Orphan Oaks and Spring Observations
Orphaned oaks planted with somewhat overkill deer and rabbit security measures
27th March 2025
We are still enjoying some decent spring weather. Glorious sunshine in the day time but clear skies bring a distinct chill at night.
I arrive at Wilderness Wood with 8 orphan trees to plant. The seedlings are tiny oaks which I rescued after their mother was savagely cut down by a local tree surgeon. I complained to the council and it transpires that the chainsaw happy tree surgeon was supposed to leave the 250 yr old tree as a monolith (a standing trunk with its major limbs removed to increase stability). It is hard to know where the major blame lies, but I'm hopeful that the 8 young oaks will make amends for errant council and contractor.
I offer the trees to Jake and he is keen to plant them. The main challenge is from our old adversaries the local deer who are as partial to succulent oak seedlings as I am to asparagus tips.
Jake's genius solution is to plant them inside our deer excluding fence around Bat Park. Spade in hand I take my eight charges and find a suitably shady spot to plant 6 of them. As an extra precaution, to protect the seedlings from any infiltrating rabbits, I find a few oversized tree guards, cut them down to size and add a length of sheep fencing around the group.
The remaining 2 seedlings go into the hedge around Bat Park. I'm delighted to find that most of the saplings liberated last year from the smothering bracken are bursting into full leaf. It's taken several years, but it's amazing how resilient nature can be. We’ll have our hedge eventually, I'm sure.
Bat Park hedge saplings 5 years after planting - slow growth but they’ve survived deer, rabbit and bracken.
To finish of my morning's work I decided to check out the new ponds and the wet woodland.
The Wilderness stream is starting to dry up and the recent spring sunshine is causing the ponds to evaporate a little, but the air temperature is still low, so we should be alright for a while yet despite the annual nail-biting as summer drought appears to be earlier every year. Will the frogspawn and tadpoles make it to adulthood before they dry out?
The wet woodland still looks well supplied with water and I'm hopeful that its woodland floor will support wet living ground flora over the coming years. At the moment however, it is in transition. A few years ago this was a relatively dry woodland, yes it did contain alder trees but little of the woodland floor was wet at any time of year and particularly in summer. This was largely because the Wilderness Stream used to bypass the woodland, taking a direct route downhill inside of a 2 metre deep man-made ‘gulch’.
Since we redirected the stream back into its natural channel it now winds its way through the wood depositing mud and organic detritus as it passes. This provides extra nutrients for the woodland floor, but perhaps more importantly gives the deep organic matter a good watering, now staying wet even in the hottest summers. It shouldn’t be long before the seeds of wetland plants find their way here along with no end of wetland loving birds, invertebrates and other animals (I’m informed that a flycatcher was spotted here last year).
Spring Observations
Peacock butterfly and Skipper brighten up even the dullest areas of bare soil
The ubiquitous Peacock Butterfly suns itself at Bat Park, bringing a splash of colour to the dull browns of the areas of bare soil there. Just as colourful and somewhat less familiar is the appearance of a small skipper butterfly. I’m not able to say what species, but all the skippers hold their wings in a distinctive fashion, with front and back wings angled in different directions.
A Green Tiger Beetle hops into view. These can appear almost in swarms when the weather is hot and like the butterflies are attracted to the warmth of the bare soil here and on paths all round the wood. I suspect love is in the air! Minotaur Beetles are nothing new at Bat Park, but it is interesting to see some new holes being dug in the shallow soil. I suspect there are less Minotaur Beetles than there are holes and that they like to dig a new burrow each year. The old ones appear abandoned, showing no signs of fresh digging. Perhaps they harbour unwanted parasites from last year?
As I walk I spot primrose, lesser celendine, violets and wood anemones. Yes spring is advancing rapidly towards bluebell time, in fact the woods behind my house already have a smattering of these. Wilderness Wood is perhaps a 100 metres higher and is subsequently slightly cooler, but nothing can hold back the advance of summer.
Lesser Celendine, Primrose, Wood Anemone and Wood Violet announce the arrival of spring at Wilderness Wood