PAWs for thought

Gareth will be attending a Woodland Trust event tomorrow about Ancient Woodland Restoration, with a particular focus on Plantation on Ancient Woodland sites (PAWs). The event is being held at Northern College with a site visit to Bagger Wood; a nearby woodland being managed by the Woodland Trust. It should be a good opportunity to learn more about work being done locally to restore woodlands and meet some like-minded folk.

We spent some time at the weekend with the wildlife of Lincolnshire culminating in an excellent showing of grey seals at Donna Nook - a military firing range and nature reserve which provides a massive nursery site for these magnificent mammals. Over 800 pups born so far this year, last years count was 1528! Well worth a visit before early December if you can fit it in.

Just one of this year's pups

It's September already!

As you can probably guess from the absence of recent posts; we've been absolutely flat out for the past few months!

Amongst many other things we've been doing some more hay cutting for Garganey Trust as well as undertaking lots of ecological surveys for bats, dormice, badgers and reptiles - travelling the length and breadth of the UK to do so!

One site we're working on has quite a healthy reptile population, particularly common lizard, which has given Gareth the opportunity to practice his reptile photography skills;

A female common lizard basking in the dappled afternoon sunshine - pity the shed felt she's sat on isn't a little more photogenic!

We were sad to read of the passing of Rob Strachan in the most recent edition of CIEEM's Inpractice. Gareth was lucky enough to have met Rob a couple of years ago during his "Understanding British Mammals" courses for the University of Aberystwith, just one of Rob's many contributions in furthering the study and conservation of British mammals. A genuinely nice guy and a true conservationist.

Have we got newts for you!

Freshly emerged from the 2014 great crested newt survey season we took some time recently to sit down and fill out our Natural England survey licence returns. In total we recorded 1027 great crested newts by bottle trapping or torchlight during our surveys this year. These were mostly in Cheshire (the GCN capital of the UK, if not Europe!), with a few in the midlands as well.

Spot the newt - This wheelie bin provides a perfect refuge for newts making their way to a nearby breeding pond!

In other news Gareth and several other local volunteers helped out Wakefield Tree Wardens yesterday at a Rhododendron removal event in Newmillerdam Country Park. The purpose of the control of this non-native species is two-fold; not only does this plant out-compete and suppress native woodland flora but it is known to host the fungal disease Phytopthora ramorum which has already had a significant impact on larch plantations in other parts of the country. Its removal now is therefore a pro-active measure to reduce the risk of the disease taking hold on this woodland site. 

The task was made much easier thanks to enthusiastic assistance of 5 Regiment of The Royal Artillery who came to help for the day, they made short work of what must have been several acres of Rhododendron.

Happy families

Just had this photo through from our favourite Chapel Allerton based funky gift shop; Chirpy!
 

We're very impressed with artistic skills of these Chirpy customers.

Why not pop along there and get your own hand crafted wooden figures to paint up? An ideal rainy day pass-time!

We'll be doing another workshop at Chirpy later in the summer with a "paint your own family" theme, so watch this space..........

In the meantime we're getting stuck into some great crested newt surveys (yes it's that time of year again!).

Here's a photo we took during a survey last week of a relatively small great crested newt along side an adult smooth newt (both male):

It's pretty difficult to get the two confused when you have them both side by side!

On reflection..... a job well done!

Over the past few weeks we have been working to create a "Reflective Garden Space" at Wakefield Methodist School. After a few final tweeks yesterday the garden is now complete and looking fantastic, if we do say so ourselves!!

The project is a truly joint effort involving the school governors, Pennine Camphill Community College, Hazelwood Conservation and most importantly the pupils (including the School Council and Eco Council) and staff of Wakefield Methodist School.

As well as a quiet place for pupils and staff to sit and reflect, the garden was designed around sustainability with locally made products from locally grown materials; something which we were more than happy to help with!

With the help of pupils we installed a living willow tunnel which leads to the Reflective Garden Space. We also demonstrated willow hurdle making, all of which were made on site with materials cut by ourselves less than 2 miles from the school.

Freshly cut willow - waiting to be "hurdled"!

Hurdling - in the act

Fully hurdled and installed!

We also made rustic gate hurdles with cleft ash arising from management work at a site only a few miles away in Newmillerdam. 

A single oak from our coppice restoration work at Sprotbrough provided material for us to make a rustic arbor and all of the fence posts, as well as a bird bath and a dozen stepping stones which were then carved by students with special educational needs at Pennine Camphill Community College. We even managed to whittle a small bird (we think it's a robin....) from one of the branch forks to top off the arbor.

Name that bird!

The garden also acts as a centenary memorial marking the anniversary of the First World War. A simple wooden cross, backed by our woven hurdles (similar woven materials were often used to shore up trench sides during the conflict) helps students reflect on the significance of the passing of this anniversary.

Other features in the garden include four large solid wood benches, flower beds, a solar powered water feature and a bird feeding station. There's even an "I spy nature" board which should help encourage the ecologists of tomorrow to practice their spotting skills!

Drink up! - Hopefully this simple bird bath will attract in some thirsty birds for young wildlife spotters.

If you are a school, community group or other organisation and would like us to help you with your project then please do get in touch.

Frog frenzy!

Just over 2 years ago we built our own pond here at Hazelwood Conservation HQ. We've had frogs each spring since and this year is certainly no exception. Following the warm weather at the weekend we've had at least 16 frogs tussling and croaking for their mating rights in our little pond.

It took a bit of patience - but after slowly creeping up on the pond we were able to get some great shots of our amphibian visitors.

The common frog is the first UK native amphibian to return to their ponds to start breeding each spring, followed by common toads a few weeks later and then the newt species after that. So whenever we see frogs in our pond, we know that the great crested newt survey season is just around the corner!

We've been busy this past few weeks working on a school garden project involving a living willow tunnel and some of our woodland crafts. We'll be doing a full blog post with photos about this when everything is complete.

Big fellers and a figure love-in!

A busy week here at Hazelwood Conservation has seen Gareth undertake (and pass!) his City and Guilds "Felling and Processing Trees over 380mm" with TKF near Holmfirth.


This training will help us to safely provide a wider range of services to our Habitat Management clients as well as being useful when we're doing our own woodland work.


We finish the week tonight at Chirpy in Chapel Allerton, Leeds, where we'll be running a "paint your valentine" session for creative couples. They'll get to pick from our specially carved wooden valentines figures to paint up as their beloved, there'll even be wine to help the creativity flow!


It's not too late to book your place, call Chirpy on 0113 266 0062.