Brambles and birds

Every job has its mundane aspects, and my job as a volunteer for the Countryside Service is no exception. I didn't write about last week because we spent the entire day removing plastic tree guards from trees and hedging, which are large enough to no longer require protection.  In the morning we were in a location along the trail where there is some new hedging. I can't pretend that I enjoyed this very much as it involved crawling on all fours or slithering about one one's stomach underneath a prickly hawthorn hedge.  In the afternoon we were at the riverside site where the guards were round trees. It was a much easier job.  This site is quite large, so we spent quite a long time walking about to find the guards that needed removing. Much of the job involves walking about and just seeing what is going on. So my partner for this activity, the warden, was taking a mental note of the birds we observed as we were walking around, and looking for evidence for other wildlife. There was a badger trail at one point, but no evidence of frogs in the pond yet.

This week we were back at the riverside site.  In November we had had a day of tree-felling, but one of our number had spent the same day chopping back brambles in a clearing.  It was to this clearing we returned, and our task was to dig out the bramble roots.  This work was as back breaking as shovelling out the drains was a couple of weeks ago.  The roots are deep and penetrating, often in a tangle, with runners that go along to the next overground growth. The soil was wet and claggy and before long our boots, forks, gloves and trousers were covered in the stuff.  Trying to get hold of a root and pull, with muddy gloves that slip and slide is not an easy thing to do.  By lunch time we were both quite tired, and disappointingly only a very small patch had been cleared. But we decided to call it quits for the day, and in the afternoon we spent our time more productively planting tree saplings.  There is a small nursery next to the depot, from where we collected some hazel, birch, hawthorn and field maple. We planted these in specific spots where it was deemed necessary to create more cover.  

I have mentioned before how my remunerated colleagues are very good at explaining what they do and why. As the planting proceeded, I received a lengthy exposition about the features of a natural woodland, which the lads are trying to recreate. Remembering that this site was a brownfield site reclaimed, initially the woodland was allowed to grow by itself. Then some planting took place to try to introduce some variety of species. After some years, some trees are felled to make space for other trees to grow larger. After some more years, more trees are planted, in order to produce a varied age range of the trees in the wood. This all happens naturally, but what we are doing do is speeding up the process.  A natural woodland has clearings, where old trees have died, fallen and rotted away, and rides. A ride is a linear open space within a wood derived from the need for access. Rides may have a hard surface but are usually unsurfaced.  Most commonly rides consist of a central grass zone with a mixed herbaceous and shrub zone on one or both sides. A track becomes a ride when it is wide enough to make a break in the canopy overhead.  Because the light penetrates, a greater variety of plant life occurs, which in turn supports a greater variety of animal life than in the rest of the woodland. Since my memory is rather poor, I checked up on this at home later. My source for this information was again the Forestry Commission, which produces a plethora of How-to-do-it guides for woodland management.

The warden has been speaking to me recently about the need to conduct a bird survey of their woodland areas. I had previously expressed an interested in taking part. Toward the end of the day, it was fixed that we would conduct a survey the following morning: the weather forecast was for a dry, settled day.  This meant arriving early. Birds are generally active early in the morning and late afternoon.

The Countryside Service carry out this survey on a voluntary basis for the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology).  The surveys take place maybe four or five times between March and June and the information collected gives a snapshot of the state of birdlife in the country.

Armed with some large scale maps of the area, we started from base along the trail. My tutor was observing, I was recording on the map what he heard or saw.  There are symbols for sightings of birds sitting, birds flying, with a start point and end point, birds calling, birds singing, birds in aggressive display, birds making nests.  There are symbols codes for the different species and sexes.  There were the usual blue tits, great tits, blackbirds and robins, but also a couple of warblers, two or three song thrushes, a woodpecker, chiff chaffs, chaffinch, goldfinches, dunnocks, and tree creepers.  We spent two hours walking slowly around the bluebell wood and along the trail.  "The only job where you get paid to walk slowly", said the warden with some wry amusement.  The highlight was seeing a pair of tree creepers with nesting material, and eventually spotted where they were making their nest, in a cleft under some bark in an ancient chestnut tree.  My companion, a keen birder himself, was delighted with this, as he had not previously seen where tree creepers nest.  We stood and watched for a few minutes. They are such sleek, pretty little birds. I am pleased we will have a family there soon. The end of our walk took us out near some houses, and there we encountered a large flock of house sparrows. Nice to see them, they have become so scarce in some parts of the country.  The warden was happy with our survey. One of the results was to note that quite a number of the nest boxes we put up are being used.  The next stage is to transfer all the information to a master map, which is something I may get involved in in future.