Dawn Chorus Walk 27th April

At this time of year the birds start singing while it's still dark, to establish and retain their territories.  Once the sun is up they have to stop singing and get busy looking for food so dawn is the best time to hear the chorus of tweets, twitters, chirps and trills.

  

 

Join us at 5.00 am on Sunday 27th April for a walk through Filnore Woods and a chance to learn more about the feathered songsters. Meet by the gate on the far side of Thornbury Leisure Centre car park. Feel virtuous by getting up early.

 

Between now and then I'll post some info about the birds we are likely to hear.

I bought the scythes !

Took a trip down to Dorset to buy three scythes from Simon Fairlie at The Scythe Shop last summer.  Simon gave me some instruction and a bit of a demo.  He is a jolly mix of gruffness and joviality.  His book "Managing Grass in Britain with the Scythe" is the most interesting, thorough and useful I have read on the subject, whether you are making hay or promoting wild flowers.   

 

 

As well as the blades with covers and snaths (handles), the Friends of Filnore Woods now own 3 allen keys, three files, three wooden wedges, 6 sharpening stones, three steel sheaths for the stones, two sanding blocks and a peening jig.  If you want to know more about the peening jig look at Neil Dudman's video on YouTube: "How we use a peening jig".  Very thorough.

 

Scythes are clearly very fashionable.  Bunny Guiness of Gardeners' world fame had an article on the subject last July in the Sunday Telegraph.

 

 

 

 If you want to read the article, here it is.  I'm afraid it didn't upload very well.

 

And Monty Don was using one on "Gardener's World" recently.  It's so trendy!

 

 

And here is 'Scythe Workshop: How to Mow with a Scythe' by Botan Anderson.  Watch this video and the secret will be yours.

 

 

We are hoping to make our first cut tomorrow!

 

 

 

 



Spring flowers

Buds are popping so quickly that I have to show you a whole lot of different flowers in one post or they'll be gone.

 

First the Blackthorn is in flower all over the place.  It's a Prunus species, related to plum and cherry.

 

 

And on the increase at Filnore, we have the English Bluebell.

 

Then this strange sheath or hoodie is the flower of the Wild Arum ( or Lords and Ladies or Cuckoo Pint or Jack-in-the-pulpit and various other rude names).  The flowers attract tiny flies which pollinate them by briefly getting trapped inside.

 

 

This is Honesty, which may be a garden escape.

 

And having its springtime flush of flowers the humble, invasive but beautiful Dandelion.

 

If you cast your eyes upwards you may see the short-lived flower sprays of the Bird Cherry.

 

Lady's Smock or Cuckoo Flower is growing profusely in the skateboard/allotment field.

 

 

Spring is springing!

 

 

First four photos on this post are by Simon Harding

 

 

Beanpoles

 

Our coppicing of the hazel this year has produce about 120 x 8' bean poles.   These are for sale at £3 for a bundle of ten poles.  We also have 5' hedging stakes @ £2 for 5, and various other bundles of plant stakes at £1 for a bundle of ten.


They will be on sale on Wednesday 13th and Sunday 23rd and at the Filnore Allotments plant swap from 2 pm on 27th April.  (This is also the date of our Dawn Chorus Walk  at 5.00 am)

If there are any poles and sakes left, they will be available at Daggs Allotments from 28th April.

 

This link should get you to a video of  Toby Buckland telling you all about hazel bean poles.

www.beanpoles.org.uk/videos/

Mysterious creations

As well as a few dead tents and a plastic sheet bivouac, we occasionally find traces of attempted fire making. I'm sure I was better at this when I was a youngster.

This character cut off a sizeable piece of a living birch tree and seemed puzzled that it would not ignite.

 

If any of the phantom backwoodsmen see this blog, please be careful not to hack living wood off of trees and please don't light fires where they could damage tree roots.

 

The creative structure below is made entirely of fallen branches.  No harm to the living wood.  If it was for a shelter, the creator must be very small.

  



 

A rather splendid den has been built by some younger users of Filnore Woods.  Its in the palletian style, though a bit lacking in finish.  Perhaps they will be making it a little more rustic.  There are a few dead sticks on the top already.

 

This one near post 16 is in the early stages.

 

 

In another place, we even had a pentagram with candles.  Maybe a quiet wiccan celebration of the recent vernal equinox.

 

Signs of Spring - blackthorn in flower

If you have to trim hedges or clear scrub where blackthorn is present, you soon take against the plant with its vicious thorns.

 

But the sloes in autumn and the beautiful white blossom in spring put blackthorn back in favour.

 

This blossom on the steps above the footbridge at Filnore Woods is in a sheltered position but soon all the blackthorn will be garnished with little white flowers.

Signs of Spring an early cowslip

 

More a flower of grassland than woodland, the cowslip is also known as St Peter's bunch of keys.

 

We usually have quite a few at Filnore and this is the first one I have seen this year.  It was near post 5 in the pylon field.