This week the world celebrated the eighth anniversary of Laudato Si'.
Laudato Si' was published by Pope Francis in 2015 as an encyclical (a letter circulated by the Pope to Catholic churches). The letter was addressed to everyone on the planet urging us all to protect our common home from environmental destruction. He invited us to join him in embarking on a new path with hope and resolution.
This annual celebration unites Catholics to rejoice in the progress made in bringing Laudato Si' to life so far.
Embracing Laudato Si'
We at Ampleforth Abbey are committed to bringing Laudato Si' to life. This week alone, our wonderful ecologist Georgia has been a part of many exciting and valuable projects underway at the Abbey which aim to protect and encourage the wildlife within our grounds.
Speaking on preserving our environment and all its beauty, Georgia says:
"Our future aims are to conserve and enhance the richness that surrounds us, and to provide practical and educational opportunities for people to connect with nature in order to experience a sense of awe and wonder at the natural world".
An update on the Swifts
As you may have already seen, we recently installed swift boxes on Alban Roe House (in partnership with the AONB and local artist and conservationist Jonathan Pomroy) to provide the Red Listed endangered bird with a permanent home on our grounds.
The swifts are now arriving!
Here is Jonathan and our ecologist Georgia with a new (kindly donated) swift box. Swift calls will be played via a speaker (held by Jonathan) positioned in, underneath, or near the boxes. The calls can be set to play at times thought to best attract the swift.
We hope in the coming months more and more swifts will make a home at the Abbey thanks to these boxes and calls.
Helping the House Martin
House martins are also Red Listed and endangered. When Alban Roe House started renovation, lots of intact house martin nests were found in the roof, and thanks to William Birch & Sons Ltd (who are carrying out the work on Alban Roe House) they were preserved! Today we have a healthy colony of house martins flying around our grounds.
As they build their nests out of mud, this Thursday both Jonathan and Georgia kindly created a mud bath for the house martins to make use of.
A hole was dug and filled with water near where the birds currently nest. House martins can now use this to upkeep their current nests or create new ones.
Riverfly Monitoring
The Holbeck runs through our grounds and is a tributary for the River Rye. We work closely with Ryevitalise (a scheme working to conserve River Rye and its tributaries) to help them monitor the water quality of the river.
Monitoring is part of The Riverfly Partnership's national scheme to protect the water quality of our country's rivers.
On Tuesday we welcomed a volunteer from Ryevitalise who took a 3-minute sample from the river to record the presence of 'riverflies' such as mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies. If invertebrate numbers are low, this is an indication water is unhealthy and further action must be taken to help it.
Results are sent to The Riverfly Partnership each month for data analysis.
Interested in Laudato Si'?
Why not join Fr Christopher's retreat which explores the Pope's message and looks at how we can respond to a changing cultural climate?
From Monday 5th - Thursday 8th June