Latest flowers to bloom in the water meadow

We'd like to thank the members of Wharfeldale Field Society who continue to monitor and identify the orchids and other flowers visible in the Kilnsey Park water meadow, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Here is their latest report:

30 June 2010 - Two more orchids are just beginning to flower, Fragrant Orchid and Marsh Helleborine.  There are several bright pink patches of Ragged Robin.  Look out for the yellow flowers of Marsh Hawksbeard and Rough Hawkbit and also the bright maroon blooms of Betony, another late summer flower which is just making an appearance.   The cotton-grass is very profuse this year and is a special plant of basic soils and not to be confused with the more familiar species on acid moorlands.

Wharfedale Naturalists Society overnight moth count

On the night of Friday 9^th July  members of Wharfedale Naturalists set up a humane moth trap so they could capture and then identify the moths flying at Kilnsey Park.  Over 300  macro-moths of 50 different species  were caught and identified.

New honey bee colony arrives at Kilnsey Park!

Our new colony of honey bees arrived at Kilnsey Park in June 2010.   We would like to thank Mike and Liz Joyce at Denholme Gate Honey for their support for our honey bee project and for supplying us with these bees.  You’ll see the bees in the observation hive and we also have some wooden hives in the bee enclosure behind the honey bee observation house. Don’t forget that you can buy Denholme Gate Honey products in our farm shop!

Red Squirrel Update - June 2010

We're delighted to announce that we have some baby squirrels!  Two have been seen in the top enclosure and one in the lower enclosure!  Graeme managed to get some photos of them while he was feeding them!