Somewhere Under The Rainbow

Wednesday 30^th January 2013

6^o C but it certainly didn’t feel like it in the strong westerly wind. The recent snow had all but cleared. Our planned trip to Craster two weeks ago, to help with some dry stone wall building, had been cancelled because of the snow. Last week a deep covering of snow prevented any conservation work.

Recent snow melt meant streams were in full flow
 

Today the team was given the task of clearing branches and brash from a large open area near the turning circle on the edge of West Woods. The reason for clearing this area was so that it can be planted with hazel trees. The brash was collected and moved to the edges of the area to form log piles. It was backbreaking work. Many of the branches had lain there for some time and were overgrown with grass and brambles. One advantage of some of the branches having been lying for some time was that many were rotten and as such were an ideal medium for the growth of some wonderful fungi.

Some of the team at work

Some of the fungi

Around lunchtime we received a good soaking from a sudden burst of rain. Fortunately it was fairly short-lived, but an added bonus was a lovely rainbow seen over West Woods. During the course of our day we received several visits from a nosey red kite.

Rainbow over West Woods

Phil Coyne

Winter Wildlife

Winter brings about a change in some of the wildlife found here at Gibside.  With summer migrants long gone look out for wintering birds like brambling, redwing, fieldfare and if your really lucky waxwings.  Jays are still visible on the Avenue searching for the last of the fallen acorns and another bird to watch out for is the crossbill.  These are usually seen in flocks either feeding on conifer seeds high in the tree tops or flitting from tree to tree with their twittering calls.  Look and listen for them around the Stables, Bothy and Banqueting House areas.



Redwing


Badgers don't hibernate so are still actively searching for worms and other grubs along with the last of the autumn fruits including here at Gibside lots of yew berries.  In really hard icy conditions or after heavy snowfall food can be hard to find so they may lie up for a day or two waiting for easier conditions.  This month will see the sow (female) badgers beginning to give birth to their new cubs.

Badger cub with two adults

Roe deer are easier to spot in winter when much of the tall vegetation has died down.  These are often encountered in small family groups of  a doe with last years kid(s).   The bucks meanwhile having shed last years antlers are busy growing new ones protected in a covering of velvet.  Occasionally does, usually older ones, may also grow a pair of rudimentary antlers which usually remain covered in hair and are perennial and not shed unlike those of the bucks.

 



Roebuck with antlers recently shed



Roebuck with growing antlers in 'velvet'



Roe doe with 'antlers'

A Return to Reality

Wednesday 9^th January 2013

A sunny day with a light covering of frost.

A Frosted Leaf

A new year and the first task of 2013 for the conservation group was to strim and rake grass and bracken on the bank above the Lily Pond.

The rakers looked on whilst the 2 volunteers with the strimmers set about cutting back the long grass and bracken. Using petrol driven strimmers (oh for the gentle swish of a scythe), they had soon managed to cut enough for the rest of the team to begin raking. Piles of grass and bracken soon built up and were then transported into the adjacent woods (it may be a new year but some things never change!) to form habitat for grass snakes and other wildlife.

Strimmers reflected in Lily pond

Hard at work strimming

 

Good teamwork today ensured an early finish. The team have a week to prepare themselves for next week’s visit to the seaside for some construction work.

 

Common Earthball

Lichen on tree stump (Cladonia sp.)

 

A Christmas Haircut

Wednesday 19th December 2012

Overcast and 5^o C today.

Today a group of 9 conservation volunteers headed off to the bank up from the Octagon Pond to the Banqueting Hall. The task was to rake up the grass cuttings left after the area was strimmed yesterday

Rakers at work

The group quickly set to work raking up the loose grass into piles which were then collected and take off into the woods by the sides of the bank to create larger grass piles as part of the grass snake project. These grass heaps provide ideal habitats for grass snakes (well that's the theory) as well as insects and small mammals. Our conservation work often seems to involve moving "stuff" from one place to another!

Mike

One of the grass piles

Our task completed we headed off to the stable block for lunch and an early finish to the last working day before our Christmas break.

Success at last

Wednesday 12^th December 2012

Another frosty but dry day.

Whilst most of the group headed off to do some coppicing around the Octagon Pond and Lily Pond, three brave volunteers headed off to the turning circle in West Woods. The task there was to try & burn a large pile of tree prunnings and to generally tidy up. We were determined not to fail this time.

Preparing branches for the fire.
 

The fire

With a bit of patience and some dry kindling we managed to get a small fire established. Little by little we were able to burn the tree prunnings (laurel clippings excepted).

A good going fire

Raking out the embers

At least we had managed to keep warm this week.

Phil Coyne

A Good Day for a Bonfire (or not)

Wednesday 5^th December 2012

A frosty 0^o C today as the conservation team set off to the area between the Column to Liberty and Brickfields. The task was to finish off opening up the vista onto Brickfields and to burn the rhododendron prunnings together with several small silver birch trees which were to be removed.

Work begins

The vista begins to open up



  

We quickly set about cutting back the rhododendrons and removing the small silver birch trees next to the fence. Lighting a fire was much more of a problem, but eventually a small fire was burning.

This won't keep us very warm!

Then disaster struck – it started snowing and despite all our efforts we were unable to keep the fire burning as all the wood was too damp.

Looking back towards the Column to Liberty

The new vista looking to Brickfields in the snow

Part of the task was complete, namely opening up the vista, so we cut our losses and headed back for an early lunch break. After lunch there were continuing snow flurries, so we decided to call it a day and left the prunnings to be burnt at a later date. One of the highlights of our day today was spotting three roe deer in the woods.

Phil Coyne

Clearing Leaves

Since the trees started dropping leaves, our teams have all been busy helping to clear them up.  Where they fall on to paths or lawns we clear them off so that the paths don't become slippery, or so the leaves don't cover the grass and kill it and leave a big patch of mud.

The collected leaves are put into compost bays and left to rot down for a year to turn into leaf mould for adding to the planting beds in the garden.

Keeping the Avenue clear of leaves is a huge job, so to provide a helping hand to the leaf collecting by the staff and volunteers, Tom came along for a day with his tractor with Amazone sweeping attachment.  In this time he cleared the Avenue of leaves completely filling one compost bay (even after repeated trampling down by Friday volunteers Colin, Andy and Michael) and added more to our overflow pile next to the Walled Garden Cottage.  This work saved us days of time, but the leaves are still coming down so the work goes on!




Tom sweeping up leaves on the Avenue




Tipping the leaves into the compost bay