A beautiful morning but a surprisingly small turnout of six Friends for this morning’s work party. However, the six of us were all in fine spirits!
Three of us picked up litter, and three of us spent the morning working on Adel Bog.
The litter pickers
The litter pickers reported that there was not a lot of rubbish today: the usual collection of bottles, cans, wrappers and poo bags. The biggest item was a road works sign thrown into the hedgerow.
The areas they covered included around the back of the Buckstones as far as the Buck Stone; around the edge of Adel Moor; around the southern edge of the Village Green; Crag Lane; the rugby club; and along Adel Beck. They collected two bags of rubbish.
Working on Adel Bog
Our focus today was on clearing seedlings, sapling and brambles from the northern boundary of the bog. The advantage of there only being three of us working on Adel Bog was that each of us had our own tree popper!
We were surprised to discover that in the margin where the bog meets the trees there were hundreds of oak tree seedlings. This is no doubt the result of last year’s bumper acorn crop.
You may have noticed last Autumn that wherever there were oak trees the pavements and paths were carpeted with acorns. This was because last year was a “mast” year for acorns. Every few years, some species of trees and shrubs – among them oak and beech – produce a bumper harvest of their seeds. The collective word for the crop is “mast” and the year is called a “mast year”. It is believed that this happens because it is a successful strategy for reproducing the species. Clearly it has worked well on Adel Bog this Spring!
A propos of nothing, the Latin name for the Jay is garrulus glandarius meaning garrulous acorn gatherer. Jays love acorns and like to bury them for later consumption. However, there are so many oak seedlings on Adel Bog that I think they are the result of acorns falling from the tree, not the result of Jay activity.
We are working hard to maintain Adel Bog because it is is home to some beautiful wild flowers like the torrential photographed below. In the next few weeks, there will be many more wild flowers including the common spotted orchid and bog asphodel.
The three of us had a productive and enjoyable morning removing many saplings, seedlings and brambles. However, there is still much to do.
About Friends of Adel Woods
We hope that you have enjoyed reading about our activities and would be delighted if you would like to join us. The mental and physical health benefits of getting out in the countryside and social contact are well-known.
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events such as bat walks, fungal forays and birdsong walks. You can find details on our home page
We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air, exercise in the woods, and make new friends.
If you would like to take part in our activities, keep an eye on our Home Page. You don’t need to book to come along to one of our work “parties”: just come along!
If you would like to join our email mailing list, please get in touch by leaving a comment in the comment box at the bottom of this page.
Friends of Adel Woods 