Wet Wet Wet

Two years ago we spent some time digging out this pond and then left it to fill from a natural spring. This was not too successful so we got a grant last year to buy a liner. Unfortunately last years wet summer never allowed us to complete the work, so this April we spent a couple of weekends digging out the pond, lining it and then replacing some of the soil to protect the liner. We are now waiting for it to fill up. We will probably have to wait until winter although the recent heavy rain has put some water in. This will slowly evaporate, but not as quickly as natural seepage. So next year we are looking forward to a good sized pond that we can stock with native plants and provide a different environment for our wood.

We have been able to have some improvements in the wood through funding from Thackley Urban Village. This handrail has been installed alongside the concrete steps leading up from Buck mill Lane. It should make climbing this steep hill a lot easier for many walkers.

We also had this large bird feeding station put in at the top of the wood, near the disabled entrance on Ainsbury Avenue. This is being well used by a variety of bird including Great Spotted Woodpecker and Nuthatch along with many squirrels. There were also five large carved wooden mushrooms dotted around the feeder. These received many favourable comments and are popular with young children. However they were so popular that two have been stolen and despite a full description of the men along with their car,s registration number the poor response from the police has meant they have been lost for good.

Big Clear Up

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust have been successful in obtaining a grant to carry out environmental improvements on our stretch of the River Aire. They have started some preparatory work today on the overflow section under Buck Mill Bridge. As well as cutting back some of the vegetation they have collected all this rubbish (click on the picture to get a better view). It is amazing what gets thrown into the river. In the next few weeks and months they will be continuing their work in clearing this section and making the area a better place for wildlife.

Seeds and Berries

We've been planning our seed collecting walk (NEXT SATURDAY, THE 11TH AT 2.00 - MEET AT THE CONTAINER, AINSBURY AVENUE), but having decided with great enthusiasm that we'd do the walk, we find that some seeds are completely absent this year.

I wrote that there weren't any sweet chestnuts this year, and now have to admit to being wrong. Recent winds have brought leaves and unripe fruit down from the sweet chestnuts, and with less leaf cover we can see some fruit up there in prickly bunches, but whether they'll ever ripen is doubtful.

Still, at least it's there - which is more than can be said for rowan and holly berries. We haven't discovered any. The berries above are in our garden, and the only others I've seen have been in gardens, so obviously they aren't exactly the same as the wild native rowans. Likewise the hollies.

And does this mean we'll have a very mild winter? I'm not convinced that the trees can plan in advance according to their own internal weather forecast. Especally as the garden varieties seem to have a different view of the future months!

However, the planned walk will gather a good selection of other seeds and berries, and we'll be handing out collecting bags and instructions and hoping that people will successfully grow a selection of good native trees for planting later when they're sturdy little miniature trees. There's a good demand for them and we'll be suggesting Forest of Bradford as a future home for our Buck Wood babies. CA

Looking up and down

After heavy rain Buck Wood is very dank, the ground underfoot coated with layers of leaves and mud. There are streams flowing down some of the paths where springs and ponds have overflowed, and it could all be dismal, except that the newly fallen leaves are bright shades of brown and gold, especially where beeches predominate. And the reflections in the puddles show that the sky is still sunny now and again.

But looking up into the tree tops demonstrates how the autumn leaf fall seems suddenly to have changed to bareness, at least in the case of these birches which are on the top of the ridge and less sheltered than most.

But all the rain gives me a chance to use a favourite word, splorroch, which Joseph Wright, Thackley's most famous son, defines in his Dictionary as 'the sound made by walking in wet or mud'. I think we'll be doing a lot of splorroching during the next few months!

CA

Bouncing acorns

The recent rain and winds have made the Wood appear decidedly autumnal. The leaves are falling in flurries, and the acorns are bouncing to the ground from every overladen oak (much to the delight of the dog, who thinks that food or toys are falling from the skies, and every one needs investigating).

But while the signs of the wood dying back and settling into winter are all around, there's still evidence of how resilient nature is, and that it can recover from the worst that age and bad weather combined can do to it.

This oak tree broke apart in gales two or three years ago, the top was sawn off to prevent further damage, and since then it seems to have flourished, albeit in a most un-oak-like shape! And the broken trunk lying nearby has fostered a succession of different fungi, including an impressive growth of Black bulgar, Bulgaria inquinans. Now it's almost covered by brambles, and this years fungal growths are too well-hidden under prickly branches to photograph.

CA

Autumn Life

I almost walked into this caterpillar as I was walking in the woods. It was casually swing back and forth in the breeze preventing all attempts for my camera to keep it in focus. I finally had to use flash which kind of spoils the result. The out of focus picture shows the caterpillar doing a good impersonation of a silver birch.

It is the caterpillar of the Peppered moth and has just finished its session of leaf eating and is making its way down to the ground where it will bury itself before emerging as a moth next May.

This moth can appear in either of these two forms. It was thought that during the 19th century it had evolved into the dark form in the north of England so as to merge in with the sooty background. As the air pollution has cleared it was thought the moth would revert to its original lighter pattern. However there must be some doubt about this theory as you still see both variations.

Here is evidence that the Himalayan Balsam is not all bad. Or is it?

Bees are very active at the moment and are busy collecting nectar from the balsam. As it has been a poor year they are dependent on this flower for much of their food. When the bee emerges from the flower it is covered in white pollen which it carries to the next plant. Bee keepers like this plant as it is a source of rich nectar and provides a very sweet honey. However it is not all good news. The balsam is an invasive foreign invader and out competes native plants. There is also evidence of a double whammy for the bees favour these flowers and ignore native wildflowers, which do not get their vital pollinating service.
NA

No sun - no chestnuts!

This is one of only two Sweet Chestnut trees, Castanea sativa, in Buck Wood.

They aren't related to the Horse-chestnut, which is Aesculus hippocastaneum. We've only identified one of those in Buck Wood, near the Open Air School site, which is surprising because they grow very easily from the conkers so popular with children. Maybe the children at the Open Air School were too well disciplined to play with conkers?

But back to the sweet chestnuts, which are striking trees with dramatic leaves and long yellow catkins earlier in the year, and often with a crop of small but edible chestnuts in the autumn.

They are however, very dependent on sunny weather to grow and mature - and this year that's been sadly lacking! So this picture is from a previous year. But it shows how prickly the cases of the nut are, much more formidable to open than non-edible chestnuts, but worthwhile when the nuts inside are big enough to eat. However, there isn't a single one this autumn, so my fingers will be saved from injury, and the chestnuts will come from the shops. Which isn't nearly so much of a treat!

CA