Woodstock ?

Its all about the wood, music would be good too

Weather almost tropical compared with yesterday, and yet another surprise start at Sherborne. This involved the delivery of a Christmas tree, courtesy of the Commons, to Northleach Church. Was impressed by the 13th century church at Northleach and even better by a chance sighting of a kingfisher on a 'tributary' of the river Leach just outside the church grounds. However the main task of the day was to be in the nursery generating as much wood as possible before, sadly, the wood processor is returned to Ebworth. So the rest of the morning was spent filling the tractor trailer which was then duly unloaded into a pretty full wood store. This is just as well since the seasoned cord wood supplies are rapidly disappearing.

Lunch was down by the Broadwater where 2 mute swans {no cygnet}, wigeon, mallards, canada geese , 1 Greylag and 1 tufted duck were on show.

The afternoon included 2 wood deliveries and ended in the dark with another trailer load, destined for the wood store.  So a really productive day with our 'woodstock[s]' in good shape before the christmas holiday demands. As to repeating the 69 iconic festival, I don't think Lodge Park is ready for something that large so happy to settle for the 'peace' and birds of Sherborne!

Final count 2013

Cheltenham avenue, near Bat cave

The morning was to prove damp at Sherborne, but fortunately we were to carry out the last bat count of the year so we were under cover most of the time. Morris was on good form, possibly because he's soon off on a 6 week Australian adventure, and much historic information was imparted on quarries in the local area plus their bat populations. The temperatures recorded in the bat cave were fairly high and the bats certainly took advantage with a large grouping to be found at a 12 degree hot spot. So in the bat cave were 142 lesser horseshoes, 0 in the kennels, 0 in the bothy and 19 in the nursery cellar giving a total of 161. This was slightly down on the last count of 175 but apparently this is normal as some males disperse to other roosts in search of females, so we are expecting at the next planned survey, a higher count in January 2014.

Spent a dry and sunny lunch with a leisurely walk through the Pleasure Grounds on my way to the Cheltenham Avenue to witness the end of the Autumnal colours in the beech and larch. On the way back I had a quick look over the Broadwater where to my surprise was a new swan family with one cygnet {a little late in the season}. They were in the company of significant numbers of canada geese and various ducks.

The afternoon was spent in the nursery with the wood processor, generating and delivering 2 trailer loads for local customers. Bad light and further rain showers prevented further wood processing work so next week will be a concentrated effort to increase our wood supplies as much as possible {we'll probably finish off the remaining seasoned wood left} before the wood processor returns to Ebworth. Clearly we'll need the weather to cooperate so hopefully the expected winter snow will hold off a little longer.

Just in case there was any doubt regards this Governments record on 'being green', Mark Avery's 'nature check' blog reminds us in detail how badly they are doing against their own targets.

The Tree whisperer ?

The Broadwater

First real signs of winter with a frosty start this morning but ideal working conditions on a mainly sunny day. A relaxing start with a wood delivery for Simon, a fellow volunteer, and providing excellent hospitality. This was followed by a trip to the West Belt for a continuation of thinning. It was to prove a  difficult session and one of those days where our patience was certainly tested. The trees to be felled seemed to resist the simple task of just falling to the ground. So rolling, levering using both tree levers, use of the wedge, levering the trunk backwards and 'super cuts' with the chainsaw were all brought into play to bring the trees to ground. I think even Mike was surprised by so much resistance to our efforts and I'm sure a few quiet words were also employed at one stage. It was certainly not boring and at least the last tree to be felled before lunch actually fell to the floor with no additional help.

Spent lunchtime by the Broadwater [part of Sherborne brook close to the village] where the canada geese, mallards, moor hens, coots, wigeon, teal and a friendly wren were all on show. Interesting news from Mike was that 7 mute swans visited the Broadwater earlier this week, a good chance they were 7 of the 9 cygnets that were born here and encouraged to leave by their parents!

The afternoon was spent back in the West Belt but this time on some hedge laying. True to todays form this proved challenging, as the shrubs/trees to be bent into the new hedge were on the large size, entangled with each other and also leaning in the wrong direction. Progress was therefore not as impressive as the hedge laying last week but despite one or two setbacks we did finish the day with a reasonable stretch completed.

The Windrush, water levels high by water meadows

The first short eared owl in the water meadows this season was reported by Andy L {NCOS} so must find time to pay a visit to see if it has been joined by more of these winter visitors.

Building Bridges!

John thinking hard about how to plug the hole in the bridge

Out with the Wildlife Trust thursday with the weather looking particularly good. Nearly made my first visit to the Slinket on the river Dikler but other factors intervened. Instead I volunteered to go with John back to Snipe Moss to carry out some fencing work on the bridge which spans the river Dikler and used to support a railway line. While we spent todays session on this work two teams of volunteers headed for the Slinket to carry out the main work of the day.

Its all about the ponies!

The work at Snipe Moss was more of an owner engagement exercise so that the current relationship with the landowner remained healthy so that future work the Wildlife Trust needed to do on the river Dikler would hopefully not be obstructed. The aim was to make as safe as possible the bridge area for grazing of the Shetland ponies. In view of the 'run down' nature of the area this was not going to be easy.  However with the mighty metal bar, drival , posts and wooden rails we set to. In spite of the tricky terrain we had the fencing up by lunchtime and even solved some potential dangers on the bridge edge by moving previously felled wood to fill the gaps. One tricky problem had to remain unresolved however, concerning a dangerous hole on the bridge itself, badgers and natural erosion being the cause. To end the day we put up some more fencing to fill a gap in the fencing line along the Dikler and just to the side of the bridge. Hopefully the days efforts will prove worthwhile and be appreciated by the landowner.

Fallen ash in South Park, Sherborne house in the background

Bit of mixed bag at Sherborne today, with contrast in weather conditions and some varied tasks. Started off with more 'bridge building' at South Park, by the pond, tending to a fallen ash tree. This was to help out one of the tenant farmers and hopefully keep him onside with regards 'high level scheme' work in the future. Good view of Sherborne House from this wet spot and Mike was relieved the weather was dry as getting a loaded trailer out of this area if the weather was wet would prove difficult. In the pleasant weather we soon had the trailer filled leaving some hefty cord wood to be picked up by the tractor later.   At this point Mike got a phone call from Lodge Park holiday cottages where our services were called on to move a new cooker into place before the new visitors arrived.  We set off directly from South Park to the Lodge gate cottage and successfully escaped the wet pasture just as the heavy rain hit. This made moving the cooker in the wet more difficult but nothing we couldn't manage. Little did we know we would back at the end of the day, in the rain, removing the old cooker!  The afternoon,  fortunately with less heavy rain, was spent on the A40 side of West Belt clearing the area adjacent to the dry stone wall. This involved me doing the 'brush cutting' and Mike on pole saw removing overhanging branches. So quite a varied, productive day but I was pleased to get home and get into to some dry warm clothes!

Update on CAP by Martin Harper.

Work on the wild side?

Wiltshire and Gloucestershire WT united

Joined the Wildlife Trust team today at Snipe Moss on a stretch of the River Dikler for some more habitat clearance work. Will and Richard led the team which was bolstered by 2 members of the Wiltshire Wildlife trust based at the Lagoons near Swindon. Also helping the days work were some new saws and loppers which were to prove important as there was quite dense shrub alongside the river bank which needed to be cut back to create more light aiding new ground vegetation growth. Waders were to prove essential as the Dikler water levels had risen significantly of late with the recent rains and the water flow was brisk.

Far bank of the Dikler much clearer

Richard with new saw, Will in support 

Hawthorn ready to fall, Wiltshire team ready to clear brash

To add to the challenge were some 'prickly' hawthorn and a fence line making access to the shrubs challenging. However with the effort split between water and the river bank we managed to complete the clearance by early afternoon and before any rain had the chance to fall.

For those old enough,  another music legend Lou Reed gone, hope the title of this blog not too cheesy.