We’ve heard a lot recently about a predicted drought in the South East. Here in the West the recent rain has left the ground really sodden – some of the woodland paths are rather muddy, and the pond is full. It’s good for the ferns (see picture), though the last of the bluebells are just going over.

The meadows are full of flowers, and vegetation is growing fast everywhere – perhaps because the weather has also been mild. When the sun shines, a few butterflies are also coming out to enjoy the blooms (see picture).

The treetops are full of quarreling rooks. I sometimes wonder how they find so much to argue about. It’s good to see them performing acrobatics above the Upper Meadow.

Summer here we come…

A good workday today – lovely sunny weather. We’ve put eight dormouse nesting boxes in the wood. They’re dark coloured rectangular tubes fastened to horizontal branches. This is part of the Dormouse Survey – we’ll be checking the boxes later on to see what species are nesting in them.

Click this link for more on dormice.

We’ve had to have some fairly serious tree surgery done recently – some of the tress were rotting and almost hollow at the base. Still, it gives a chance for all sorts of creatures to feed on the rotting wood. And as you can see, people are encouraging the bird life by leaving seeds on the freshly-cut tree stumps. By the way, we always plant far more trees than we have to cut down. 

One of our recent projects was improving the pond in the top meadow.

This seasonal pond has had little of nature interest until now. To increase the ecodiversity of the area we brought in a specialist contractor to deepen the pond and plant along the margin.

Our thanks to South Gloucestershire Council who financed most of this work through their Environment Grant scheme.