We are very lucky in the Churnet valley to have a great range of woodland birds, some of which are actually quite rare. Many of these birds prefer to nest in holes in trees rather than building a typical cup shaped nest. Both pied flycatchers and redstarts, two of our most charismatic woodland species, both nest in holes and while artificial nest boxes are doing a great job of giving them a home wouldn’t it be great to see a few more in their truly natural setting – holes in veteran trees.
Tawny owls also prefer to nest in tree holes and being such a large bird requires a large hole and that means a very large tree. With so few large trees across the valley it’s important to protect the ones we have as best we can.
The valley is also a stronghold for willow tits which have nationally seen a decline of 95% (that's a true figure not an exaggeration!) in the last few decades. Willow tits excavate nests in rotten birch and willow stumps and so require these dead trees to breed. Ring barking trees to prematurely kill them and strapping logs to live trees so they can rot in situ can help to bridge the gap to keep this declining species going.
As well as nest sites the insect life that veteran trees support provide huge amounts of food for these birds and for their growing chicks that will continue to provide us with colour and song for future generations. Tree creepers specialise in feeding on tiny insects that live just below the surface of the bark while woodpeckers and willow tits will excavate wood to get at beetle larvae and other grubs deeper down.
Next week I’ll be looking at a group of organisms often overlooked...mosses, liverworts and lichens... its more interesting than it sounds, honest!
Tree Trivia: Historically ships were made of wooden beams and were usually oak. In order to give a ship the correct shape the beams need to be curved and in order to get the ideal shape foresters would hang weights or tie ropes to young branches to cause them to grow curved. This is of course where the word for a ships “bow” comes from.
