{"id":1394,"date":"2025-12-02T17:09:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T17:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/?p=1394"},"modified":"2025-12-02T17:17:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T17:17:13","slug":"trees-week-wildlife-wander-what-we-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/2025\/12\/02\/trees-week-wildlife-wander-what-we-found\/","title":{"rendered":"Trees Week Wildlife Wander: What we Found\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On a snowy November lunchtime, in icy air, colleagues from across the University joined the Sustainability team at Kings Gate stairs for a tour of the trees. Despite the unfavourable conditions the group remained undeterred, donning layers to shield the cold and a particularly brilliant array of hats. Once participants had a chance to download the iNaturalist app<\/a> and join the Newcastle University Campus Biodiversity Network<\/a>, we were off! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our loop around campus took us past the Arches, Quadrangle, entrance to the Courtyard Cafe, Claremont Quad and across Claremont Road into Drummond Quad before returning to Kings Gate. If you want to check out some of these Green Spaces have a look at our Sustainable Campus Map<\/a>! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In total 39 new observations were recorded on our Campus Project Page<\/a> across the Winter Wander. This comprised of 32 different species: 1 bird, 1 insect, 2 fungi, and 28 different plants (of course plenty of trees).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some highlights (top 3 trees and 2 special mentions):  

1. Weeping Willow (Salix babylonica<\/em>) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arguably one of the most iconic trees on campus, it\u2019s the weeping willow that sways over the Fine Art entrance beside the Arches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Captured on campus by
iNaturalist user smah1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Reference image from iNaturalist website<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

2. Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba<\/em>)<\/strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also known as the \u201cmaidenhair tree\u201d it is found in the Quadrangle. Native to East-Asia it was historically known as “silver fruit” or “white fruit” in Chinese. Due to a centuries old transcription error, it got the name \u201cGingko\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Captured on campus by
iNaturalist user steph50665<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Reference image from iNaturalist website<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

3. Common Yew (Taxus baccata) <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This festive looking tree, adorned with striking red berries is not to be messed with. This old-world species of evergreen tree is completely poisonous, apart from the red flesh of the berries (although the seed inside is). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Captured on campus by
iNaturalist user olivia_______ <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Reference image from iNaturalist website<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

4. Jelly Ear Fungi (Auricularia auricula-judae)<\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These gelatinous looking fungi were spotted on a branch in the Quadrangle.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Captured on campus by
iNaturalist user carys2030<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Reference image from iNaturalist website<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

5. Dunnock (Prunella Modularis)<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>– carys2030 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photographing any bird is tricky! But one walker managed to snap a photo of this little Dunnock hiding out under the bench outside the Old Library.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Captured on campus by
iNaturalist user carys2030<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Reference image from iNaturalist website<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Thank you to all who joined us and contributed to the observations, laughs and impromptu litter pick! We look forward to seeing more iNaturalist spots over the Winter months.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a snowy November lunchtime, in icy air, colleagues from across the University joined the Sustainability team at Kings Gate stairs for a tour of the trees. Despite the unfavourable conditions the group remained undeterred, donning layers to shield the cold and a particularly brilliant array of hats. Once participants had a chance to download the iNaturalist app and join the Newcastle University Campus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12025,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[80,36,64,56,29],"class_list":["post-1394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-biodiversity-on-campus","tag-get-involved","tag-green-impact","tag-sustainable-action","tag-sustainable-campus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12025"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1394"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1417,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394\/revisions\/1417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}