Yesterday afternoon, committee member Pip O’Byrne, was walking in the woodlands and took these 3 photos of early Spring activity. The beautiful primroses are really starting to be in flower and she also photographed the large amount of frog spawn that we have in our pond.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
