At last more colour is appearing in and around the meadow - the grass even appears to be greener if that's possible. It seems like there is more broom and gorse on the pile of rocks becuase of or in spite of our massive scrub clearance in the autumn of the willow and buddlea thatusually take over this area - home to small mammals and hunting ground for foxes and reptiles - and its blossoming with its bright yellow flowers. Sadly the nearby pond is drying up - a side effect of the good weather we've been having which no dubt will have a knock-on effect of fewer amphibians so lets hope they found other watery spots to hide in as well. At the edges of the meadow I've spied clumps of cuckoo flowers.
Its lovely to see how the young trees we planted over a year ago are getting on, some are even twice their size now. Unfortunately, there's a clump of knotweed slowly invading one patch.
One dog walker recently was lucky to spy a heron who had been fishing in the Taff and had been quite successful; however, shortly after he'd landed near the changing rooms the sight of dog and walker scared him enough to drop the fish and fly off. Acting quickly as the fish was still alive, a lucky perch, the dogwalker scooped him up and quickly ran towards the river to save him to swim about the Taff for at least another day.

Cardiff Biodiversity Bulletin January 2009

It appears we've made it to the Cardiff Biodiversity Bulletin, Issue 19 - January 2009 with regard to our work in regenerating the meadow.

"Grant funding was secured in June 2008 under the Countryside Partnership programme 08/09 for grassland restoration in Hailey Park. The funding contribution was used for the hire of Cardiff Conservation Volunteers to carry out the removal of scrub in Hailey Park over two dates. The grassland restoration project was a joint project with the Friends of Hailey Park and Community Park Rangers. The work dates took place on Sunday 16 November and Sunday 7 December 2008 and were very successful. The Friends of Hailey Park will endeavour to maintain the grassland in favourable condition via volunteer work days with assistance from Community Park Rangers."

This support just highlights how important this project is.