One more loggery added at Hackney Marshes! It’s great to see this project growing.

Nice to meet Gideon again and help him add one more loggery to Hackney Marshes. The weather was lovely and the task was completed in good time. Got to make few four-legged friends as well and throw some sticks!

Five go-getting GoodGymers created one lovely loggery for local wildlife at Hackney Marshes.

It was a beautiful sunny February morning at the Marshes, as Sooz, Jen, Alex, Deirdre and first timer Karthik joined Gideon and Nina to build a new home for small mammals, critters and insects in the area.

They wheeled barrows and equipment around the football pitches before settling on the perfect site for their muffin-shaped masterpiece.

It was strenuous work for the fivesome but there was no stopping this team!

Jen started by creating the first of five holes to fit the stakes, and Karthik collected logs, whilst Alex, Suze and Deirdre and then Karthik took turns with the stakes.

Nina showed the group how to dig out the undergrowth and leave entrance holes for the small mammals like field mice and snakes. They then built up the loggery with piles of strategically placed logs and wood chipping.

Gideon even took a break to give a group of local ramblers a short ecology talk!

Before long the team were taking shifts collecting chippings and “GoodGym favourite” leaf mulch, whilst Karthik helped Gideon and Nina to nail the wire frame around the stakes.

After more chipping and mulching - and a lot of heavy lifting - the muffin-esque loggery was complete.

Mission accomplished!

Wildlife loggery done by the river. Hopefully we’ll see little creatures making use of them.

4 Goodgymers made their way to Hackney Marshes on a chilly Sunday morning to meet the lovely Gideon and Nina of The Wildlife Gardeners of Haggerston who taught us how to build loggeries for small mammals.

It was a tough physical task which involved transporting all the equipment to the back corner of the marshes, driving stakes into the ground, digging a hole in the centre of the stakes for the mammals to shelter, locating and moving logs to construct a roof over the shelter, surrounding the structure with wire fencing providing a protective barrier and finally shovelling and barrowing lots of wood chip and leaves on top, creating a warm and sturdy structure. The team managed to build two loggeries in a couple of hours.