Our Nature Reserve – How it’s going!

EWG@ Costons Lane, how it's going!

We took an old disused and flood-prone allotment site & turned it into a nature reserve & education centre!

So many wonderful things have happened at Costons Lane! (Click here for the reserve’s origin story!) First, we updated the name to Ealing Wildlife Group @ Costons Lane (Nature Reserve) to better connect the reserve to EWG. We put in the building, got a mural painted on it, and had our carpenter Nick Spellman build a deck in front! The paths are done, and the front garden is looking really beautiful and will provide pollinators with food and a place to lay their eggs and a place to learn about wildlife-friendly gardening.

Nick has also built us a bird hide, sponsored by Lyndsay Haywood, as a tribute to her late father Barrie William Haywood commemorated with a plaque on the front. Nick used reclaimed wooden pallets to build the hide and it is spacious and perfect to watch the bird feeding station, the pond, and the kite feeding station!

Our last big project is excavating the large pond at the bottom of the reserve. We had a few obstacles getting the pond started, the biggest was Covid, but we had a surprise challenge last summer. The Thames water pipe next to the reserve sprung a leak and water poured into the reserve and the entire lower half was flooded! It was too wet to allow the equipment in to dig an actual pond. It took until this spring for the area to dry enough for work to begin and hopefully it will be dug this summer! While it was flooded the ducks and moorhens really enjoyed it and hopefully they will be back!

We still have water though! Next to the cabin we have three container ponds, two old water butts, and one bathtub! That’s where we have at least two tadpoles, water beetles, and some dragonfly larvae! Also up at the top of the reserve we seem to have runoff or springs coming out of the ground. So we have directed this into a wetland area and a smaller pond, which we hope will become a haven for insects, and amphibians. Over time the water makes its way to the bottom of the reserve, where it will eventually flow into the big pond.

After a lot of hard work from our team of dedicated volunteers, we were ready to officially open to the public this May. We had our official opening on Sunday, May 8th 2022!

Almost 400 people attended the opening, toured the reserve, had cake and tea, got raffle tickets, and bought wildlife-friendly plants grown by our members. For the kids we had pond dipping from our bathtub pond, building a bug hotel and a wildlife treasure hunt!

We had an official opening ceremony with Central Greenford Counselor Dr Aysha Raza who cut the official bramble! Many thanks to Dr Raza for her fantastic and continued support of EWG and the reserve!

Now we are open what happens now? We are going to keep the same hours for now, every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month 10am-2pm, starting June 11th 2022 (as we took a little break in May). There will be some volunteer stuff but we will also be open for the public to come in and explore. I can also arrange a weekday opening if anyone is available on the day. If we get more volunteers willing to be there on more days we will reevaluate the opening times (if you have some free time and are interested let us know!) We will keep everyone updated by blog, social media, and our Facebook group! So come on down and take in the wildlife, see the bids in the hide, the tadpoles in the little pond, the butterflies flitting among the flowers, and if you are very quiet and still, the foxes may make an appearance as well!