Twenty five or so cattle bunched together in Park Field
putting up enough insects to attract swooping swallows that were absent from
the rest of the field.
I was having an early wander. Of course, Gibside is
primarily for the public but it was lovely to potter around by myself before
the visitors arrived and when the rest of the team were already at work
elsewhere.
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| Attacking the Himalayan balsam on Ladyhaugh |
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| Before - silver birch surrounds the hazel plantings |
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| The team hard at work - West Woods |
It had obviously been a while since I last visited the lower
West Wood track. It now has a number of exercise installations known,
apparently, as West Wood Workout. They’re a bit like climbing frames for big
people. Not tempted to give it a try, I sat on a seat on the other side of the
track listening to the wind in the trees and enjoying the woodland light.
The rest of the team had passed through this way earlier and
tidied up the Den Building Area. I caught up with them in time for a tree stump
sit, a cup of coffee and conversation where they were working at clearing
self-seeded birch and sycamore around hazel planted a few years back.
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| Bronze Shieldbug nymph |
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| Ladybird |
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| Shaggy parasol |
As quiet and people-free as my wanderings had been, I only
saw and heard the occasional bird. I thought I might at least have spotted a
roe deer or startled a brown hare – but not today. There was a buzzard, though,
and a red kite overhead as we worked. It would be a rare occurrence not to see
and hear them in West Wood. And there were badger diggings edging the upper
track. This is often the case. Tracks work as well for badgers to get around as
they do for humans, and the narrow margin of cut grass beside the track is
ideal for rooting about in.
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| Hypogymnia physodes |
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Hoverfly - Syrphus ribesii
|
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| Raking grass on The Avenue bank |
We’d had two weeks of clearing birch, sycamore and other
growth to eliminate competition for the hazel. It’s quite an enjoyable task,
but hard, tiring work. The following week, we got the easier job of feathering
the lime trees by the Walled Garden that is, removing the epicormic growth. Epicormic
growth is the suckers that shoot out from the bark close to the base of the
tree. Whilst we were doing that, three young grey squirrels innocently played
above our heads and around our feet, looking cute. But that won’t save them.
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| Lime tree showing epicormic growth |
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| Feathering the lime tree |
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| Almost complete |
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| Honey fungus at base of tree |
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| Honey fungus |
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| Young squirrels hunting acorns |
Steve Wootten & Phil Coyne
