Work Party - March 2024

 

The woodland was still very wet underfoot but just about manageable for a work party and the wild daffodils were in flower

We have largely ignored the stream flowing over the path but to encourage the water to go through, rather than over the pipe, the inflow was dug out again and some large stones put in to create a barrier.

And the outflow was dug out a bit too.

The dead wood structure, also known as Hotel Beetlejuice,  had become a bit wobbly as the  wood has got more rotten over the years.  It's been there a while now, definitely over 5 years.

The long branches were dug about 50cm into the ground. Some came up easily others were more firmly set. The wood was moved into two piles, one further up the path and and one filling in the resulting hole and covering the hedgehog house. 

We accidentally disturbed a slow worm so we made sure he had somewhere to go in the new pile and carefully buried him again.

Three donated bird boxes were put up around the glade.

Primroses

Bird box on a tree in the glade.

At the top of the main path, bordering the field, was a stand of laurel, a non-native species planted when the estate managed the wood, probably for game cover. It had got really big so we have started the process of removing it to let in more light and give the native species a chance. As the laurel wood is toxic volunteers were reminded to wash hands after handling it.