Why Do We have Nature Reserves?

I thought the Chance Wood volunteers need a bit of a treat this month so I arrived an hour or so early, photographed the area we were going to work on and started to cut back the rhododendron.  I soon produced a pile big enough to start to cut into the small straight pieces that are essential to get a fire going; my aim was to present them with a small fire that they could soon enjoy enlarging to get rid of the rest of the rhododendron we were going to clear. Despite realising I’d forgotten the kindling, I soon had a small blaze going ready to hand over to Carl, our ex-scout and fireman.

After a couple of hours clearing, burning and cake-eating we settled down to watch the fire burn down.  We got to talking about the reserve and how long some of us had been using it.  One volunteer mentioned how, many years ago, they had often come to sit in the reserve and clear their head of problems and worries, they explained that they always felt there was a quiet spot to sit unnoticed and that they somehow felt safer in the reserve than elsewhere.  I was reminded of how surprised I was when an apparently very self-assured acquaintance confided in me that he always came to the wood to sit surrounded by ‘nature’ while he sorted out his problems.  I know of at least two other people who have told me that the wood helped them through difficult times and a couple who wanted their ashes scattered in the wood because it was so special to them.

The Wildlife Trust takes on the ownership of pieces of land and calls them nature reserves for a variety of reasons: most often to try to provide a haven for a particularly threatened species or assemblage of different species, ultimately with the hope that they may eventually return to the wider countryside. There are no rare or threatened species in Chance Wood; it does, however, provide a haven where people can regenerate and draw a little strength from the natural world, hopefully to go out and champion the natural world in their everyday lives.

...oh, and we cleared all that rhododendron too!

Roger, Chance Wood

How to Deal With Retirement

We had a glorious morning in Chance Wood last week.  Last month's work party was cancelled because snow made it impossible to get the tools up to the wood and for weeks previously it has been so wet and dreary.  After a weekend's sunshine the snowdrops started to show well and we can expect lots of visitors; time to top up the leaflet dispenser!

Although the air is still frosty the birds seem rejuvenated by the sunshine and the wood is full of activity as the tits chase each other through the branches and the other woodland birds sing their hearts out.

The main job last week was to arrest the wood's encroachment over the boundary and across the public path; anything that will encourage the cyclists to avoid using the path through the wood.  We don't work long before our cake break and soon we were sat either side of the partially cleared path putting the world to rights  (Might the country be in less trouble if WWT volunteers took over Westminster? We certainly think so!) when a cyclist appeared struggling up the path, pushing his bike.  As he regained his breath he was drawn into conversation: "Are any of you retired?  Don't you feel guilty and a bit lost for things to do? I do."  Poor man, he was met by astonished cries: Friday had been taken in preparation for the local group meeting, today was our work party, tomorrow another local work party and a visit to Smite farm needed, later in the week some were volunteering for the National Trust, another work party on Saturday, walking to do, birds to see, sunshine to enjoy…. how can you be bored when you are part of the Wildlife Trust?

Coming up to retirement?  Don't bother with those courses - £3 a month and join Worcestershire Wildlife Trust!

Roger, Chance Wood

Birdsong at Chance

It's been a while since I described what has been happening in Chance Wood.  We've continued to work on rhododendron and sycamore control and eaten plenty of cake!

This January we've taken the plunge and started to repair the fence along the public footpath; every previous attempt to make temporary repairs has soon resulted in the wire being cut and little messages written on the posts to the effect that the wood should be open for mountain biking!  We've put off attempting more serious repairs until we've been able to gather enough material to make the new fence more difficult to dismantle.  John's masterpiece of posts, wire and woven dead-hedge looks pretty substantial but only time will tell if it will stand up to a determined attack.

Our Reserves Officer, Andy, joined us this month and checked the wood for any dangers, particularly in the form of dangerous trees over-hanging the pathways.  There is a little non-urgent work that we have now got planned for later this year.  As is often the case Andy commented that although Chance Wood is a small reserve it has a great variety of substantial trees, it's always worth taking the time to stand back to admire them.

Yesterday, after the rain, the wood was full of birdsong.  In particular two of the larger oaks held a flock of over 100 redwings making enough noise to fill the wood, then going silent before they changed trees, a process that was repeated several times.

There were good numbers of the normal woodland birds; blue, great, coal and long-tailed tits, nuthatches, a treecreeper, great spotted woodpeckers, goldcrests and a pair of colourful bullfinches. Blackbirds and robins were joined by mistle and song thrush, it was good to see a flock of 50 starlings just outside the wood and a number of chaffinches, which had a pretty bad year last year.

The snowdrops are appearing again in small groups and we look to see what effect the mild winter will have had.

Roger, Chance Wood

Chance Wood - a new year of work parties

As work party co-ordinator for Chance Wood my year starts now and runs until spring; we tend to leave the wood alone during the nesting season and late summer apart from the odd ad-hoc session pulling balsam and any other maintenance tasks that arise.

A couple of weeks ago three of us walked the wood and drew up a list of tasks for this season’s work parties.  We’ve decided to try running our meetings on a different day of the week in order to meet the needs of the majority of our members; we’ll see how it goes!

The first, urgent task for this month was to remove the large numbers of sycamore seedlings before they lose their leaves and become invisible

and before they develop into young trees in subsequent years.

This gave us a relatively easy start to the year’s work, although a couple of us worked at digging out the larger specimens by the roots; quite hard work but the soil is very dry and sandy so it could have been worse!

As we worked we were accompanied by parties of foraging tits, the buzzard mewed above us and a pair of ravens ‘cronked’ as they flew overhead; returning from dragging a pile of brash to our pile I almost came eye to eye with a sparrowhawk strafing the small birds.

Some might say that we put rather too much emphasis on the party part of ‘work parties’ but we do like a piece of cake!

 

Roger, Chance Wood

Chance Wood - Now & Then

I suppose you might think the title of this piece refers to my commitment to keeping up with the volunteer blog for Chance Wood but, in fact, I thought I'd show some of the changes which have taken place in the wood since I first got to know it.   

This has been inspired by a bit of a tidy up at home in the course of which I’ve rediscovered a CD of photos sent to me by Tony Williams who volunteered in the wood in the mid 80s and early 90s.  These are scanned copies of slides taken at that time.  Due to the soil conditions and rapid drainage the woodland takes a long time to recover from any work we do, we’ve come to accept that, and so it was quite surprising to see how much the wood has developed over the last 25yrs or so.

 

I’ve tried to take pictures today from the same spot as the originals although obviously the time of day / year is different.

Gateway 1980s

Gateway now

We spent many hours discussing how to restore the summerhouse - until it collapsed!

Summer House 1980s

Summer house now

Many photographs were taken from the bird hide, we could never have dreamed how digital photography and  21st century equipment would have revolutionised our results.

Bird hide 1980s

Bird hide now

 Who keeps moving the gravestones around?  - that’s not a quiz question like Paul’s Feckenham Blog!

Pet cemetery 1980s

Pet cemetery now

 Roger, Chance Wood