Tag Archives: westcombe woodlands

Volunteer Day – Saturday 7th August 2021

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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.

Bulrush plants.

Brief Site Visit – 2nd May 2020

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Yesterday, Saturday 2nd May 2020, should have been our 1st of our 2 open days of the woodland, but with the Coronavirus situation, there were no celebrations of the day.

  • Flowers from a Bramley Apple tree
  • One of the Bramley Apple trees in The Glade

However, light maintenance still needs to take place, including checking on the bees, the pond, the recently planted saplings and to make sure all is well. Just 2 people were in the woodland to make sure physical distancing was observed.

  • Bugle plants in full flower
  • A Colombine in the Oak Glade area

As usual, weeding and watering were undertaken, including the removal of dozens of invasive, garden escape Three Cornered Leek plants, bramble removal, green alkanet removal and topping up the pond with rainwater.

  • Non-native and highly invasive Three-Cornered Leeks
  • A good clump of English Bluebells
  • Butterfly resting on a pear tree’s leaf
  • Emerging ferns

Brief Site Visit – 30th April 2020

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Although the woodland’s volunteer and open days have been cancelled for the foreseeable future, some members have been visiting to check on the plants and bees. Here are 2 recent photos taken by a former committee member of bluebells and wild garlic. Please note that these visits are limited to making sure all is well in the woodland, and unfortunately, no full access will be possible for some while.

Photo of bluebells in full flower, taken in the last week in April 2020.
Photo of wild garlic in full flower, taken in the last week in April 2020.

Volunteer Day – Saturday 4th January 2020

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Our 1st volunteer morning session of 2020 was a packed event!  Even at quiet moments like this there were plenty of activities.

  • A Primrose just starting to flower

Continuing on from last month’s work was bird box cleaning and maintenance.  Committee member Richard Sylvester and 2 other volunteers in the accompanying photos can be seen in repairing bird boxes before replacing them.

Committee member Rich Sylvester making a new bird-box
Other volunteers reapairing old bird boxes and making new ones

As always, there’s no shortage of weeding. The area around the main entrance was starting to be taken over my nettles and brambles, so work was done here, as well as general tidying up.  Well-rotted leaf mulch was taken from here and added to our composting area.

  • A group photo
  • Honey for sale!

Also continuing from last month’s work was tree clearing of smaller shrubs to create more light, as well as removing ivy at the bases of trees.  Dead, fallen branches were added to our wood piles in the smaller glade area. After the increased production of honey earlier this year, jars were available for sale. By the end of the day over £50 of sales had been made!

The pond is now fully topped up. Last Summer, the water level dropped quite dramatically for a few weeks.