Friends of Adel Woods

Wow, what a turn out!

We met like grey squirrels – bright eyed and bushy tailed – at 10 am at the Slabbering Baby entrance to the woods.

After our customary greetings, banter and chatting, Mary, Steph and Jen set to litterpicking – beginning with removing litter from Nanny Beck.  Later, they moved on to the copse opposite Tesco’s, the recreation ground, and Crag Lane, and by the end of the morning had picked up about twelve bags of rubbish – a tremendous achievement.

The rest of us set off to the Buck Stone where we found David, Tina and Rob and others waiting for us.  Noted local historian Steven Burt tells me that the Buck Stone:

The Buck Stone: March 2012

“… was a noted landmark in the eighteenth century and does appear prominently on the map of the commons prepared for the Lane Fox family when they were in dispute with John Dixon of Gledhow Hall c.1770, who claimed this land as being in the manor of Chapel Allerton. However, it is not a land boundary marker and I can only think that the name must relate to the deer that still haunt the woods. Was it a particular gathering point for a cull?

“In the material I collected on the Todd family who cleared the common in that area there is no mention of it having any significance other than that of a landmark. “

Some of our group remember their imaginations being fired as they climbed on the Buck Stone as children, and three years ago we spent two days restoring the Buck Stone removing as much as we could of an oak tree which all but obscured it.  You can find an account of our work in this blog for March 2012.

The renascent oak tree

The oak tree is still there and we cut back some of the branches which were reappearing, cleared moss from the Buck Stone, picked up litter and cleared brambles which were growing over and around the stone.

Rob remembers that in his childhood there was a smaller rock just in front of the Buck Stone.  This was not visible today and it could be the object of an archaeological dig on another occasion.

The task of removing the brambles and other plants was a much bigger one than anticipated by your correspondent (an hour’s work for three of us!) and even after two hours work by twelve of us there was more we could have done.  Nevertheless, we achieved a great deal and can be proud of our achievement.  Another generation of children will enjoy the Buck Stone.  Let us hope that in fifty years they too will look back with fond memories  of happy adventures as they clear away the brambles.

It is not just the Buck Stone that rocks.  The Friends of Adel Woods Rock too!!

I know – your correspondent is showing his age!

Teamwork!

The weather was overcast but dry, and there was a good turn out to help Steve Joul thin the trees in the Hospice Woodland.  We also took the opportunity to pick up litter from the grass verge of Stairfoot Lane – and gathered three large bags, including an old laptop.

Teamwork!

Turning to the lumberjacking, a mature woodland tree needs about 10 metres between it and its neighbours to thrive.  The trees in the Hospice Woodland were planted perhaps three metres apart or even less and they are now growing into each other and competing for light.

Steve demonstrated how to cut down a tree using a bow saw and told us what to do with the trunks and off-cuttings and we then set to.

We probably removed about thirty trees which were growing into or overshadowed by other trees and there is no doubt that the trees which we left looked a lot happier – in the sense that they clearly had about five metres space around them in which to grow.

That’s the way you do it!

A lot more work needs to be done to complete the job, but we will not be felling any more trees until the Autumn or next Spring, because we are now entering the nesting season (great tits have been investigating the nest box in our garden!).

Thank you to everyone – including Alan who brought us two bags of rubbish from  Stairfoot Lane and David who rose from his sickbed to come and entertain us!

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.

December is a busy time of year, but to keep up the momentum, we put on a litter pick from 10 till 11 am.

About ten of us turned up on a misty morning and in the space of an hour cleared at least ten bin bags of rubbish from Old Leo’s carpark, Crag Lane, the Sqairfoot Lane carpark, the recreation ground and the woods in general.

A big thank you to everyone who helped.

Who ya gonna call? Litter busters!

Eleven of us met in Old Leo’s clubhouse on a fine morning for our annual Christmas Garlands event.

In a relaxed atmosphere, we chatted, drank coffee, ate mince pies and listened to Christmas music as we threaded leylandii sprigs into pre-prepared rings and decorated them with pine cones, holly and baubles.

The Garlands are very popular and we had orders for sixteen from last years customers.

A big thank you to everyone who helped to make the garlands, and to Old Leo’s for letting us use their clubhouse.  Special mentions in despatches are due to David,  Brian  and Stephanie – David and Brian who helped the previous Saturday to  prepare for the event by dismantling and recycling some of last year’s garlands and for making more of the bases.  Thank you too to David for pre-preparing some garlands, and providing some of the leylandii, and to Brian for making half a dozen excellent ring bases and for purchasing copious supplies of wire before the event. Thank you to Stephanie for completing many beautiful garlands to fulfil the hopes and dreams of our enthusiastic supporters.

A selection of garlands made this year

The first task after Guy Fawkes night, and also the first time that we have shared the woods with a major orienteering event!

On arrival at Old Leo’s car park your correspondent had to negotiate with the marshalls who were keen to send him back to King Lane with a car full of tools.  However, a bit of assertiveness and consummate diplomacy and your correspondent was able to park around the back of the clubhouse – once a bulldozer had removed the remains of last week’s bonfire.

The weather was dark and very damp, yet we still managed a turn out of six – though one Friend went home before we actually started!

We started off by clearing the drainage channels near the picnic area and removing a large quantity of mud.  Historically, this was always a quagmire in rainy weather until FOAW put a drainage pipe in and built up some of the path with hardcore – which for the younger readers, if we have any, is a kind of building aggregate used for forming a solid base.

Having cleared away the mud we went along to the Stairfoot Lane carpark and cleared a large amount of mud from the path and dug a drainage channel to let water drain away from the path.

Thence towards the steps down to the beck, pausing on the way to widen the path which was reduced to about 18″ in width by brambles and nettles.  As the rest of us did this, Steph gathered a bin bag of rubbish from the carpark.

Finally we cleared the steps of leaves and generally tidied them up.  As we did this we gave encouragement to the few orienteers who passed our way.

As we finished, your correspondent congratulated the Friends on their great achievements during the morning and said that they could go home and enjoy a well-earned Sunday lunch.  Regrettably, it was a Saturday!

Three work teams today.

Chris delighted us with her return from sabbatical and picked litter.  She, Rob and Tina (who were also out litter picking) made a huge difference to the woods but Chris was disappointed that she did not find anything interesting – like a stash of money.

Andrew, David and Beth went off to cut back holly on the path running along the stream and to remove a fallen tree from there and another fallen tree on a path up to the moor.

Your correspondent and the rest of the team spent the morning widening Crag Lane and succeeded in working on the stretch from the clubhouse to the picnic area.  In stretches, this once proud thoroughfare had been reduced to a mere three feet or so in width.

The day started cool but by lunchtime it had turned into a really lovely day.

While waiting on Buckstone Road for the Friends to arrive, your correspondent spotted this beautiful butterfly enjoying the sun.  It is a comma and the more studious reader will recall that on the 13th August 2013, we spotted a comma caterpillar in the vicinity – see here!  Perhaps today’s butterfly was the adult of that very caterpillar!  [NB if you click on the photographs, you will see larger versions].

Before…

Our tasks today were threefold.  Judith went off litter picking.  Brian, Tom and Beth cleared the path by the Slabbering Baby, which had been reduced to about three feet in width, and then went off litter picking.  Last, but not least,  a team of six of us helped Steve Joul dredge the pond of silt.

…after!

As usual, the pond dredging task proved extremely muddy – which seemed to enhance the pleasure of it for certain members of the team.  Three of us were in the pond, in newly purchased waders loaned to us by Leeds CC,  filling plastic trugs with mud, and three of us were on the bank taking the trugs away and emptying them nearby.  Ade was a star turn, managing to find numerous large logs which had been dumped in the middle of the pond.  However, concern was expressed that his clothes might clog up his mother’s washing machine unless rinsed clean of copious amounts of mud beforehand.

The sight of us in the pond caused a number of people to stop and ask what we were doing.  Let’s hope the publicity brings us more volunteers.

Yet another beautiful morning in the woods and a very satisfying sense of achievement.