Three GoodGymers made an appearance at Perivale Woods to participate in the third harvest mouse release at that site. The harvest mice are the UK and Europe’s smallest and possibly cutest rodents. They love living in messy hedgerows and brambles, that are constantly being cut back, often by the GoodGymers! Destructive human activity makes the animal habitats fragmented, and the pockets of wildlife, without corridors to each other, shortly disappear. The harvest mice were believed to be extinct in Ealing, and before Ealing Wildlife Group's project to bring them back into the wild, they were last seen in 1979 in Perivale. Last year saw several releases of mice in Ealing meadows, followed by field surveys, which found their nests - a sign that the project has been successful!

The sunny morning brought to the event many residents and GoodGym's friends from other groups - Friends of both Grove and Horsenden Farm: Sue, Fred and Livio. Elsa from the neighbouring Horsenden Farm was also around, attending to the cows grazing in the field.

The release participants marched calmly through the Perivale Woods, which are normally closed to the public, to the area by the ponds - the mice's new home. Keeping gentle and quiet was necessary when carrying tanks with the animals to spare the mice extra stress during the relocation. To promote the genetic diversity of the rodents, different tanks contained male and female mice from different backgrounds: some bred in Horsenden, others in Battersea, Dorset or Scotland.

The Scottish lasses, that the GoodGymers were releasing didn't live up to their feisty reputation. They behaved rather timidly, apart from Sevan's girl mouse who nibbled at his thumb when he clasped his hands around her. When she was out in the open, Sevan's mouse clumsily slipped off his arm and plunged into the scrub, Kat's mouse on the other hand knew pretty well what to do and jumped confidently into her new life, and Kash's took the wrong turn and walked up the GoodGymer's arm. Kat took some fantastic photos of the mice which you can see in the report.

On the way back, a group of GoodGymers and other mice releasers got carried away, marvelling at the surrounding nature, bug hotels and the hedgehog estates. They lost their way and wandered deeper into the forest! Luckily, an attentive girl spotted that the way back looked different than the original route and called it out. That was the end of quite a pleasant detour. Before heading home, the GoodGymers visited a unique straw bale house, The Bluebell Centre, chatted with the creators of the building about its history and had been invited to come back in spring to admire the fabulous bluebell display in the woods.

Kash and Sevan arrived in Walpole Park to find that a mini-transformation had taken place overnight. Thirteen photo display boards had been put up along the main path ready for Ealing Wildlife Group's photo exhibition.

In addition to the EWG volunteers, Park Ranger Jamie was there as well as Steve, the videographer. Jamie had been in the park late last night setting up the boards in the dark, while Steve was documenting the whole event for EWG.

"Steve, I'd like to be blonde, I'd like to be at least 5'8" and I'd like to be slim. Can you manage that?" - task owner, Emma

John and Emmanuella arrived soon after and the team learned that their task was to cover the photo panels that were being put up. The goal was to keep the winners of the photo competition under wraps until the grand reveal at 1pm. Kash and Sevan got started, covering kites, mice and moths in black bin bags.

It turned out that covering the photos was a 2 person task, so Emmanuella and John were deployed to commandeer chairs and tables in the Rickyard café, where the reception would be. They were asked to pounce as customers vacated their seats and hold the tables. This was ideal for John as he could grab a coffee and have a seat after parkrun. Emmanuella however was expecting to do something a bit more energetic to earn her good deed. Nevertheless, slowly they managed to take control of the whole area, allowing it to be closed to the public and prepared for visitors.

The second shift at Ealing Wildlife Group Photo Exhibition Grand Opening brought us a task which was a cross between patrolling and greeting 👋👮. Sevan and Kash used the green hi-viz to re-brand themselves as Ealing Willdlife Group volunteers and were strolling along the main path in Walpole Park with veiled artwork. Their job was to welcome people curious about the signs covered with black bin bags and tell them about the event.

They didn't have much luck at the beginning. Although they were smiling and making eye contact with passers-by, they didn't seem to capture enough attention. Maybe the covered photo prints with no logos didn't seem to be associated with the EWG vests GoodGymers were wearing? Maybe Sevan and Kash should have applied more salespeople's tactics? They eventually got someone interested in their pitch after that person's 3-month-old puppy 🐕 enthusiastically ran to them and rolled on its back in excitement, waiting for cuddles.

Today's EWG volunteer boss, Emma, decided to change GoodGymers' posts to more strategic positions. Now Sevan and Kash acted as funnelers, directing the exhibition visitors to the back of Rickyard where the event was going to take place. They grabbed some beaver project leaflets and placed themselves on two paths leading to the Rickyard café. That move was spot on. They gained much more of the public's attention and seemed to be in just the right spots as the arriving visitors were interested in the event and were looking for the entrance which was hidden at the side of the café.

Kash met some familiar faces, including the dad of one photographer whose works won second and third place in the young artists' category. In the meantime, Sevan picked up a side quest. Jo from LAGER Can had knitted an Ealing Wildlife Group postbox topper that had been recently installed on a postbox on Elers Road, so Sevan was sent to run and take a photo of it. As a reward, he found out who was the creator behind the Ealing charities postbox toppers. Maybe GoodGym Ealing should get one as well?

The final task of the shift was Sevan's and Kash's speciality: destruction 🧨. Three minutes before the announcement of the contest winners, the GoodGymers had to perform the "grand unveiling" in practice and undo their work from the morning. They unleashed their inner beasts and ripped the bin bags covering the art of the posts.

Sevan and Kash still managed to get on time to Rickyard to hear Sean, the leader of EWG, announcing the winners in each category and the overall contest. Second place went to Anna from Friends of Grove Farm, who captured the beauty of the hidden nature reserve in a winter landscape photo 👏 Grove Farm in North Greenford is a surprisingly stunning and calm woodland which GoodGym helps to maintain together with Friends of Grove Farm and LAGER Can.

If you'd like to see the woods and support Anna's and other volunteers' efforts, come and join us in October for a monthly litter pick and the conservation day.

Paradise Fields goes wireless

Beavers are coming to Ealing. They will return to live in our borough after more than 400 years in a rewilding project of the first area of urban London. Nothing can stop the beavers now! Or something can? Their beavers' new address, Paradise Fields at the far West end of Horsenden Hill, was not secure yet for the magnificent creatures. It was surrounded by wire fencing that could harm beavers. Something had to be done about it!

The last push

'Wow, are you training for something? Marathon? We weren't sure if you were coming to join us or just running'

Nadia, the enthusiastic leader of today's Big Beaver Volunteer Day, looked at us curiously.

Why not both!, we replied.

We introduced ourselves and explained briefly what GoodGym is about. There were a lot of new faces from Ealing Wildlife Group but we found some familiar ones too: Dr Sean McCormack, in charge of EWG, and Ben Morris, the founder of Clean Up River Brent.

Nadia, in a very energetic manner, described what we would be doing today, which warmed us up immediately (not that we had a chance to cool down after a 6km run from Ealing on a pretty hot day!). It was the final push from the volunteers before the arrival of the beavers and the stakes were high. Nadia ran the group through when and how to use shears, secateurs and saws, then passed the baton to Sean who asked:

Are there any questions about the beaver project?

When are the beavers coming?

Sean himself couldn't be sure yet. He told us that the aim for the Big Release is mid-October. The beavers were still being imported. How? Currently, the beavers were trapped and collected from the sites where they were not wanted. Can you imagine this? Apparently, in Scotland, they had too many of them. Export of beavers to Ealing is much more humanitarian than other methods of getting rid of them. Hey, who wouldn't like free housing in Ealing anyway?

The beavers already caught were first in quarantine before their move down to the site. There were rumours we would be getting a whole family of beavers!

As much as everyone would like to see the arrival of the rodents, the Big Day is supposed to be an exclusive event, open only to the most dedicated regular volunteers and prominent figures (possibly the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan!). To save beavers from the stress, their transport would be by a secret van, and the release would happen overnight.

Divide and conquer

After Sean's informative speech, we split into several teams:

• Litterpickers - wherever there's litter in Ealing, there's LAGER Can with their signature blue waste bags and pickers for everyone
• Aquatic litterpickers - led, of course, by Ben from CURB who couldn't wait to put his waders on and go fishing for some sunken treasures
• Support of infrastructure for water outflow - the two exclusive slots in that group were already booked by experienced folks
• Biological data recording - their focus was to gather intelligence to understand changes in the ecosystem after the beavers' arrival. There was a question from the audience about that task:

If we're doing the biological recording, do we need to kill anything?

Not this time.

That team was supposed to take pictures of insects found in the area.

• Wire fencing removers - the largest group with the highest priority task: remove hazards on the site

Guess which teams we chose to be in?

The wiring squad

You guessed it right. Destruction, dismantling, disassembly, you name it. Those are our favourite activities, and we didn't want to miss a chance to remove the fencing with wooden stakes. There were a lot of stakes! Some of the stakes had brambles tangled around them, others had small trees growing in between them, and the rest were trapped in twigs, grass and whatever could grow in Paradise Fields.

Before we even started chopping and pulling, our team had to resolve a big dilemma: where are the right-hand thick gloves? We couldn't find a single one in the gloves bucket.

Spoiler alter: they were in a different bucket.

The task was physically demanding and satisfying. The muscles had to be engaged to keep chopping and pulling the vegetation obstructing the fence, cut the wire, pull the stakes and big poles from the ground and then roll and carry the fencing.

After two hours of hard work, we had to make a move, refuel energy and run for our second mission of the day, the Tiny forest maintenance.

It was GoodGym's last gig at Paradise Fields before the beavers' reintroduction day. After our beloved mascots arrive, their new home is going to be closed to the public for at least a month to let the animals settle in the neighbourhood.

Sevan, Madhan and Kash were walking back home from their afternoon mission in Greenford and recalled that Ealing Wildlife Group's nature reserve is on the way back.

'Do you know when then volunteering day at Costons Lane finishes?' asked Sevan.

Kash reached for her phone to look that up on the EWG website. And she found something else!

'There's a harvest mice release event today! In half an hour at Paradise Fields.'

'Let's go there!'

The event was just a little bit more than 30 minutes away by foot - definitely less time to get there for GoodGymers!

At the meeting spot Sevan, Madhan and Kash found plenty of friends from Ealing Wildlife Group Horsenden Farm. Dr Sean McCormac gave a speech explaining why EWG breeds harvest mice and releases them into the wild. The species became extinct in our borough in the previous century and the rewilding project in Ealing brings them back into the borough's meadows along with other animals like barn owls.

Spoiler alert: harvest mice are food for barn owls 🥲

Dr Sean explained that today's effort is the last release of the harvest mice at Paradise Fields this year and a 'soft release', meaning that the tiny rodents would get a headstart in their new, independent life. Volunteers brought water, lining and fruit kebabs to support the mice's first days in the wild.

Previously, the GoodGym crew joined another mice release this year: at Marnham Fields where they helped carrying containers with the critters and released a mice each. This time the volunteers outnumbered the 25 rodents being released and the children were given the priority to carry the boxes and release the mice. What was left for GoodGymers was to join the group of paparazzi taking photos of cute animals holding onto the grass with their nimble tails and whisper to each released mouse:

Make good choices!

If you'd like to get involved with the next Ealing Wildlife Group event related to rewilding, come to Paradise Fields for the Big Beaver Volunteer Day - the last push to prepare Paradise Fields for the arrival of our beavers in Autumn. Sign up here!

Wrong Turn

Milly was an early bird on the meeting point at St.Mary Church. Madhan reached with 2 minutes to spare. Sevan reached on time and was catching his breath after the 30-minute run from Acton Town to Hanwell. Milly led the way to find the Boles meadow which is a 2-minute walk from the church. Even though Madhan saw a signboard saying Boles Meadow on the way, he didn't say a word and blindly followed the crew. We hopped through a closed bridge and ended up going in the wrong direction. We then went back and joined the wildlife group.

Are we clear

We were debriefed on the task and given a shovel, 2 blocks of wood, and a wheelbarrow. We were asked to make a hole, not too deep, and make bedding with wood chips and cover it with logs. We started digging and Milly got some woodchips made out of brambles and dried leaves in the wheelbarrow along with worms and spiders. We were not sure what the end product should look like, Milly then went back to the coordinator, and we got a clear explanation this time.

Let's start building

We made a hole the size of one or two hedgehogs to live. We were asked to build an apartment for a group of hedgehogs and not a small home that we thought we needed to make. Sevan and Milly then started making the hole bigger and Madhan did multiple rounds on a wheelbarrow to transport some chunky logs.

Passed with flying colors

We carefully architected the hedgehog home with an entrance, enough ventilation, nice bedding, etc. We then asked for a review from one of the coordinators, and she was super happy with our home. We covered the home with more wood chips and ensured all the gaps are properly covered for better insulation.

We decided we might not have enough time to finish building a second home before the task ends. So we left a little earlier than the planned task time. We made a short walk around the zoo and Sevan then started his travel all the way to the east for his next mission. Milly and Madhan raced to paint some railings.

A special moment

This is special for Madhan as it is his 50th mission with Goodgym Ealing. And the lovely Ealing GoodGymers made a card for his 50th. Sevan handed over the card and '50 sash'. Shoveling with a sash seemed to be a challenge for Madhan, so he had to stop wearing it. Need to learn from Sevan on how he did on his recent one.