Author Archives: Neil Frost

A great day to be out in the woods and a great group of OWLs prepared to do the monthly litterpick.

Safety Briefing over and equipment sorted our groups headed off across the cruising ground. Often after a Bank Holiday weekend there’s lots of ‘picnic’ rubbish left around. Today it wasn’t too bad. But there were still some remnants.

We aim to visit all areas used for cruising.

Our OWLs roamed far and wide to ensure that rubbish sacks were emptied and rubbish was removed from the vegetation. Lots of wipes today.

Then back to base with our spoils.

Time for a chat and a refreshment break. And consideration of the most unusual items collected today. A frying pan and a shovel were probably the most difficult items to explain!

Finally, the bags carried to the road for collection tomorrow.

We reckon that today we collected the equivalent of 25 of our standard-sized rubbish sacks. With a further 15 sacks collected by our ‘solo’ litterpickers, that’s a total of 40 sacks this month.                  

Please note that we respect everyone’s right to anonymity and only show pics of those willing to have them posted. There might have been more OWL volunteers taking part than are in the above pictures.

No inferences should be drawn from anyone’s participation in an OWL litterpicking session.

Good weather and a good turnout of volunteers. Including two new folks. New folk are always welcome!

As usual, the Safety Briefing as a quick reminder that there can be risks and we want to minimise them.

After which our OWLs headed off in several groups to litterpick across all of the cruising ground.

We get to all of the places that many will never discover (although from the litter it is obvious that some have been there before).

If we discover a new ‘hot spot’ we aim to place a conveniently-located rubbish sack there to help with easy disposal of litter.

Meanwhile, all areas of the cruising ground were being covered,

With work continuing until it was time to head back to base with the evidence of our work.

Time for refreshments (including some tasty warm savoury bites!) and a friendly catch-up chat.

With one volunteer having to head off to collect a further sack of rubbish that had been too heavy to carry back before.

It had been another good haul.

Today’s bag-count? The equivalent of 17 of our standard-sized rubbish sacks. With a further 8 sacks collected by our ‘solo’ litterpickers, that makes a total of 25 sacks this month.                  

Please note that we respect everyone’s right to anonymity and only show pics of those willing to have them posted. There might have been more OWL volunteers taking part than are in the above pictures.

No inferences should be drawn from anyone’s participation in an OWL litterpicking session.

Just four brave souls for today’s litterpick – by chance several of our regular litterpickers, understandably, couldn’t make it.

Safety briefing over our OWLs headed off to their chosen areas of the cruising ground to collect whatever litter they could find.

Heavier sacks today (well, it is around the full moon!). Loads of wet tissues and wipes make an appreciable difference to the weight of the sacks.

We aim to cover the entire area. Some locations are becoming more popular.

We really don’t understand why some of the sacks are ripped down or set alight. FFS! We put them in appropriate places to make it EASIER for guys to get rid of their rubbish!

Not a threat at this time of year, but could start a serious fire, burning down what’s left of the secluded areas, in the summer when it’s drier.

With most areas dealt with it was back to base for some refreshments for three of us.

While one OWL – so in his personal litterpicking zone dealing with areas that have only recently become popular that he didn’t notice the time – didn’t return (with two bulging sacks!) until much later.

It was another good haul.

We reckon that’s the equivalent of 16 of our standard-sized rubbish sacks. With a further 7 sacks collected by our ‘solo’ litterpickers since the January litterpick, that makes a total of 23 sacks this month.                  

Please note that we respect everyone’s right to anonymity and only show pics of those willing to have them posted. There might have been more OWL volunteers taking part than are in the above pictures.

No inferences should be drawn from anyone’s participation in an OWL litterpicking session.

Our first OWL litterpick of 2026. Four brave souls turned up to brave the -6^oC temperature. And the snow.

But there was rubbish to be collected out there, so off into the woods to collect it they went, despite the snow falling gently!

In these temperatures the rubbish was frozen stiff. One of our volunteers reckoned that a condom he collected was the stiffest he’d seen there for a long time!

Back to base for some welcome refreshments.

Our group noticed that there are a number of Police posters on trees near the Eagle Pond side. Apparently there have been reports of attacks on the ducks which the Police are taking seriously so additional patrols, both uniformed and plain clothes, are operating.  So BE CAREFUL if you are using that area.

Here’s the whole group of Snowy OWLs who braved the elements to get the litterpick done.

Finally, as usual, the sacks were placed at the roadside ready for collection. We reckon that’s the equivalent of 11 of our standard-size sacks.

With a further 6 sacks collected by our ‘solo’ litterpickers, that makes a total of 17 sacks this month.

Good work in challenging conditions!

Please note that we respect everyone’s right to anonymity and only show pics of those willing to have them posted. There might have been more OWL volunteers taking part than are in the above pictures.

No inferences should be drawn from anyone’s participation in an OWL litterpicking session.