 Bournmoor Conservation Group | sitemap | log in
|
 |
||
| This is a free Spanglefish 1 website. | ||
Juneby Ken - 23:43 on 15 June 2009
Ken’s Nature notes.
It’s a first for my garden this year, a pair of nesting Collard Doves, I was a bit reluctant to encourage them to set up house in my tree, but they look so cute. They have a call which you either love or hate, my preference is the latter.
I found a half shell this morning below the nest, so I am hopeful they have hatched and it isn’t just the result of a visit from a Magpie. Talking of Magpies my mother watched as a cat and a Magpie had a stand off with each other, the cat let her guard down, the Magpie circled her and yes the Magpie chased the cat away.
I have been watching the progress of the Elms along “Jimmies Lane” and I have been trying to identify the different Elms along this walk. It seems that the large tree doing well near the houses must be a Smoothed-leaved Elm, these have corky-winged twigs and massive amounts of winged fruit. Other varieties seem to be Wych Elms, these seem to be more like shrubs at the moment, though they can grow quite large and are more resistant to Dutch Elm disease I have tried unsuccessfully to germinate these seed but I will stick at it who knows what might happen. Some of the other Elms along this lane have unfortunately succumbed to the Dutch elm disease; it totally kills the tree leaving the bark flaking off the stem, a very sad sight, but woodpeckers and other birds usually feed on the insects under the bark so I suppose its swings and roundabouts.
Everything is growing like mad at the allotments at the moment, with our bursts of summer showers and of course the weeds,
I feel a weed and wine evening coming soon.
We usually have an hour weeding the Tree Nursery at the allotments then relax with a glass or two of wine, it usually is a popular evening, I cannot think why?
One of my favourite trees is the Hazel I have had quite good results with seed germination and have planted out a couple in the plantation. I love the way you can coppice these; unfortunately I will have to wait about five to eight years before they are mature enough to cut. Hazel is a very popular wood for stick makers, I love the way craftsmen make hurdles and fences with this lovely wood, stakes are regularly used when laying hedges to support the hedge until it grows again. Of course the hazel nuts are very nice to see maturing on the trees, excellent food for the squirrels.
The bird feeding program in our garden has changed to providing seed for the birds as apposed to peanuts, it has took the sparrows a few days to get used to the seed feeders but now they are tucking in like mad with their young offspring underneath waiting for falling seed. We have stopped the peanuts as it is possible that a whole nut could be fed to a chick which could choke it.
Good news to end with, we have bees back in the hives at the nursery; Paul has introduced a couple of swarms to re-build the colony. Fingers crossed that they survive.
Ken.
Add your comment Please note that whenever you submit something which may be publicly shown on a website you should take care not to make any statements which could be considered defamatory to any person or organisation. |    |
|
 | ||