January 2025 News Update

January 2025 News Update

February 2024 we installed 5 Bat boxes & 8 Bird Boxes to replace the old ones. Unfortunately during the Nesting Season in the summer a feral cat managed to get in to one of the pied flycatcher boxes and we lost the young from the box. So we have had to move the boxes Higher up the tree so that its more difficult for a predator like a cat to reach the boxes this coming season. Unfortunately the Hedgehog boxes we installed did not survive the winter. 

Feral Cat

In the summer of last year we had major problems with Giant Hog weed which we had to deal with and eradicate from the woodland boundary to stop it spreading.


Hog Weed 

    Autumn we also had problems in our work shed with the shelving getting damp and moldy so we had to replace the shelving with metal ones.

October we had a Willow tree come down across the Track during wet weather. Fortunately our woodland Neighbour managed to remove it for Us as we could not get to the woods due to flooding at home. 

                                                                    Remains of Fallen Willow


Last November Storm Daragh Destroyed our Bird Hide at the woods so we have had to find a replacement but hope to build a Permanent hide at some point in the future. 

So 2024 has not been the best for Us at the Woods.

Pest control went well this season we managed to reduce the number of Grey Squirrel in our wood that were damaging the Oak trees & causing Problems for our nesting song birds by steeling eggs and chicks. Rob managed to Cull 6 & I managed to cull 4 as new to using Air Riffles. The Squirrel did not go to waste as they were put out for Woodland Predator to eat. Attracting Common Buzzard, Crows & Tawny Owls to the wood. It is hoped that Eventually the Non Native Greys can be eradicated so that Native Red Squirrels can be reintroduced to the woodlands.

                                                                Tawny Owl on our Feeding Post
  

Some Promising News is that Woodcock have been spotted at the woodlands on one of our neighbours wood confirming that the Red listed Woodcocks are present in the Woodlands here. 

We did not Capture as much wildlife on Trail Cam in 2024 as we did in 2023 maybe as we had less cameras out. 


                                                                                 Fox

Hopefully this season things will improve. 

January 2025

January we have Bought 2 new Hedgehog boxes to replace the 2 inferior ones where the roofs of them failed even when painted with weather proofing. Hope to repair them at some point but we have also bought 2 new ones of a different design to install this autumn. We have 16 new Bird Boxes to Install at the woods for the Breeding Season taking our New Nest boxes up to 24 and with the 3 older boxes 27 in total. 

This Season we are also Planning on putting up our Dormouse survey boxes ready to monitor for dormouse presents in our wood. Hopefully this will help Us see if we have any living in our wood.

We also plan to do some Coppicing in our Orchard / Riffle Range to improve the light for our fruit trees as the hazel there needs coppicing.

We are also Planning on installing Our Archery range. 

So quite a few Projects to do this year.   

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