Thank you to everyone who made the art show weekend so successful. Here is the winning wildlife painting and the winning children’s wildlife drawings.

Saturday and Sunday 18th and 19th November 10 – 4pm, East Keswick Village Hall
This year there will be a Wildlife picture section at the Village Art Show, along with other high quality paintings that will be for sale.
There will also be a children’s Wildlife drawing/painting competition, with all the materials provided.
Please come along and visit our stand and enjoy the art, tea and cake!
Hope to see you there.
This weekend we were joined by Ann and Robert from the Yorkshire Mammal Group to lay 50 humane mammal traps in Bardsey Field. We laid the traps on Saturday afternoon, making sure that any mammals caught had a cosy bed for the night and plenty of food. We then returned on Sunday morning to empty the traps, record and weigh the mammals and then release them safely. The weather was glorious and the event was very well attended. It was lovely to see the children lay the traps and then return the following day, remembering exactly where they were and so excited to see what was inside.
We recorded 1 common shrew, 1 field vole, 1 bank vole and 18 wood mice.
We hope you can join us on Saturday 21st October at 4pm when we will meet the Yorkshire Mammal Group to put out 50-100 humane mammal traps. We will then meet again at 9.30am on Sunday 22nd to record, weigh and release them. We will be meeting outside Bardsey School on Woodacre Lane.
This event is suitable for all ages to attend one or both sessions – a great family event. Please bring stout footwear/wellies as the long grass will be wet. If you would like any more information, please email info@ekwt.org.uk
East Keswick Wildlife Trust will be at the Green Fair on Saturday 9th September in Bardsey Churchyard from 1-4pm. Come along to learn about our local nature reserves and have your say on the newly acquired Bardsey Fields.
The Yorkshire Dales River Trust is loaning their table-top Sustainable Drainage Village for children to mimic rainfall and see where it goes!
We hope you can come along and help bring our communities together. There is a very varied programme of eco activities, stalls and refreshments.
We will be holding our annual family day on Sunday 9th July from 2-4pm at the charcoal burn area in Oxclose Wood.
This year we won’t have the kilns lit, but will be loading them ready to burn – something that children love being involved with. We would recommend bringing gloves to protect your hands. It is a great opportunity to learn about the charcoal burns too, but without the smoke!
The pizza oven will be fired up and we will provide the dough. If you can bring tomato sauce and toppings that would be great. We won’t be able to provide seating, so please feel free to bring rugs or chairs.
There will be lots of fun for the children including willow weaving, scavenger hunt and drawing. Our Trust moth expert will have traps to show the children the variety of moths that live in the woods. There will also be the opportunity to learn more about the Trust, with talks on charcoal burns and how the woodland is managed.
This event is free for members or a minimum donation of £5 for non members.
We need to know numbers, to enable us to plan activities and prepare the right quantity of pizza dough. If you could let us know if you are coming and how many of you there will be, by Thursday 6th July that would be helpful. We are limited to the number of pizzas we can cook in the time available, so please book early to avoid disappointment. Please reply to thomasin@ekwt.org.uk, we hope to see you there!
We will be meeting at the entrance to St Mary Magdalene Church, Moor Lane, East Keswick at 10.00am. You are welcome to come and go throughout the day, please bring snacks and lunch, also binoculars if you have them. From the Church we will be walking through the Marsh, then along Moor Lane to the cricket field. We will then cross Harewood Road and walk down to the river, back up Fitts Lane and into the village. If time allows we may also include Ox Close Wood.
On 29th and 30th October Ann Hanson and colleagues from the Yorkshire Mammal Group joined East Keswick Wildlife Trust to survey Fitts Fields for small mammals. 50 humane large Longworth traps were set on the Saturday evening and on Sunday morning we met to open the traps.
32 of the 50 traps had small mammals in them, all looked healthy and were a good weight.
We recorded: 14 bank voles, 3 field voles, 14 wood mice and 1 common shrew.
This shows that there is a very good population of small mammals in these fields and although we did not find a harvest mouse this time, we do know that they are living here.