A cool but dry morning when we met at the Slabbering Baby entrance to Adel Woods on Buckstone Road. Our plans this morning were litterpicking and working on Adel Bog with David Preston, our local Parks and Countryside ranger.
Happy litter pickers
Three Friends (of Adel Woods) chose to litterpick. One of them, Steph, also went off to clear, as far as practicable with a pair of loppers, the branches of a tree which had fallen across the path down from the picnic area to the Meanwood Valley Trail.
A fallen tree, after Steph removed small branches
The work party working on Adel Bog was boosted by six strapping lads from Ahmadiyya Youth Association in Bradford who we hope will join us again. So in all we had eighteen volunteers – from memory our second largest turn out ever!
Only three more metres of brambles and saplings
The bog is a a distinctive habitat within Adel Woods and we usually include one morning a year to look after it. It needs care and attention as the surrounding trees drop thousands of seeds on it each Autumn and it is a constant battle to push the boundary back to where it was twelve years ago, so that bog plants like bog asphodel, heath spotted orchids, devil’s bit scabious, and rushes can continue to thrive.
The task today was to remove brambles and saplings from the bog and establish a clear boundary around the perimeter. On the southern edge, our plan was to mark the boundary by creating a “dead hedge”.
David Preston uses a “thumper” to drive a stake into the ground to create a dead hedge
Creating a dead hedge involves driving stakes into the ground to form a framework into which uprooted brambles and saplings, and branches can be interwoven to create a barrier. The stakes are ideally straight branches of trees or trunks of saplings. David had brought with him some stakes gathered from another site. You can find a photograph of the completed dead hedge at the end of this post.
A Friend sharpens the point of a stake using a billhook
Fortunately, apart from a heavy shower at about 11.30 this morning, the weather was dry today. However, one very positive consequence of the heavy rain we have experienced in the last month (Storm Babet in mid-October and Storm Ciarán over the last couple of days) was that Adel Bog was wetter than it has ever been. Everywhere was extremely squelchy – which was not very pleasant for people who had arrived in trainers!
Pulling up brambles!Two happy workers
This was a chance to use for the first time a tree popper which FOAW purchased with the assistance of a grant from Alwoodley Parish Council – for which we are very grateful.
As the photograph shows, a tree popper is a lever with a jaw at the bottom. You put the trunk of a sapling in the jaw, and it is then very easy to lever a sapling out of the ground in a matter of seconds.
Two more happy workers!David P with twelve Friends of Adel WoodsOur new stretch of dead hedging
Thank you David and all our volunteers!
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one morning a month to carry out various jobs, and we also put on educational events. Recently, we have had a bat walk, and a fungal foray.
Our next “work party” is on Sunday the 10th December, when we will be litter picking, and carrying out path maintenance.
If you would like to take part in our activities, please get in touch by leaving a comment on our website.
A lovely Autumn afternoon for a Fungal Foray with our very own expert mycologist, Steve Joul.
We met at 2 pm in the Village Green car park on King Lane, and forty three adults and children joined us for this free event organised by the Friends of Adel Woods.
Steve gave an introductory talk, explaining that there are 16,500 species of fungi recorded in the UK. Clearly, that is a very large number! The part of the fungi which we see – and which we think of as a mushroom or fungus – is actually the fruiting body which will only appear in certain conditions or at certain times of year: much of their structure is hidden for most of the time in soil or decaying matter.
They can be identified by such factors as their shape, colour, where they are growing and by their physical structure – some times with the aid of a microscope. Steve currently has a list of 168 of the species which we are most likely to find on a fungal foray. However, even with these, the names are constantly changing as science is able to identify their characteristics with greater accuracy – particularly with advances in molecular genetics.
Having given a description of the life cycle and reproduction of a typical mushroom or fungus, Steve led us to have a look first of all at a fine specimen of a shaggy ink cap (or “lawyers wig”) he had spotted in the carpark.
A Shaggy Inkcap in the Village Green carpark, Alwoodley
After we had admired the shaggy ink cap, Steve led us into the woods and up into the Alwoodley Plantation on the north side of Crag Lane.
In the course of our foray, we found thirty eight species of fungus – not bad for about an hour and a half’s walk. This blog includes photos taken during the foray of some of the most striking to look at. There is a list of all the species found at the end of this blog post, giving their latin names too, so that you can look them up to find out more.
Cross-section of a Common Earthball
The common earthball looks like a warty potato on the ground. Steve cut this one in half to show us the flesh inside which will mature into spores which will eventually be dispersed by wind and rain when the skin on the outside bursts open.
Amethyst Deceivers
Amethyst deceivers are called “deceivers” because, as they age, their colour fades and they become harder to identify.
Yellow Stagshorn – it is easy to see why it is so namedTawny GrisetteSheathed WoodtuftBeefsteak fungus– so-called because it can look very like a slab of raw meat
Pale Tussock Caterpillar
One of our Friends found this beautiful pale tussock caterpillar in the leaf litter on the path in Alwoodley Plantation. It was able to move surprisingly fast. Steve explained that it will have come down from the trees to the ground to find somewhere to pupate. Having taken some photographs, we put the caterpillar back on the ground among the leaf litter but well away from the beaten track. The pale tussock moth is not so striking in appearance – at least not to the human eye.
Pale Tussock caterpillar
Adel Woods Ancient Monument
After the conclusion of the fungal foray, a group of us went to have a look at Adel Woods’ very own ancient monument – a celtic carving of a god or a warrior dating from Roman times.
And Finally …Two More Photographs
On our way back to the car park, we came across these two specimens of fungi we had seen earlier during the foray.
Beefsteak Fungus – partly eaten by slugsShaggy Parasol Fungus
A list of the fungi found in Adel Woods on the 8th October 2023
Looking southwards towards the Buck Stone on Thursday the 7th September 2023
A cool and Autumnal day. And also the day of the Meanwood Valley Trail Race organised by the Meanwood Valley Striders running club, so there were lots of runners in Adel Woods this morning.
Today we had two tasks: litterpicking and clearing scrub from around the Buck Stone.
The Buck Stone is a large outcrop of rock in the woods behind Buckstone Avenue. It has been recorded as a landmark on maps for over two hundred and fifty years and – you are ahead of me! – the Buckstone estate is named after it.
It has been a popular feature in the woods for many years, and members of FOAW can remember playing on it as children over fifty years ago!
Litterpicking
Unusually, we only had one litter picker, Sue, today.
She picked up three bags of rubbish, one of which was a bag of rubbish thrown into the bushes near the Buckstone Road entrance to the woods. She also found gas canisters and balloons in the Stairfoot Lane car park, and a disposable barbecue and box of raw bacon at Adel Crag!
The Buck Stone
Friends of Adel Woods first worked on the Buck Stone in March 2012 at the request of local residents. At that time, it was almost completely covered and hidden from view in the Summer by a large oak tree growing into the eastern end of the rock. We cut back most of the tree and cleared scrub under the guidance of our local ranger, Steve Joul, and restored the landmark to its former glory.
The Buck Stone “before and after” on the 30th March 2012
Since then, we have worked on the Buck Stone on 21 March 2015, 24th April 2016, and 8th April 2017. However, we have not worked on it since 2017 and this morning it was once more largely obscured from view by the oak tree, brambles, himalayan balsam and bracken. In fact, we had not seen such tall bracken and himalayan balsam – some plants were seven to eight feet high.
The southern face of the Buck Stone at 10.25 am this morning
The task looked daunting and the plan was to start from the Buck Stone and move outwards, to get the maximum bang for our Buck! But to begin we had to clear a way through to even reach the Buck Stone! And we also had to clear a space for a compost heap where we could put all the vegetation we removed. This in itself was a big job.
We started with a team of seven volunteers, but thankfully numbers gradually increased till there were twelve of us.
It was hard work, but as usual there was lots of interesting conversation and laughter – each of the Friends working on different parts of the project.
The northern face of the Buck Stone: 11.55 am on Saturday 16th September 2023
We finished at noon, and we achieved far more than we thought we could. Once more, the Buck Stone is a feature of Adel Woods and a place where people can sit, relax and dream, and young children can climb and play and use their imagination.
Thank you to all our volunteers. It is not just the Buck Stone that rocks. You rock too!
The southern face of the Buck Stone, noon on Saturday the 16th September
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one morning a month to carry out various jobs, and we also put on educational events. If you would like to take part in our activities, get in touch by leaving a comment on our website.
All except one of our current committee members attended. In addition, David Preston, ranger with Leeds City Council, and three “Friends” attended.
1. Three Friends sent apologies.
2. The minutes of the last AGM on 26th May 2022 were approved subject to minor amendments.
3. The Chair gave a report on activities since the last Annual General Meeting. This is printed in full below.
4. The Treasurer gave a report on the accounts for the last year. In fact, there had been only one item of expenditure in the last year.
5. Rob Hall was elected auditor for the coming year.
6. The following officers were elected unopposed:
Roger Gilbert: chair
Judith White: treasurer
Stephanie Clark: secretary
The existing members of the committee who were present all confirmed that they are willing to continue as members. In addition, another Friend had a rush of blood to the head and agreed to join the committee. The committee members are therefore: R Gilbert; J White; S Clark; R Hall; D Hampshire; S Chambers; S Joul; T Wragg; D Smith.
7. A vote of thanks was given to David Preston for the work he has done with the Friends of Adel Woods in the last year.
8. The meeting concluded with a wide-ranging discussion of other business including:
opportunities to apply for grants from Love Leeds Parks for footpath work;
the tree thinning work around Adel Crag is to continue this year;
the program of works for the coming year;
Steve Joul’s regular work on the one patch of Japanese knotweed over the last many years seems to have paid off as Steve could not find any remaining shoots this year;
how to deal with the problem of dog poo on Adel Moor.
The Chair’s Report
Star of Bethlehem in Adel Woods: 21 May 2023
We are very lucky to live near Adel Woods. Steve Joul did a walk around the woods on 16th April this year when he recorded: 23 bird species; 17 plants in flower; 4 species of insects; 7 species of fungi; and 20 grey squirrels. You can find the details in the blog post for 16th April.
The last year has been our first complete year of activities uninterrupted by Covid 19 since 2018-19. It was a bumper year.
We have two types of activities: work parties, and educational walks and talks.
WORK PARTIES
We had 18 work parties when we carried out the following work (NB the total number of activities adds up to more than 18 because each work party involves both litterpicking and some other work such as path clearing):
13 mornings of litterpicking;
4 mornings working on Adel Moor – removing bracken, brambles and saplings;
2 mornings on Adel Pond and ditches (and Judith cleaning the Slabbering Baby);
3 mornings on Adel Bog;
6 mornings of path clearing;
A day and a half of surveying and cleaning nest boxes
1 morning of working on the hospice woodland (plus a morning in October when Judith cleaned the monument at the entrance on Stairfoot Lane).
Litterpicking and path clearing in Adel Woods 21st January 2023
Of the eighteen work parties most were led by our chair, but three were led by David Preston; the nest box cleaning and surveying was led by Steve Joul; three of the mornings on Adel Moor were led by Barbara Wakefield; two litterpicking and path clearing events were led by Judith; and one by Rob. It is good that we have a range of people who are able and willing to lead a morning in the woods.
Working on Adel Bog with David Prestonon 30th November 2023
The mornings led by Barbara were a new venture – on a Wednesday morning and focussing on one task which did not need tools, pulling up bracken on the moor. These were very successful, attracting some new volunteers and achieving a great deal. We are going to repeat this in July this year.
Friends of Adel Woods pulling up bracken on Adel Moor: August 2023
EDUCATIONAL EVENTS
We had two educational events in the last year.
The first was a fungal foray with Steve Joul on the 12th November.. It was a beautiful afternoon and we had something like 45-50 attendees.
Steve Joul describing a fungus to a rapt audience on 12th November 2022
The second was our our annual birdsong walk on Sunday 14th May, again led by Steve Joul. We had about a dozen attendees. It was a very successful morning: we saw or heard 19 species of bird, and we saw woodpeckers entering and leaving a hole in a tree; a pair of jays on their nest; a woodpigeon sitting on its nest; tits using a Friends of Adel Woods nest box; and treecreepers entering a nesting hole in a tree near the entrance to Old Leo’s car park.
Steve Joul leading our birdsong walkon 14th May 2023
If you would like to know more about our activities, please have a look at our blog entries. They are written by someone I know well and love and respect, and they have some really good pictures!
There are a couple of other things worth noting during the year.
Firstly, in August last year, Steve single handedly scythed and raked the orchid meadow and made a brilliant job of it.
Secondly, in February of this year, David Preston and the Meanwood Valley Volunteer Rangers thinned trees, scrub and holly in front of Adel Crag and they have really improved the crag as a feature of the woods.
A view of Adel Crag (middle left) in February 2023 after clearance of scrub, trees and holly
Finally, at this time of year it is worth popping into Adel Woods to have a look at a beautiful, fragrant yellow azalea near the Stairfoot Lane carpark. If you go down the steps towards the stream, turn left onto the path after about the fifth step down, the azalea is about 25 yards along. It blooms in May and it has beautiful yellow flowers and a wonderful fragrance.
Yellow azalea in Adel Woods
On the same theme, in the next month, a large lime tree in the Stairfoot Lane car park will be coming into blossom in June, exuding a beautiful fragrance across the area. Make a note to enjoy it!
THANK YOUS
So as usual, I would like to thank our brilliant committee for all the work they have done: likewise all our wonderful volunteers. FOAW would not exist without the committee and volunteers. And I am looking forward to another year of fun, laughter and friendship with you all.
Thank you to Steve Joul for leading two wonderful educational walks over the last year – and for letting use his ladder for the nest box survey.
Thank you to David Preston for leading the events over the last year and we are looking forward to working with you again this coming year.
Finally, thank you to Old Leo’s for allowing us to use their carpark over the last year.
Alwoodley Plantation: Adel Woods; 12th November 2022
A gloriously misty morning for our annual birdsong walk with Steve Joul. Today, we saw or heard 19 species of bird – a full list is given at the end of this post.
We met at 6.55 am in Old Leo’s car park, and had a couple of good sightings straight away – a male greater spotted woodpecker and a blackcap. The blackcap was warbling merrily in a nearby tree and we had good views.
From the car park we made our way down to the cricket club. On the way we heard plenty of robins and wrens singing and were lucky enough to see a pair of woodpeckers entering and leaving a hole in a tree where they were clearly nesting. This was a first for our annual birdsong walks.
We also paused to look at various points of interest including Lords and Ladies in flower, wild garlic and the cobwebs on trees made very visible and beautiful by the mist.
Lords and Ladies or “cuckoo pint” in floweradjacent to the track down to the cricket club
We crossed the stream behind the cricket club and were excited to have clear views of a pair of jays on a nest at the top of a tree by the kissing gate. Another first for our birdsong walks.
We made our way down the path towards the Slabbering Baby on the right we had clear views of a wood pigeon sitting on its nest. Yet another first!
We then made our way up to Adel Moor. By now the day was beginning to warm up and the mist to burn off.
Steve Joul talks about some of the bird species seen on Adel Moor
The moor looked magnificent in the mist. The heather and bilberries were bedecked with spiders’ webs which were transformed into strings of pearls by the morning dew.
A spider’s web on Adel Moor, glistening with morning dew
From the moor we made our way to Copper’s Field (so named because a horse called Copper used to be kept on it).
Apple blossom on Copper’s field, Adel WoodsBird watching in Adel Woods. Where is that bird?
From Copper’s Field we made our way past the Buck Stone (after which the Buckstone estate is named) and then walked down to the Seven Arches.
A view upstream from the Seven Arches, Adel Woods, Leeds
On a previous birdsong walk we have seen a dipper in the vicinity of the Seven Arches. Steve has also seen a kingfisher here, but no such luck today.
From the Seven Arches we walked up the Meanwood Valley Trail towards the Slabbering Baby. On the way we saw a pair of blue tits or great tits entering and leaving one of our nest boxes.
From the Slabbering Baby we made a quick detour to have a look at Adel Pond, and then made our way back up to Old Leo’s.
Inspecting Adel Pond
As we approached Old Leo’s car park we saw a pair of treecreepers making their way into a hole in the rotten trunk of a silver birch where they were clearly nesting. Another first for our birdsong walks! This was also the fourth set of nesting birds we saw this morning (the others being the jays, the woodpigeon, and the blue or great tits).
All in all it was a great morning’s birdwatching.
List of all the species of bird we saw or heard this morning
The original intention this morning was toclear the ditches feeding Adel Pond, and litterpick around the cricket club, and Crag Lane. However, yours truly and his better half have had covid this week, so plans had to be modified.
Judith, our ever resourceful treasurer, stepped into the breach and led a successful litterpicking team of five litter pickers, focusing on Stairfoot Lane carpark, Adel Crag and the area around the picnic tables.
They found plenty to keep them busy – mainly doggy doo doo bags and glass bottles.
So thank you to all who picked up litter today!
Since David Preston and his team of Meanwood Valley Volunteer Rangers cleared a lot of the scrub around Adel Crag, it is looking a lot better.
Today we had a team of three litter pickers, who picked up about six bags of rubbish between them, and a team of seven Friends working with David Preston, our local ranger, on Adel Bog.
When we reached Adel Bog, it looked beautiful as the morning sunlight broke through the trees.
Our task this morning was two-fold, to remove saplings and brambles from the bog and use them to strengthen the dead-hedging we started to build in September.
If you are wondering why we are doing this, the bog is a valuable habitat, and home to plants such as bog asphodel, heath spotted orchids, devil’s bit scabious, and cotton grass, and it is a lovely place to do some conservation work. A hundred and twenty years ago it was much more extensive, stretching a further 100 metres or so to Adel Pond, but it has gradually been taken over by trees. That process is continuing as saplings and brambles dry out the soil.
A further problem is that, as it has dried out in the recent dry summers, people have created paths across it, causing further damage. To try and protect the bog we have been creating a “dead hedge” as a natural barrier to deter people from walking across it. A dead hedge is simply a fence made with natural materials – stakes of wood, interwoven with brambles, branches, sprigs of holly and the like.
Hard at work!Another satisfying morning’s work for Friends of Adel Woods!
We woke this morning to a clear blue sky and a beautiful day. What better way to spend the morning than in Adel Woods?
We had two activities planned for this morning – to work on Adel Pond and to litterpick. Our treasurer, Judith, added a third, namely to go and clear away grass and other vegetation growing around the stone monument marking the Hospice Woodland. And a great job she made of it, as shown by the photograph below. Unfortunately, she was unable to take a photograph showing its state before she began due to the angle of the sun.
The entrance to the Hospice Woodland, Stairfoot Lane, Adel Woods, Leeds.
Only one Friend, Sue, chose to litterpick today, and she picked up two bags of rubbish, mainly around the rugby club and Stairfoot Lane car parks. Thank you Sue!
While Judith and Sue set off on their respective missions, the remaining nine of us made our way with David Preston, our local Parks and Countryside Ranger, to work on Adel Pond.
There were three aspects to our work on the pond. Firstly, to remove small trees and overhanging branches from around the edge of the pond, in order to let more light in and to reduce the number of leaves falling into the pond.
Sizing up small trees and overhanging branches for removal
Secondly, to remove silt from the pond. Thirdly, to clear mud and leaves from the ditches leading into the pond. This involved a lot of digging of mud from the pond and ditches, and removing it to somewhere it will not wash back into the pond.
Clearing silt from Adel Pond
It was hard work, but of course there was time for a bit of nature watching!
Today was our third and final bracken pulling morning on Adel Moor.
Despite rain as we got up – and an unpromising weather forecast – it turned out yet again to be a lovely morning. Again we had a lovely group of seven enthusiastic and hardworking Friends.
We set ourselves the target of clearing a triangular area of bracken adjacent to the area we cleared last Wednesday. And we more or less achieved our aim! The first photograph below shows the area at 10.11 am, and the second photograph shows the same area two hours later at 12.15 pm, after we had finished carrying all the pulled bracken to a compost heap in the woods.
Before pulling bracken……and after.
If you think that bracken looks good and are wondering why we pull it up , the brown patches in the photo above give an indication: where bracken has been established for a while, all other plants die off and we are left with a monoculture of bracken. Fortunately, quite a lot of heather and bilberries were hanging on under the bracken we pulled up. Bilberries and heather are both typical and desirable moorland plants. In the photo above, the bilberries are the green plants in the middle right.
At this time of year the moor looks fantastic – as you can see from the next two photographs.
Heather on Adel Moor, 24th August 2022
The post and brown tube you can see in the foreground of the photograph above is used by mason bees and leaf cutter bees and is part of a study by Leeds University to understand more about bee biodiversity in urban areas.
Heather on Adel MoorThree tired but happy Friends of Adel Woods
For more information about bracken pulling on Adel Moor, see our blog posts for the 10th August and 17th August.
A fine day, and we had a wonderful turn out of eleven Friends: one ready to litter pick, and ten to work on Adel Moor.
Adel Moor is the last remaining heathland in Leeds, and as such is an important habitat, and home to plants like heather and bilberries, and a population of common lizards. Left to itself, it will quite rapidly turn into birch and oak woodland and lose what makes it special. So over the last twelve years, Friends of Adel Woods have carried out a lot of work on the moor, and so have Leeds Parks and Countryside Department with the help of various corporate groups. We have improved the condition of the moor and it is in a reasonable state at the moment, though there is still a huge amount of work to do.
We set to work clearing brambles, bracken, rosebay willow herb and saplings from the heather. In the past, some of the invading trees were cut down rather than dug out. In effect they were coppiced and the remaining trunks have vigorously sprouted many shoots. Frequently, what looks from a distance like a small bush or sapling has a large trunk at the base and is very difficult to remove. Undeterred, one of our Friends successfully tackled some of these larger trees.
Man conquers tree!
Whilst the heather is in very good condition over a large area, in certain places bracken has overwhelmed it. Thus, at the moment, areas of the moor look devastated under a surface matting of last year’s dead bracken stalks. However, we know from experience that if bracken is removed, heather seedlings in the soil will sprout.
Surveying a pile of dead bracken before removing it from Adel moor
We gathered up as much of the dead bracken as we could and carried it off into the woods for composting with the brambles, saplings and other plants we had removed.
A view over Adel Moor: the bright green plants are bilberries, and the dark green-brown are heather.
At about 11.15 am we had a few drops of rain, but fortunately the weather held and we had a very enjoyable morning.
While ten of us were working on Adel Moor, our litter picker was beavering away elsewhere in the woods and picked up two bags of litter, including a number of glass bottles.
Friends of Adel Woods 
