Wilding Campus East: A thriving habitat Gordon Eastham and Robin Perutz
Event details
With orchids, campion and viper’s bugloss among the flowers, and sand martins, reed warblers, skylarks, oystercatchers and little grebes among the birds, Campus East at the University of York provides a special habitat for numerous species.
Recent seasonal visitors have included a flock of whooper swans, fresh in from their 1000-mile migration from Iceland.
In the second of our two-part series on the Wilding of Campus East, Robin Perutz of the University’s Department of Chemistry explains how the campus acts as a northerly extension of the Lower Derwent Valley, attracting some of the species present just south of York. Robin will also present a seasonal perspective on the wildlife of Campus East, as well as stressing the research and educational opportunities it presents.
Afterwards, Robin will be joined by Gordon Eastham, the University’s Grounds Maintenance Manager, for a discussion and Q&As.
Both our talks in the Wilding Campus East series will explore how biodiversity is just as much of an asset for students, staff and the public as the other facilities of the university.
This event is presented with the support of Ron and Barbara Cooke.
This event is hosted live on Zoom Webinar. You’ll receive a link to join a couple of days before the event takes place and a reminder an hour before. During the event, you can ask questions via a Q&A function but audience cameras and microphones will remain muted throughout.
To fully appreciate and take part in this second event of the series, we would recommend watching the first talk, Wilding Campus East: Promoting biodiversity. This will be premiered on Wednesday 9 June, and then made available to Watch Again on YouTube.
Your Campus East Photographs
Campus East is open to all and we know many local residents and members of the University community enjoy taking their exercise there. We’d love to see any wildlife photos or videos you have taken while visiting. Why not share them on social media using the hashtag #YorkIdeasWilding - or email them across to us to share?
Facebook: YorkFestivalofIdeas
Twitter: @YorkFestofIdeas
Instagram: yorkfestivalofideas
Email: yorkfestivalofideas@york.ac.uk.
Staying safe online
When posting photos/videos online, under 18s should be supervised. We would recommend that you use first names only and don’t include anything that identifies you or your home address.
About the speakers
Gordon Eastham gained an HND in landscape and horticultural technology at Askham Bryan College, York. After working at the University of Leeds, he joined the University of York in 1994 as Supervisor of Grounds. He was heavily involved in the landscaping of the University’s Campus East and is now the Grounds Maintenance Manager.
Robin Perutz has been looking out for campus birds and flowers since he arrived at the University of York more than 30 years ago. His day job has been as a Professor of Chemistry at the University. His research speciality is Chemistry with light, especially utilisation of solar energy.
While waiting for this event to take place why not watch our Campus East nesting swans?
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