Hedge laid

After much hard effort we have succesfully laid a section of old hedge.  This is what it looked like a few days ago.

 

 

First there was some more elder to remove. Elder's big leaves and sappy growth cause gaps in the hedge if it is left.

 

While doing this a lot of barbed wire was encountered, cut out and coiled for disposal, along with an old bedstead and other bits of hardware.

 

And then the lower branches of the hawthorns were cut back to enable the stems to be laid almost flat.  An early start was made this Sunday morning.

  

 

We were now totally committed having decimated what was left of the hedge. 

The ivy was pulled off the remaining trees.

 

 

and raked up from the ground.

 

Some new hawthorns and hazels were planted in the gaps.

 

 

Sharpened stakes of hazel were brought down from the coppice coupe, and hammered into the ground along the top of the hedge bank.

 

 

 Then we cut out the big stems of hawthorn and half-severed the remainder (now called 'pleachers) so they could be bent over and woven between the stakes.

 

 

 

The elder and ivy were dragged to the fire site and burned.

 

 

 

And our laid hedge is now waiting the finishing touches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hedge to be laid

 

Just inside the main entrance to Filnore Woods there is a short length of old hedgerow which we intend reconstituting as a laid hedge.

 

We have already cut out quite a lot of the elder, which is no good for hedging, and cleared much of the undergrowth.  There's still a bit more elder to excise.  As you can see in the picture above, all we shall have left are a few knobbly old hawthorns in a rather uneven hedge bank.

 

We shall atempt to lay these by cutting part way through the stems at the base and folding them into a near horizontal position, something like this old hedgerow in Thornbury, which was laid in February 2011. 

 

 

Then we shall beef up the resulting hedge by weaving hazel poles and brushwood between one row of vertical stakes to create a temporary fence. 

The top is finished off with 'hetherings', long thin lengths of wood, twisted together to lock the rest in place.

 

 

 

 

Hopefully the horizontal hawthorn will send up shoots along its length, creating a dense but manageable hedge.

 

 

That is the aim we aspire to. 

Watch this space.

 





Don't take my word for it see what the Woodland Trust has to say about hedges and their importance to wildlife and hence to us all.

 

Click on this link

Woodland Trust on hedges

 



Birds at Filnore

Rob Collis's bird survey chart for 2014.

As you can see, some of our birds (blackbird, blue tit, crow, chaffinch, herring gull, magpie, robin, wood pigeon and wren) are there all the year round, while others have only been seen or heard once (garden warbler, great spotted woodpecker, mistle thrush, pheasant, pied wagtail) or twice (swift and whitethroat).  You can also make out the summer visitors like blackcap and chiffchaff.  Can you see any other trends?

FILNORE WOODS BIRD SURVEY 2014
SPECIES	JAN	FEB	MAR	APR	MAY	JUN	JUL	AUG	SEP	OCT	NOV
BLACKBIRD	9	9	11	14	19	9	10		8	4	15
BLACKCAP				6	10	6	1		2	1
BLUE TIT	11	14	8	12	5	3	4		4	7	9
BULLFINCH	3	2	3	2		2	1		1	5	4
BUZZARD		1				1	1
CARRION CROW	2	11	4	4	3	6	9		7	4	2
CHAFFINCH	6	6	2	10	3	3	5		3	25	2
CHIFFCHAFF				14	8	9	6		6
COLLARED DOVE			1		2		3		2
DUNNOCK	1	6	9	4	3	3	2			2
FIELDFARE
GARDEN WARBLER							1
GOLDCREST	1		1	2		1					2
GOLDFINCH			2				2				8
GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER							1
GREAT TIT	5	9		5	2	2	1		1		2
GREEN WOODPECKER			1						1
GREENFINCH	5	5	5	11	2	3	5
HERRING GULL	2	5	3	5	3	1	7		3	2	4
HOUSE MARTIN						12
JACKDAW						1			1	1
JAY	1	2	1	1	2	2	1			1	2
LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL							2
LESSER WHITETHROAT
LITTLE OWL
LONG-TAILED TIT	2	2	2	1			3		3		5
MAGPIE	6	4	4	2	3	3	5		3	4	1
MISTLE THRUSH						1
PHEASANT				1
PIED WAGTAIL									1
RAVEN				1	1				1
REDWING			2								17
ROBIN	8	6	6	5	8	3	1		14	13	8
ROOK
SONG THRUSH		2		1	1	3	1			1
SPARROWHAWK		1				1
STARLING		20	3							1	2
STOCK DOVE
SWALLOW						2
SWIFT						2	2
TAWNY OWL										2
TREECREEPER
WHITETHROAT					1	2
WILLOW WARBLER				1
WOODPIGEON	19	33	26	50	26	25	34		32	12	18
WREN	3	2	4	15	11	10	4		6	3	5

Many thanks to Rob for doing this every month.  Do we have any other amateur expert surveyors for other groups like fungi, woodlice, mosses or such?  Get in touch if you would be able to offer your expertise.  filnorefriends@gmail.com.  

Coppicing

We have nearly finished cutting the hazel, dogwood, spindle and other shrubs of the 'understorey' in this year's coppice coupe.

 



 

We have started sorting the harvested wood into bean poles, firewood, hedging stakes, and rustic poles, plus hetherings and weavers to re-inforce our laid hedge.  We have also received requests for den-building poles, path edging poles and logs for conservation log piles.

 

 

The whippy tops and trimmed twigs have been built into 'dead hedges', not to keep people out but to remind us next year where we stopped cutting, and to dispose of the surplus material.  It will all rot down after a few years.  Anyone who wants some of these twigs for pea sticks should email filnorefriends@gmail.com and we'll cut some to order.

 

Smaller sticks are trimmed and sharpened for use as stakes for any number of small jobs round the site.  We shall be selling as much of this produce as we can in April.

 

 

If you do walk into the area we have coppiced, watch out for the freshly cut stubs, which can easily trip you up.

 

 

In last year's coupe, alongside this year's, we have stacked up some of the unused wood as a habitat for invertebrates. 

 

 

Several of our most spectacular beetles, such as this Harlequin Longhorn Beetle, need dead wood to feed on for the first few years of their lives.  Although this is an image from wikipedia commons, I have seen this species at Filnore in summer, feeding on flower pollen.

 

 

Although the wood looks very light now, we found that once the leaves come on the trees it is still very dark in summer so we need to thin out the trees a bit more to encourage flowers and ferns on the woodland floor. This also gives the remaining ash, oak and maple trees more room to grow. Here is one ash tree after felling, on its way to being something different, such as charcoal or tent pegs.  Ash is also one of the best firewoods.

 

 

Must remember not to chop this tree down, with its nest box. 

 

Moles

If moles go without food for long they starve, so they have to keep going through winter.  Much to my annoyance they throw up molehills on my lawn but there again they are doing a good job mixing,  aerating and draining the soil.  So I put up with them.  Really I should be honoured that my garden is a sanctuary for such pefectly designed little furry digging machines.

 

 Molehills at Thornbury Leisure Centre

 

Molehills are clearly obvious when in an open area but a bit harder to notice under a bush.  Every time you see one, be glad that at least some of our native mammals are not yet extinct. 

 

 Molehill under brambles near post 5 at Filnore Woods

 

Molehills are made when the mole comes up for a breather after digging a tunnel in its search for worms.  To keep a worm fresh for later, the mole bites it behind what you might laughingly call its head, to paralyse it, and stores it in an underground larder.  A bit like us popping some sausages in the fridge. 

 

Wild arum

 

One of the earliest woodland plants to appear in spring is the Wild Arum with its spearhead shaped leaves.  Its scientific name Arum maculatum means 'spotted lily' and the leaves are often, but not always, spotted black.