April Nature Notes from Pete Lambert

I was recently confined to the house, a challenge to any wildlife watcher but fortunately I had stocked up the bird table and in the days before I had ventured out as often as possible to accrue some outdoor credits. I held on to the awed period we had spent marvelling at a starling flock, random yet synchronised swoops of hundreds of birds darkening a patch of late evening sky. A lone starling fed at the table a few days later, this close up view of shimmering plumage reinforced my promise to not undervalue this pretty and skilful bird.

 A short cycle of the lanes led to two close up Brock encounters, the first a pair spilling out across our path, the second a juvenile running alongside us until we could slow avoiding a collision. The canal side plants are shifting up a gear, pussy willows are bursting and shortly the blowsy blossoms of the blackthorn will burst; the blackthorns’ impatient flowers are always ahead of their leaves and the other hedge row show-offs.

From the front and back windows our local farmers had prepared a number of fields ready for this years' crop. Rooks strutted their stuff up front and to the rear black headed gulls made the most of the freshly turned soil. I was unable to hear the calls of both busy flocks but enjoyed their garrulous pleasure in each others company. The bird table attracted the usual ground hopping sparrows, dunnock, chaffinches, collared dove, great tit and a pair of sleek jackdaws. The Jackdaws distinctive call followed me into the dining room as yet again they occupied our disused chimney, maybe they will have a word with the house mice who have joined us in great numbers this winter!

A quick dash outside to fetch kindling left me with a puzzle. A subtly patterned moth had landed on my slippers, its identity only being solved by much more knowledgeable friends, a Dotted border. I sent them a photo and was rewarded by an ID by the end of the day.  Intriguingly I was informed the female is flightless staying in the hedges and bushes of their preferred habitat. A disturbed Engrailed moth settled on the kitchen wall, this one I photographed again and then with the incredible on-line resources got a name for this friendly flying invertebrate.

The sparrows still form mobbing gangs of eaters; one such group included a pair of yellow hammers. I remember the male calling repeatedly from the hedge alongside the garden last year. Yellowhammers are very vulnerable to predation by the corvid family that is rooks, crows, jackdaws and magpies. Fledging success for yellowhammers is directly related to invertebrate abundance near the nest site. When corvids are present the Yellowhammer will make fewer provisioning visits, this slows the growth and condition of the chicks, reducing body size and life span. A recent study showed that food availability enhanced by wide headlands and other measures may actually prove more effective than corvid control. For our yellowhammers I need to plan a little insect enrichment for healthier and longer lived broods if I wish to go on enjoying their glorious song.

The days are warming and I will shortly be back outside again, camera ready, and hopefully recharged to cope with the on coming freight train that is Spring proper!

Pete Lambert, 2011

A stroll around Granville

Hi everyone, as it was such a fab sunny spring day today I took myself off to Granville NR to see what the sunshine was enticing out. 



A very pleasant couple of hours was spent rummaging around from way down in the undergrowth right up to tree canopy. Nothing particularly unusual but it’s just good to see the early flora and fauna isn’t it? 

Coltsfoot of course is one of the first spring wild flowers - such a welcoming sight after yet another harsh winter.



Several leaf mines were around including these 2 on Holly and Honeysuckle:

 I was hoping these would turn out to be micro-moth galleries but on searching the very comprehensive www.leafmines.co.uk website I discovered they were Diptera. The very common micro-moth gallery of Stigmella aurella was, however, abundant.

And talking of flies…

A pretty looking Green Bottle settled right in front of me and seemed to be saying “look at me, look at me!”



Amongst the birds I saw were Tree Creeper, Magpie, Coot, Robin, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit and Chaffinch.

A number of Scarlet Elf Cups were also spotted.



And when I got home I was pleased to see the Lily Beetles in the garden had survived the winter.



What was slightly disappointing is that I didn’t spot a single moth! Humbug! Never mind… Friday night is moth night!
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Ercall Dairypits

Blog post courtesy of fellow Wrekin Forest Volunteer - Keith Fowler

Pete got some money to permit the coppicing of the section of woodland at the Dairypits on the Ercall that we had started in Festive Mood for our Christmas day out. Unfortunately as the job had to be completed in a short time it was scheduled as extra work rather than the usual Friday tasks.

As we stared at the plethora of trees with our hand and bow saws at the ready some doubts about completing it did arise! But don’t say that Pete doesn’t look after us - we did have new saws and hard hats to help us.



However the chain saw gang arrived and we partitioned the area into the "beautiful handcrafted side" and the "cut ‘em down as fast as you can mechanically side".

We soon ran out of trees that we purists could handle so we had to yield to the “chain saw massacre” gang and go around clearing up after them.

After two weeks the carnage was complete and Pete decided that it was time for reinforcements so opened up the invitation to help to everyone in the group. This coincided with an unfortunate incident at Muxton Marsh that made Pete switch the Friday gang from there to the Ercall.

Some set about building a dead hedge for a deer fence whilst others collected the produce and created piles of logs for firewood, poles for the “proper” deer fencing, charcoal worthy lumps, fence stakes and rubbish. All of a sudden, we could see the wood from the trees! (Sorry tried to resist - but couldn’t.)



During our third week of work Domino the horse and his handler Phil came to clear the piles of firewood out of the coppiced area.



The Raby Estate sent their tractor and trailer to collect the wood. They estimated that we had provided about 9 tons of firewood: enough to heat a home for a year. Is that right - All that effort and wood for just one house?

The previous areas that we had coppiced had all suffered from the close attention of deer's’ habit of eating the emergent shoots which prevents the newly coppiced trees sprouting ready to be coppiced in future to complete the cycle. To combat this, deer fencing is to be erected around this new area and the one completed last year. This, thankfully, is being done by a contractor.

Unfortunately deer are canny creatures and will have no problem defeating this professionally erected fence so Pete devised a cunning plan - create an outer deer fence disguised as a dead hedge. At half the height that will outwit them!

So all hands to the fencing (apologies if I missed anyone – except Kevin who comes later):-



As different artists will paint the same subject in their own individual style so the same happened with the hedge. We ended up with a “charactful” hedge of different styles as the constructors brought their individuality to the task. See if you can identify the following five styles – I will give you a hint with one (but beware, I may be trying to mislead you):



In the process of coppicing the area we uncovered another mystery. A Pipe. Where does it go? Where does it come from? Kevin followed the pipe back from this area up the lane where there used to be a farm house so, perhaps it was a water pipe to the farm, who knows? Somebody will.



Being the Wrekin Forest Volunteers, we had fires most days and on the last day, when all was complete and we were patting ourselves on the back for a job well done we celebrated as only we can, with biscuits and baked potatoes.




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