After the drama of the February storms we were left to clear up the debris – felt needed replacing on sheds, but despite the battering the trees took thankfully none were uprooted. It was an incredible sight to watch massive tree trunks swaying about in the stronger gusts. A few branches did come down and once dried out will make excellent kindling.
Whilst on the subject of trees we have been offsetting our carbon footprint by planting crack willow and alder along the stream, hoping that they will help stabilise the banks but also provide a new source of pollen and nectar for insects and attract even more species of moths. Andrew and Cherry at Mousehole Farm have also been planting trees, as have Rob & Roger Leach who, I hear, hope to establish wildflower margins along some of their field margins. Our parish council have also been busy planting Jubilee Trees, including native and red oaks, whilst another very exciting local initiative is the Poffit Lane Rewilding Project. Wider field margins will definitely help hedgehogs and perhaps counter the massive decline in rural numbers since 2000 as well as greatly improving our local flora and fauna. This is such good news, so well done indeed.
I read recently that 60% of nectar sugar comes from trees and shrubs with herbaceous plants making up the difference. This surprised me as I thought it would have been the other way round. Butterfly Conservation also believe that the next 5 years will be crucial in the fight for our natural world as biodiversity loss and climate change continue to take their toll and their three goals are to halve the number of threatened butterfly and moth species in the UK, double our impact on landscape restoration, and galvanise thousands of people to create new wild spaces for nature. We live in interesting times indeed.
These days we are hearing how many plants are appearing up to a month earlier than usual and so it was reassuring that our frogs laid the first of their spawn on Valentine’s Day, bang on schedule. The day before a large adult hedgehog emerged from hibernation and soon polished off the food we left out for it, whilst two others remain buried deep inside great mounds of leaves. A seldom seen Yellowhammer was spotted and heard on the back lane to Upton in early March, a most welcome surprise.
Paul 841696
