Our first volunteer morning of the year saw a large turnout but, wow, it was very cold! The main focus of the day was to plan for the year ahead, using the knowledge from Russell Miller’s site visit several weeks ago.
Topics and thoughts discussed were very varied, ranging from tree removal, coppicing of hazels, planting of more native bulbs and perennials, cutting back of ivy, removal of invasive plants and “tidying” up of deadwood to make it more beneficial to nature.
The accompanying photos show that the previous night was very cold, in places the frost looked like fresh snow! It was definitely below freezing as the pond had frozen over. But, the hazel catkins were in flower and tree leaf buds were present on an elder shrub.
What’s going on with the weather? It’s very rare that we get such horrible weather. This morning started off looking pretty grim, a brief 30 min dry spot quickly became a torrential downpour by 11:30. Added to a rumble of thunder and some lightning, it was decided to end the event early. There might be a mid-week event volunteer event later this month, keep a lookout on here. We had hoped to continue with the butterfly counting event, but in the brief time we were on site this morning, not surprisingly we didn’t see a single butterfly.
This morning in The Glade
No matter that the rain was pouring down, the fruit trees are starting to produce some good size apples and pears, let’s hope we can have an Autumn open day event.
Ripe and ripening blackberries and growing Bramley apples.
Needless to say, the pond needs no topping up with any water. It’s looking very well at the moment. The below picture shows some bulrush plants and flowers on the pond margins.
Our evening’s butterfly count results showed quite a various number of different species present. People recorded large whites, small whites, green-veined whites, commas, jersey tiger moths, red admirals and speckled woods.
Below is a photo of a jersey tiger moth captured by one of the evening’s volunteers.
We will continue the survey once again on the next volunteer morning on Saturday, 7th August, starting at the usual time of 10:00. You can download the app or ID chart and come along and do a survey www.butterfly-conservation.org
Our 3rd event of the year saw another 20 or so volunteers and committee members turn up, as well as new, local residents who had never been to the woodland before!
The main focus was in the mini-glade area, as you walk up the steps towards the main glade. Three sycamore trees were felled to allow for more light to enter the area, in order to benefit the oak trees and hedge plants. The felled trees were cut in to smaller pieces, which will either be used as path edging or for small seats in the glade. Very useful for children to sit and listen to Richard Sylvester’s story telling!
Felled sycamore tree with the trunk cut in to logs
Other activity in this included the preparation of a trench next to the footpath so that school children can plant the hedge saplings in the next few days.
Plant-wise, the snowdrops have finished flowering, but the primroses are going strong, and the bluebells are also growing well. The Lords-and-Ladies (Arum maculatum) are also growing well and spreading nicely. This native British plant is common in woodlands and other shady areas.
Lords-and-Ladies, a very good woodland plant indicator species
Finally, the bees were rather quite early in the morning, but as the morning advanced, a little activity was seen, although later in the morning, around midday when the temperature had risen, you could see them flying around the hives.
Our pear trees (see photo) are starting to come in to bud, see photo below. Let’s hope this year’s fruit crop is as good as last year’s.
This morning’s event was another exciting and very productive session, with around 2 dozen existing and new members turning up.
As always, the removal of invasive bramble and ivy took place, with lots of help working in the “mini-glade”, on your left-hand side as you walk up the steps towards the main area. A large 8 foot high and wide buddleia was removed. While good for butterflies, it’s an invasive plant which was swamping the planted bluebells.
The enourmous buddleja that was threatening to swamo the local area has now been removed!Volunteers tackling the buddleja plant
Also removed was ivy around the bases of trees and putting up of new bird boxes.
Removal of ivy on treesOne of the many bird-boxes, now cleaned and ready for new tenants!
The bees in hive 1 were “a hive of activity” (every pun intended!!).
Bluebells were looking good, and snowdrops were nicely in flower. Primroses were discovered under ivy and were expanding their range; plants for free! And a foxglove was also found which hadn’t been planted, exciting stuff!
Emerging bluebellsA single foxglove, which should be in full flower in several weeks from now Committee member Rich Sylvester coppicing hazels.Snowdrops in flower. These are now starting to be established.
In the area near the entrance, hazel coppicing took place.
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