Monthly Archives: January 2015

The story so far…

[To be read in an excited American accent] Yesterday, an elite team guided by Steve Joul courageously began the survey of the thirty five nest boxes put up by the Friends of Adel Woods in the early years of the 21st century. With true grit,  determination and superb teamwork, they surveyed all the nest boxes north of Crag Lane and the nest boxes on the Meanwood Valley Trail between the Stairfoot Lane car park and Adel Pond, discovering along the way that most of the tit boxes had been used last breeding season, but that the robin boxes had either not been used or been used by tits.  With gritty determination, Steve and your correspondent were ready to complete the task the next day….

Is there anything in it?

A cold but fine day and a new team of enthusiasts joined Steve Joul and your correspondent this morning to complete the nest box survey.  Beginning at the Slabbering Baby, we made our way down to the Seven Arches, finding and cleaning the nest boxes, and noting their contents.  Again, almost all of the titboxes had been used – showing that the restraint on numbers of tits in Adel Woods is availability of nest sites rather than availability of food.

For yet another year, the proud birds of Adel Woods can sleep easy, knowing that there are going to be plenty of homes for them this Spring!

It’s a long way down!

Getting ready!

On a cold but fine day, three of us met up with Steve Joul to begin the annual survey of our nest boxes.

This involves climbing ladders to lift down the tit boxes, cleaning them out, noting the contents and returning them to their original position.  With the robin boxes, the main issue is finding them as we put them up in the middle of holly thickets!

We surveyed the nest boxes along and to the north of Crag Lane.  As usual, most of the  tit boxes had been used in 2015. Some of the robin boxes had been used by tits, but not robins.

Full results to be published when your correspondent pulls his

This looks a good one!

finger out!

Spot Tina litterpicking at Adel Crag!

Our first event of the year, saw a surprise fall of snow overnight.  Despite, quite a heavy and wet snow fall at 8.30 am, a great turn out of eight!

We split into two teams – litter pickers and path clearers.  The litter pickers were Chris, Jen, Rob, Tina and Pippa.

The rest of us, Brian, James, Andrew and your correspondent removed a fallen tree from the path above the Stairfoot Lane carpark, and another from just above the cottage on Crag Lane.

No Christmas trees were harmed in the making of this picture

Having spent an hour in the fresh air, we returned to your correspondent’s house to continue the fun.  Brian and Chris each took home three Christmas wreaths to dismantle for recycling for  next December’s wreath making.

Andrew, Jen and your correspondent worked for an hour on cleaning and refurbishing eight nest boxes in readiness for next weekend’s surveying event – these were nest boxes which we took down from their trees last January because there were in need of repair.

All in all a very successful morning’s work.