Category: 2024

A very mixed bag of weather. Very strong winds (over 80mph) caused several trees and large branches to fall on the weekend of the 12th of December (Storm Darragh). All fallen material was cleared by our hard-working team. The larger pieces of timber were taken to be used for firewood. The branches and smaller or rotten pieces were built into habitat piles.

 

In November James coppiced a hazel and left one of the branches on the ground. After three weeks he was surprised to see the branch was surrounded by numerous broken snail shells.  It is the song thrush that uses a tool to break open snail shells, which are a common food source for this purpose. Usually they use stones but in this case the hazel branch was sufficient!

 

Of interest in early September there was a solitary yellow shell day flying moth, an angle shades moth and a common blue butterfly. Birds seen included jays, kites, goldcrests, goldfinches with 7 late swallows on 7 October (most left this area in September). It was lovely to see 17 meadow pipits on 20^th October. This species is rarely seen here these days. 16 lapwings flew overhead on 21^st October and hundreds of starlings arrived too on this date, along with around 30 redwings. The heron has been on the pond a few times and 13 mallards on one occasion. Two goldcrests were seen on 27^th December plus 3 pied wagtail and 3 snipe.

 

We have been looking out for the pestle puffball as we had over 30 fruiting bodies last year. This year we looked carefully but saw none. Not sure why they have not reappeared this year, but we will look out for them again next year.

 

The gall-midge Dasineura urticae causes galls to form on the leaves and stems of stinging nettles. We found them on several plants in September. The galls are pouch swellings of midrib, leaf, petiole or flower stalk.  There is an opening on the upper side. The larva is white but occasionally pink, orange or red.

 

We received the National Forest for Wales which have been erected in the main track adjoining the car park and in the first field on the main road. We also put new gates up in these locations.

On 26 July, whilst James was in the car park and before he started work, he spotted a common lizard basking in the sun on the chippings. It scampered off before he had chance to get a photo. Insect life this year is much reduced with very few species seen in this period until August when there was an increase. Insects included speckled wood, meadow brown (most common), skipper, yellow shell, grass veneers, small heath, several of the stunning common swollen thighed beetle (Oedemera nobilis). These are false oil beetles, also known as thick-legged flower beetles and they fly from plant to plant feeding on pollen and nectar. Late July Sally spotted a dark giant horsefly (Tabanus sudeticus). The-is reputed to be the heaviest insect to be found in Europe and a large species at around an inch long. Thankfully, they usually only suck blood from horses and cows, avoiding humans. Keith spotted the longest dragonfly – golden-ringed (Cordulegaster boltonii) in early August. They are fast and powerful fliers, feeding on damselflies, other dragonflies, wasps, beetles and bumblebees. Sally found the attractive red-legged shieldbug – Pentatoma rufipes. The pale spot is diagnostic of the species and varies from orange to cream. It is the only British shieldbug which overwinters as a nymph.

 

We introduced more cinnabar moth lava to the ragwort. We remove the flowers of ragwort (a valuable species for wildlife but toxic, especially to equines) just before it goes to seed. Doing this enables the wildlife to benefit but helps avoid the species spreading to neighbouring agricultural land. Usually the flowers are full of insects – but not this year, although we did find this Yellow Shell, a day flying moth.

 

Very few swallows this year. We still only have the one pair at the farm which this year, had two broods. Bird numbers, in general, were sadly down, despite the site having ideal habitat and lots of food sources.

 

Some of the chippings host the fluted bird’s nest fungi (Cyathus striatus). Chippings make an ideal habitat for this species as they like well-rotted, damp timber. We use chippings (from the tree maintenance work on site) as a mulch in the car park and around the benches. This species is very tiny and does indeed look like miniature bird’s nests complete with a few eggs.

The trees have slowly come back into leaf and there has been lots of blossom since March. The first chiff chaff was heard on the 20 March and the first swallow was seen flying over on 14^th April. The first orange wing (a male) was seen on the 18^th April – coinciding with the flowering of the Cardamine pratensis (also known as cuckoo flower, lady’s smock, mayflower, or milkmaid) which is its lava’s main food plant. This plant species is very abundant here and so are these pretty butterflies. You can spot the eggs if you look carefully. They start off pale and soon turn orange, hatching into green, well-camouflaged caterpillars in one to two weeks. They do have cannibalistic traits but mainly feed on the developing seedpods of the cuckoo flower. From April several large red damselflies were seen frequently around the pond. This is the commonest red damselfly and widespread across the UK. The males are red and the females vary from red through to black. It can be distinguished from the more uncommon small red damselfly by its black legs and dark pterostigma (wing spots).

Only one of the anemones we planted last year has flowered. We hope to dig some more up from our main woodland area to plant in late summer. We found a small forsythia, covered in yellow flowers, on one of the boundaries in the middle field and on another boundary, we found gooseberry plants. Neither of these species were planted by us and have just appeared!

The beautiful bracket fungus that has started to appear on some of the burial plot posts has been identified as the colourful turkey tail. This is a common polypore mushroom found throughout the world.

We have been working on managing bramble, dock and blackthorn to ensure these species do not take over. As we work we see several different species including day flying moths (mainly grass rivulets, silver-ground carpet and silver y’s) and one day a beautiful, well-marked fox sat watching Sally for some time. Spring bulbs, forget me nots and primroses were planted on the new graves.

We were pleased to hear that our application was accepted for all the woodland areas on our farm and the natural burial site to be included in the new National Forest for Wales. This is a long-term project which aims to link a network of woodlands across Wales and increase woodland cover.

Earlier in the year we took delivery of our new Welsh sign which has been installed at the entrance of the car park. In March we relocated and rebuilt the cairn and built a wall adjoining the sign. We planted daffodils, celandine, primrose and other wildflowers in the area below.

Over the last few weeks, we have been busy making ash trees safe which has meant felling some of the larger trees. Sadly, we have quite a bit of ash die back but many of the trees are still healthy. We replace any that die with a different species. Over the winter months we had a varied mixture of temperatures and weather conditions but predominantly mild. There was just one very cold spell lasting several days and included some snow. The pond iced over for a few days. The abundance of berries and apples earlier in the season was popular with the small flocks of redwing. Other birds seen or heard included coal tit, fieldfare, goshawk. siskin, robin, great tit, blue tit, mistle thrush, bullfinch, long tailed tit, blackbird, woodpigeon, wren, red kite, buzzard, snipe, woodcock, goldcrest carrion crow, raven, jackdaw, jay, linnet, house sparrow, mallard, greenfinch, magpie, heron, and hundreds of starlings, with some lovely murmurations.

The moles have been very active with some huge molehills (containing a network of underground tunnels and the nest chamber) in some areas and occasionally we see the earth move if they are active below.

The seed pods were still on the laburnum in December and some of the seeds had sprouted from the pods!   The first frogspawn appeared on the pond on 4^th February. The heron and a pair of mallards are regular visitors.

Some of the posts are sprouting bracket fungi making them look very beautiful but it does mean the posts are starting to rot and so will eventually have to be replaced. In the top field Keith spotted several sterile pestle-shaped bases which are the remnants of pestle puffballs. This species of fungi is large and when fresh they have a stout 20cm long white stalk, which darkens to brown as it matures. The fruit body is initially covered with ‘warts’ which eventually disappear to give a smooth yellowish surface. When they split the brown spore mass is exposed. They feed off surrounding plant roots and debris.

Towards the end of the season the snowdrops started to appear and flower. They were followed In February by the daffodils and primroses.