and surveying with Steve Joul
1 morning of mowing the cricket meadow and learning to scythe with Leeds City Council ranger, Rachel Todnor.
The astute among you will have noted that the list totals thirty two activities, not eighteen. This is because on many of our work parties we do both litter picking and some other activity – such as path clearing or working on Adel Moor.
Joint Events with Alwoodley 2030
A joint work party from FOAW and Alwoodley 2030 in August 2023
In addition, Friends of Adel Woods supported two events organised by Alwoodley 2030: in August 2023, clearing scrub from around the young fruit trees planted in the former rugby practice field; and in January this year, pruning and clearing scrub from around a mature apple tree in Copper’s Field behind the Buckstones.
Educational Events
David Preston shares some fascinating facts about bats
We had four educational events in the year May 2023 to April 2024.
In June last year, we took the opportunity of a band concert on Alwoodley Village Green to have a stall to promote awareness of our work. Thank you to Judith, Stephanie and Tamsin for helping with that – and to Daddy Kool the ice cream man who helped us to put up the gazebo in a strong wind.
On the 1st September, Leeds City Council ranger, David Preston, led a very successful bat walk.
On the 8th October our committee member and local naturalist, Steve Joul, led an equally successful fungal foray.
And on the 5th May Steve led our annual birdsong walk when we saw or heard twenty five species of birds including a willow warbler.
A birdsong walk in Adel Woods with Steve Joul in May 2024
We are grateful to David and Steve for leading these walks. I know from the messages I receive after these events that people really enjoy them.
Grants
The Friends of Adel Woods’ tree popper
We received two grants this year:
In August, Alwoodley Parish Council gave us a grant to enable us to purchase a tree popper, a fantastic tool for removing saplings from Adel Moor and Adel Bog.
In March this year, Alwoodley 203 gave us a grant to purchase four top of the range nest boxes.
We are very grateful to the Parish Council and Alwoodley 2030 for their generosity.
And Finally…
Thanks are due to our committee and volunteers for all the work that they have done over the last year. We are looking forward to another year of fun, laughter and friendship.
And thank you again to David Preston and Steve Joul for leading events over the last year, and to Leeds City Council Ranger, Rachel Todner, who mowed the cricket meadow and taught us to how to use a scythe.
About Friends of Adel Woods
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events. We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, just come along to one of our work parties or get in touch by leaving a comment on this website.
Friends of Adel Woods prepare to survey and clean nest boxes in January 2024
Friends of Adel Woods 