The last two weeks I’ve been working with the volunteers at RSPB Coombes Valley, joining forces with staff and volunteers from the RSPB to do some habitat management.
A couple of weeks ago the volunteers and I joined staff and volunteers from Severn Trent Water to carry out some woodland management on their site at Tittesworth. The work was in aid of three areas of the woodland’s ecology.
The area's a hidden gem, shamefully little known even by folk who live in North Staffs. We based our stroll on the Saltersford Lane Circular Walk promoted by Staffs County Council - but unintended deviation extended the route.
Last week one of our volunteers led us on a bit of a change of tack. The task was to carry out a riverfly survey on a point along the Churnet. These surveys are part of a national scheme to monitor invertibrates within river catchments.
It's officially autumn here at Coombes Valley, we have heard the echoes of bellowing red stags in the bottom of the valley and it's awesome!
So far through these blogs I’ve explored how veteran trees support a massive range of other plants, fungi and animals that couldn’t survive without them. This week I’d like to look at how another animal that often gets overlooked really needs these ancient trees: us humans!
October comes and with it varied weather, often cold and wet, so butterflies, bees and other insects are on the look out for a spell of warm sunshine as they fill up on food supplied by late flowering plants.
As I’ve already discussed veteran trees can be very old indeed and by their very nature have had to go through some real hardship to reach such a grand old age. So how do they do it?
It’s common to see trunks of ancient trees draped in a colourful carpet of moss and other primitive plant growth.
We are now into autumn and those of us who are regularly out and about in the Churnet will have noticed some changes – the fungi are starting to make themselves known, the migrant birds are disappearing and soon I suspect we’ll be hearing the tell-tale chattering of fieldfare and the high pitched
