Work begins

It is a New Year and with it comes a renewed chance to make a difference. As regular readers will be aware I have taken over managing a piece of wet woodland on the Avon. It is my aim to make this even more of a haven for wildlife than it is already.

After many months of planning and thinking I have now reached the doing phase. Apart from some Himalayan Balsam control I have done little but arrange the fencing. With an assigned budget of £150 I have invested in a number of bird boxes, bat boxes and some plants.

The first nest box arrived on New Years Eve and so this morning I went out to put it up. The box, bought from CJ Wild Bird Foods is a specialised box designed to encourage Willow Tits. It is like any normal box but as Willow Tits like to excavate a little the interior is filled with sawdust.

I went down mid-morning and put the box up at a medium height with an easy flight path to and from it. It was screwed to a Willow tree and was positioned to face north this keeps the box away from the prevailing wind and means no direct sunlight will over heat it in the summer. Now is a good time to put up boxes. The breeding season can start as early as February and birds like to get accustomed to new objects in their neighbourhood.


After checking it was secure I then spent a little time exploring the previously overgrown parts of the site. I found a fallen willow branch that had snapped off in the winds. Some of its shoots were still in bud and so I carefully cut them off. I had read that Willow so readily roots that you can propagate them merely by sticking the branches into the ground. I took about ten of these budding branches in to the meadow scrub where a number of willows have naturally begun to grow. I pushed them into the ground around these other trees, it will be interesting to see if the tale is indeed true and they take.

With all the recent flooding a lot of litter has been left behind and so I spent a little time gathering polystyrene, beer cans and pop bottles from just a small stretch even so I quickly filled a black sack. Several more visits are needed to fully clear up before the next flood washes up more human detritus.

I await now the rest of my nest boxes and the hedgerow plants I have ordered, more of that later though.
All in all a great morning, it feels good to actually be doing something after all this time.