August Nature Notes

by David Tidmarsh - 13:51 on 12 August 2012

August  Nature Notes

We had an extremely good turn out of Conservation members at our annual Wine and Weed evening a couple of weeks ago. The format is, we all do an hour of weeding then an hour or more with a few glasses of wine, you can understand it being a popular event.
Whilst this event was going on I had another look at the Plum tree that I mentioned in last months notes, well to my shock there is only about eight plums on the tree, so I need to retract my last report on the Plums. Even the pear trees are in a dishevelled condition with not a single Pear to be seen. The Apples are doing ok but not as good as last seasons crop, it must be down to all the rain we had when the blossom was out; maybe it washed off the flowers or it was too wet for the bees to do their job, who knows!
A curious but nice sight appears in our estate in selective corners, someone had sown  wildflower seeds earlier in the spring and these have subsequently grown successfully to produce a lovely splash of colour from yellow, whites and blues. I don’t know whether it was Cestria who manage the housing stock or some other enlightened soul but I take my hat off to who ever it was and well done.
A lot of the trees have now produced their fruit, the Mountain Ash or Rowan have a good supply of red berried fruits, these of course will not last long as the Starlings love these and soon strip a tree bare in a few days. Some of my Honeysuckle also have bright red berries these are still intact at the moment but I am sure they will be fair game for the bird population.
Trimming and strimming is the main jobs these days, footpaths trimmed a few weeks back are now in need of another attack of the strimmer. Hopefully this will be the last one this year, just like the hedges around our gardens we all hope that the last trim will be enough.
Over at New Lambton plantation the Alder trees have just produced the first flush of new cones, these hold the seeds for the next generation of Alder trees. This reminds me of a friend who is involved in the Wear Rivers Trust who are responsible for all the improvement work being done down stream of the Lumley Burn, at the hairpin bend underneath the A1M. He was ordering quite a mixture of young trees and shrubs when an order arrived with couple of dozen Elder trees instead of Alder trees, well he couldn’t even give them away. That’s the trouble with local accents giving orders over the phone.
Last week it was nice to sit out in the garden about 10 o’clock in the evening  to listen to the Owl “hooting” obviously scaring any little mice in the area, did anyone else hear it? We think it may have been a Tawny Owl.
It is great to see a bit of sunshine at last, at least it may give the farmers a sporting chance to get the harvest in and they may even get a few bales of hay produced. Hope you enjoy a bit of sun and relaxation. Ken.

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