Making hay while the sun shines?

To most people this is just a ye olde expression but this past week we've literally been making hay, although unfortunately not always in the sunshine!

Denby Delf (or Mosley Roughs as it's sometimes referred to locally) is a Site of Scientific Interest designated for its botanical and butterfly interest. Located near the village of Upper Denby, it's well used by local dog walkers and ramblers following several public footpaths around and through the site.

On behalf of the Garganey Trust, we have been undertaking grass cutting on the lower meadow area, which hasn't been in active management for many years. Our task is to cut and remove the course grasses and scrub which left unchecked would dominate and outcompete wildflower species, and eventually succeed to woodland.

We've  spent the last 5 days cutting areas of the meadow with our brushcutter followed by copious amounts of raking and barrowing.

Our trusty "Rudd's Rake" - don't make hay without one!

Our new traditional hay rake, made by the last commercial hay rake makers John and Graeme Rudd of Cumbria, is worthy of an entire blog post on its own! Suffice to say it lived up to all expectations, performing brilliantly at the task it was designed to do!

Raked into rows and left to dry

Leaving some of the meadow uncut breaks up the task of bringing the whole meadow back into regular management, allows any wildflower species the opportunity to set seed as well as giving other species the chance to adjust to the new management regime.

The intention is to return to Denby Delf in the winter to remove most of the scattered scrub in this field leaving a more open meadow area, sheltered in places by adjacent scrub and woodland. Lots of nice niches for the various plant and insect species to hopefully exploit!

If you've got land that you're looking to manage for wildlife then we may be able to help, please do get in touch.

Good turn out down at the mill

We had a great day yesterday at the Worsbrough Mill Country Fair, the first to be held for nearly 20 years. We were invited to demonstrate our traditional woodland craft skills by Barnsley Council (who own and run the 16th century watermill and surrounding country park) alongside other attractions which included a craft fair, food stalls, entertainment acts and even free funfair rides for the children.

Many thanks to everyone who visited and chatted with us on the day. Special thanks to those who bought some of our woodland wares which included woven willow hearts, bug apartments, hazel plant labels and our new range of "paint it yourself" turned wooden figures. Don't forget, if you bought a figure to paint at home; send us a picture when you've done it and we'll put all the photos in a special online gallery, coming soon!

Our stall and demonstration area at the 2013 Worsbrough Country Fair

Our demonstration focused on pole-lathe turning where we showed people the process of turning a sycamore log from the woodland into our new wooden figures. We even got some helping hands (well feet actually) from some of the younger members of the audience who had a go at powering the lathe, which gave Gareth's leg a welcome rest!!

The other star attraction was the swallow's nest in the cartshed behind our stall, which we did our best to show to everyone who passed. Hopefully seeing these fantastic birds at such close quarters, and talking about their amazing annual journey to and from their wintering grounds in Africa, will inspire a new generation of nature lovers!

All in all a very enjoyable day and a successful revival of this local event. Long may it continue.

If you're organising a country fair, village fete or other public event and would like more information about what we can do for you then please get in touch.

Busy keeping trim

Earlier this week we were both pleased to pass our Lantra Trimmer and Brushcutter training course at TKF near Holmfirth.

We'll soon be putting our newfound skills to good use, undertaking some habitat management on two local wildlife sites on behalf of the Garganey Trust. Both sites are predominantly grassland/wildflower meadows which haven't been actively managed or in cultivation for many years. We'll be posting more about this work in the next few weeks when we get started.



Six-spot burnet (Zygaena filipendulae). One of hundreds enjoying the sunshine at Denby Delf.

 

On the ecology front we've been undertaking a lot of water vole surveys recently which are yielding some very positive results;



These water voles made good use of a piece of polystyrene which had blown into their ditch!

The surveys are part of a monitoring program following ditch management works and the results of our surveys will be used to assess whether the works have benefitted water vole in these previously unmanaged ditches.

What a treat(ment)!

Somewhere between the hectic newt survey season and the onset of bat surveys, Gareth has managed to fit in pesticide training and pass his pesticide ticket. 

As ecologists we're generally against chemical interference with the natural world. However, we only intend to use our newfound skills for ecological good; treating cut sycamore stumps in the coppice at Sprotbrough, as well as at some of our habitat management sites.

We'll also be exploring how we can put these skills to use in the fight against invasive non-native species such as Himalayan balsam & Japanese knotweed, which may be of use to our habitat management clients.  

Friday night is Palmate night!

Taking a night off from professional newt surveys, we hosted an event for the Friends of Seckar Wood and North, East and West Yorkshire Amphibian and Reptile Group, surveying ponds at Seckar Wood for the locally scarce palmate newt (Lissotriton helveticus).

Slightly smaller than the much more common smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris), they only a occur in a handful of ponds in the Wakefield district, having a generally more westerly distribution across the UK. They favour ponds with neutral to very slightly acidic pH, often associated with heathland, moorland and open woodland (all habitats present in Seckar Wood!).

The male has webbed hind feet as well as a small filament at the end of the tail. The female looks superficially like a smooth newt but lacks spots under the chin and has a pale mark above each of the hind legs.

Our efforts on Friday evening were rewarded with views of several palmate newts by torchlight. Bottle traps were left overnight but only produced a single male who was quite cooperative in posing for a photograph.



Male palmate newt from Seckar Wood LNR SSSI

Weekend in the Woods 2013

We've spent the last couple of days attending the annual "Weekend in the Woods", organised by the Coppice Association North West, where we were able to learn new woodland craft skills in a beautiful (if slightly damp!) South Lakes woodland near Newby Bridge. This was our second year here, having learnt so much at least years' event. It's a great place to go if you're new to green woodwork and want to learn from experienced woodland crafts people.


The fruits of our labour!

This year Gareth was on the cleft gate hurdle course run by Mike Carswell of Urban Coppice, a Manchester based coppice worker and graduate of the Bill Hogarth MBE Memorial Apprenticeship Trust. Like woven hurdles, gate hurdles were traditionally used to create temporary pens for livestock, with different designs and dimensions depending on the type of livestock as well as regional variations. Having been replaced in their traditional agricultural use by tubular steel gates they are now more commonly used in the garden as gates and fencing, giving a truly rustic look to your cottage garden!

They are usually made from ash, oak or in this case sweet chestnut, which Mike had harvested from one of his woodlands. The aim is to make a strong hurdle which is as light as possible. Much of the strength comes from the cleft wood, split using a froe, which maintains the fibres of the wood along its length. Gareth made two (and a half!) hurdles over the weekend, a third being partially complete pending some tweaking at home!

Maria learnt how to turn bowls on the pole lathe with Peter Wood, a green wood worker based in County Durham. Starting with a sycamore log which is then cleft in two, the basic outer shape of the bowl is roughed out using a carving axe. The piece is then attached to a mandrel (a turned shaft with spikes in the end) and put on the pole lathe, the drive cord being wound around the mandrel. The turning then commences!


The mandrel - used to hold the bowl on the lathe and to drive the piece.

The bowl carving tool is longer than most of our other pole lathe tools which allows you to hollow out the inside of the bowl. After two days of axing and turning (and lots or treadling!) Maria made two bowls which are now slowly seasoning at home. 

In time we hope to add these products to our range, made from wood from our coppicing here in South Yorkshire!

Roding on the railway

Last night we did our first woodcock survey at a local country park as part of a national voluntary survey being coordinated by the British Trust for Ornithology and the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust.

Woodcock are the only wading bird in Britain to be adapted to breed in woodland and their range is thought to have declined since the 1968-72 Breeding Atlas (Sharrock 1976). The first national survey was undertaken in 2003 and our survey site is one of the 805 high priority sites, being a repeat survey.

The survey involves spending 75 minutes around dusk at a fixed count point, the number of "roding" male woodcock are recorded during the survey in order to give an estimate of numbers.

Our count point is located on a disused railway viaduct over a small wooded valley connecting the country park to another nature reserve with woodland and heathland (excellent woodcock habitat!). We were treated to some fabulous views of woodcock roding; flying along at tree top height, calling and turning their heads looking for any interested females. Although our males seemed to only be versing the "swick" part of the call last night. Perhaps, like the weather, they've not properly warmed up yet?!