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Enjoy the sights and sounds of Spring down at the Pits

Spring is one of the best times of year to visit Harding’s Pits. Trees and shrubs are covered in blossom and there is a carpet of cowslips on the wildlflower meadow.

The birdsong is also great. You can hear blackcap, chiffchaff, willow warbler and whitethroat as well as blackbird, robin, great tit, chaffinch, greenfinch, goldfinch, wren, dunnock and others.

Our newest resident appears to be Cetti’s warbler (see pic). A classic ‘little brown job’, they have one of the loudest bursts of song you are likely to hear – and a habit of delivering it from a few metres way without ever being seen.

Great British Spring Clean. Saturday 23rd March

As part of the ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ national litter picking event in March, HPCA will be starting their annual workday calendar with a ‘deep clean’ of Harding’s Pits and the surrounding area.
If you want to help keep our local environment tidy – please come along. Gloves, bags and pickers sticks can be provided.
Come to our container (north-west corner of Winfarthing playing fields) at 9.30am, 23^rd March.

Bulb Planters – 2023

HPCA and King’s Lynn Civic Society volunteers planted another 1500 bulbs alongside the Harding’s Way bus lane at the end of October. This continues a bulb planting programme that the Civic Society has undertaken around the town for more than a decade. We hope it will provide some attractive spring colour alongside this important gateway into the town. Thanks to everyone who helped!

Sparrowhawk

Its good to see sparrowhawks regularly visiting the Pits this winter. They are one of our more common birds of prey, but not everyone will have seen one. Their population has recovered greatly since the 1960s and 70s when they were a particular victim of agricultural pesticides and habitat loss.

Although they prey on many of our smaller birds – in general we think it is a good sign that they visit our site. It means that our establishing woodland and local bird population is now supporting a whole food chain. Winter sparrowhawks may have arrived from further north – as far away as Scandinavia.
Male birds are slate grey and noticeably smaller than the browner female birds.

New Invertebrate records for HP_2023

More new species recorded at Harding’s Pits!

We often overlook our invertebrate residents at Harding’s Pits, but thanks to the sterling work of HPCA supporter Ellen Archer, we now have records of species that we didn’t even know we had!

Ellen has recorded all three species of skipper butterfly (Large, Small and Essex) and eighteen different types of bee – including the fairly scarce Moss Carder bee. She has also found 12 different spider, 6 grasshopper and 7 hoverfly species!

This may suggest we have been remiss in recording all of our residents in the past – but perhaps more likely, it indicates the importance of creating permanent mixed-habitat sites to support local biodiversity.

2024 will be our 20 year anniversary since we established the Doorstep Green and began to manage the site with nature conservation in mind. Who knows what we might attract to the site in another 20 years!

Thanks again Ellen for your work – and great photographs!

Blackberries

Free fruit – Jamtastic!

If you like making preserves – get along to Harding’s Pits. The blackberries are having a bumper year!

And if you pick them hard – more will come and it will extend the season!

New species recorded at Harding’s Pits

Rob Archer has recorded two new bird species for the Harding’s Pits Doorstep Green this spring – Nightingale (top left) and Lesser Whitethroat (top right). We think they were just passing through – but hopefully they will visit again!

We also have two new butterfly records for the area. Small Heath (bottom left) at the Pits and Brown Argus at Boal Quay. These records really underline the importance of maintaining habitat reserves within urban areas.

Tree Planting January 2023

HPCA volunteers saw in 2023 with a bit of new tree and shrub planting, with donated or self-grown stock. In particular we planted a new oak tree in memory of Elizabeth II, our late queen. It will complement the ‘Cecil Gawthorpe’ oak (commemorating a young lad who died at the site when it was still clay pits in the 1920s), which has now been planted for 4 years and appears to be establishing well.

Daffodil planting on Harding’s Way

Further to our well-received bulb planting along the Harding’s Way bus lane last year, Kings Lynn Civic Society and Harding’s Pits Doorstep Green volunteers have this October planted a further 1500 bulbs to enhance this important gateway into the town. Bulbs were paid for by the Civic Society. We look forward to the spring display!

Our New Sign – April 22

SPRING ON HARDING’S WAY

Last autumn Harding’s Pits volunteers teamed up with the King’s Lynn Civic Society to plant a selection of daffodils alongside the Harding’s Way bus lane. This month we have been rewarded with a lovely splash of colour at this gateway approach to the town centre. The bulbs are self-naturalising so we hope they will multiply in coming years and we already plan to plant some more next autumn. Come and enjoy these and other spring flowers around the Doorstep Green.

Hazel Catkins

Deer in Harding’s Pits

Comma Butterfly

Comma butterfly
July 2020 — Click image to enlarge

Harding’s Pits Videos – click to view

Migrant Hawker Dragonfly

Male Migrant Hawker dragonfly
21st September 2019 — Click image to enlarge

September Workday

Field Scabious - Knautia arvensis
Raking up
Taking delivery of litter picking kit
A magnificent orange Garden Spider - Araneus diadematus
Tansy - Tanacetum vulgare
Dennis working hard
Meadow Cranesbill - Geranium pratense
Ragwort - Jacobaea vulgaris
Cutting the wildflower meadow
Musk mallow - Malva moschata

Riverfront (Nelson’s Quay) Development Consultation

HPCA response to the Riverfront (Nelson’s Quay) Development Consultation

Bee Orchids on the Pits

Roger Turff, Mr Harding’s Pits

In the first year of the Harding’s Pits Doorstep Green an explosion of growth erupted. Great, tall plants emerged within weeks and threatened to take over all else that had been planted there. We never discovered just what plant it was, some said hemp, but it had stems so thick that no mechanical tool could tackle it. It had to be hand-work.

To see how Roger coped turn to archives..

News

Photos from one of our regular Bird Walks.

Read about William Derisley Harding, the Harding of Harding’s Pits

Great British Spring Clean. Saturday 23rd March

ON THE BANKS OF THE RIVER GREAT OUSE

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Take only photographs
Kill only time

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Workdays for 2024

Saturday 23^rd March (The Great British Spring Clean)
20^th April
18^th May
15^th June
20^th July
24^th August
14^th September (& 21/28 TBC)
19^th October
2^nd November (if required)

All dates are on a Saturday starting at 9:30am, with lunch at around 12:30pm. We are however somewhat weather dependent — so if it is forecast to be very hot we might start early, and if it is forecast to be stormy we may cancel. Do check the website. Coffee & tea available all day. We meet at our storage site straight over the green from the sluice, to the bottom of the ramp leading to the play area, and immediately over on the right.
See Workdays page for more information.

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Enjoy the sights and sounds of Spring down at the Pits

Spring is one of the best times of year to visit Harding’s Pits. Trees and shrubs are covered in blossom and there is a carpet of cowslips on the wildlflower meadow.
The birdsong is also great. You can hear blackcap, chiffchaff, willow warbler and whitethroat as well as blackbird, robin, great tit, chaffinch, greenfinch, goldfinch, wren, dunnock and others.
Our newest resident appears to be Cetti’s warbler (see pic). A classic ‘little brown job’, they have one of the loudest bursts of song you are likely to hear – and a habit of delivering it from a few metres way without ever being seen!