It is not often that everyone
agrees, but for once it seemed to happen on 11th May, our Open Day at
Brookings Down, Noss Mayo in Devon.
The weather was perfect, the children (lots of them) were well behaved, the
activities (story telling, tree climbing and make your own caterpillar or
bird box, to mention a few) were appreciated.
Everyone had a good time, and enjoyed seeing the bluebells and campion at
their peak; they are now flourishing with foxgloves in the areas first
cleared of laurel. Thank you to the Woodland Trust, BTCV and the Silvanus
Trust for all their help. And thank you for your support on the day.
The volunteers have done a huge amount of useful work; they have logged 306
man-hours this year to the end of May. The main task has been clearing the
cherry laurel, and we expect to finish this in the autumn. All the unwanted internal fencing
has been removed. The Silvanus Trust (sponsored by Western Power
Distribution) supplied a further 108 trees and shrubs to replace the laurel
- it is important to build up the under-storey with hazel, holly, viburnum and hawthorn.
Most of these trees and shrubs, along with the ones planted
earlier, are doing well.
We have felled the two large dead pines on the edge of the wood and are
renewing the fenceline at this point. The farmer has agreed to make good the
rest of the fence, so this should prevent sheep from entering the wood.
Blue and great tits have occupied most of the bird boxes that we put
up – we now have 11 of them. Two black kites were observed at the end of May;
this coincided with a number of sightings in the Southwest. The buzzards are
raising a family in a new site in the wood, and the spotted flycatchers have
returned. Young birds from no less than 15 species have been observed –
blackbird, song thrush, wren, dunnock, jay, nuthatch, pheasant, treecreeper, chaffinch, bullfinch,
chiffchaff and robin, as well as those
already mentioned.
This autumn we will be clearing the rest of the laurel, and planting more
trees and shrubs. We also want to improve the entrances and access to the
wood, so that more people can enjoy it. We plan to ‘zigzag’ the long path in
the southwest area to make the climb less steep.
|
Event update
|
