Winter count 2013, the Dark Knight returns

The Bat team, Mike, Morris and Simon

New young pair swans, Sherborne Brook

 Sub zero temperatures but lots of 'treats' today, and over the past few days! This covers the Snowshill Manor Wassail last Saturday, an Orchard visiting Wassail with special guests the Happenstance Border Morris musicians and dancers. The weather was kind and the enjoyment factor for this traditional celebration high. Highlights featured 'toasting' the selected apple tree ( literally toast dipped in cider was hung from the tree by all who could reach) and  dancing by all to the unique Snowshill Wassail dance!

Another 'treat' was the delivery of the Dendrochronology report on the Oaks at Lodge Park which provided more details for the October visit. In summary it verified and more accurately measured the ages of the three oaks sampled at 290, 440 and 520 years. Additionally it showed a very slow girth growth rate during the 'formative'  phase but no reason given. Mike proposed this may be a due to a combination of the limestone soil and possibly a long dry spell in the 90 years of formative growth.

 Today joined by Morris (our Dark Night) with additional support by Simon we were to carry out a bat count for the Sherborne area. So with a light covering of snow and sub zero temperatures we headed for the main winter roost at the 'Bat Cave'. At the 'cave' entrance it was amazing to feel the heat from within which was a steady, barmy 9C. The lesser horseshoes inside favour the warmer temperatures and inside were  a very healthy population of 161. No greater horseshoes but its still early days and the April count  may reveal some along with more lessers. (2012 Feb count). We paid a quick visit to the other bat roosts in the village and a further 6 lesser horseshoes were found but also 1 brown long eared bat! Quite a relief for Mike our Ranger and Morris the Bat expert since the wet 2012 with less insects may have impacted the Bat population.  It still is a worry if we have a prolonged cold spell, so until the counts later on in the year show the Bat numbers are still healthy, fingers are crossed.

Spent an enjoyable lunchtime walking around Sherborne village and Brook. Was treated to views of nuthatch, coal/great/blue tits, green and gold finches by the bird feeders. At the Sherborne brook 2 pairs  of swans, one flying heron,  lots of ducks (mallard & widgeon) , and 1 red kite. Bumped into a couple of BT engineers who were both keen on sharing with me the recent invasion of waxwings in Cheltenham which I seem to be the only one living in Cheltenham who missed out on seeing this spectacle!

The afternoon saw us return to Snowbottom Belt for the next stage of thinning. Even with Simon it proved to be hard work again but satisfying and warm in spite of the freezing mist. As with last weeks thinning the trees needed rolling, levering, cutting, and occasionally prayer to get them to ground level. Mike even let me loose with the new tree lever to force a couple of the big beeches to cut through the overhead canopy to reach the ground. In no time darkness brought an end to the day with more cord  wood piles for Mike to gather up with tractor and trailer tomorrow.

Dendrochronology - who knows where the time goes, (Sandy Denny)

This is what a Dendro.. looks like, Andy

Good view of deer park valley, Nigel, Mike, Andy hard at it!

Once more this year the met weather forecast was way off the mark but I have to confess I can't be too unhappy given the fine sunny day enjoyed for most of the day. This wasn't the only surprise since the day started at Lodge Park where we met Andy {Dendrochronologist- tree ring ageing/analysis expert} and Nigel {'Sponsor'} who were to age some of the really mature oaks in the deer park. So with Mike's approval Andy with Increment Borer drilled into the first of the Oak trees chosen. This proved to be an instant success, noting trees several hundred years old often suffer from decay or hollowing, and an excellent core sample obtained with an initial estimate of age by ring examination of ~500 years. Its amazing how quickly the bore hole closes up, so no risk of damage to the tree plus a surprise for me when extracting the Borer, harder than it looks but a lot of compression involved from such a heavyweight Oak! Clearly Andy has to clean up the core tube sample and with the girth measurement produce an accurate figure. Much can also be deduced by the width of the tree rings in terms of varied growth rates caused by changing environmental conditions experienced throughout the trees long life. The next 2 sampled Oaks revealed a hollow core even so the partial core tube samples obtained still provide useful historic data. The final Oak examined provided another excellent core tube sample and first examination suggested this tree was ~200-300 years old, a relative youngster! There is quite a bit more that analysis of these 4 samples can reveal about Oaks/conditions in this area and we are all looking forward to Andy's full report in several weeks time. This days exercise reminds me generally how little we are aware, value or take care of our ancient {and modern trees too} trees where as 'living' organisms they are an essential part of our countryside and can tell us a great deal about the environment over many hundreds of years!

Spent the lunchtime down by Sherborne Brook in the sun watching the resident birdlife enjoying a relaxed time on the water or in the case of the buzzards flying high in the sky, waiting for unsuspecting prey to get careless. The afternoon was spent in the West Belt where Mike continued the thinning, which had been started earlier in the week with Simon's help,  of mainly sycamore but included some ash. This will not only encourage healthy growth of remaining trees and young saplings but build up the wood supplies ready for the winter demand. Again Mike's choice of trees to thin are influenced by a number of factors.  One especially helping protection of the good beech and ash from squirrel damage by leaving some of the sycamore standing to hopefully provide the squirrels food source. So a good day for me, with trees dominating, and with an interesting surprise at the end.

This was strictly after I had 'signed off' but involved the rescue of Bryn a golden retriever who had lost its owner and was wandering down the road to Sherborne village. This took the combined effort of Debbie {NT building manager}, myself and Mike {add Pet rescue to NT country services}. Fortunately there was a happy ending where Bryn's owners were eventually discovered at Ewe Pen Barn and although something could be said regards looking after your dog, Bryn was happy to be reunited, which is the important thing.