In our February blog post, I spoke of the promise of Spring; in our March blog post, I said that Spring seemed to be almost here. Today, even though we have had another month of seemingly endless rain, I think that it finally arrived. We had a lovely morning.
We also had a bumper turn out of sixteen volunteers, including four new ones!
We met in Buckstone Road and today we had two tasks: litterpicking; and removing seedlings and saplings from Adel Moor.
Four of our volunteers chose to litterpick, and they gathered two bags of litter, ranging as far as the Stairfoot Lane carpark. One of our seasoned litterpickers commented that when they got there, she had never seen the carpark looking so pristine, so perhaps another group had been out litterpicking recently.
Three eager litter pickers raring to go!
We had twelve volunteers on Adel Moor. This is a special habitat as it is the last piece of heathland in Leeds, and it is home to a small population of viviparous lizards, and green hairstreak butterflies.
A viviparous lizard photographed on Adel Moor(archive photograph)
Without management, the heathland will eventually be taken over by woodland, and so for the last fourteen years Friends of Adel Woods have worked with Leeds City Council rangers to keep the heathland in good condition. One of the tasks is to remove tree seedlings and saplings.
Taking a breather, while working with the tree popper
The smallest seedlings can be pulled up by hand. Others can be dug up using a mini-mattock or a mattock. Saplings with a trunk up to about an inch in diameter can be levered out of the ground using our tree popper, an amazing tool which enables us to get the job done a lot faster than with mattocks and spades.
Two long-standing friends of Adel woodsA happy team at the end of a morning’s work
About Friends of Adel woods
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. We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, just come along to one of our work parties or get in touch by leaving a comment on this website.
Our next events
On Sunday the 5th May, our committee member and expert naturalist, Steve Joul, will be leading a birdsong walk in Adel Woods, meeting at 6.55 am in the Village Green carpark opposite the shops on King Lane. This event will be from 7 am to 9 am.
Our next work party will be on Saturday the 25th May when we will be litterpicking and doing further work on Adel Moor from 10 am to 12 noon.
Further details are given on our homepage and will be sent out via our mailing list.
A pleasant morning and a good turn out of twelve volunteers.
Five of our volunteers chose to litterpick – including two from Litter Free Leeds! Between them they picked up about four bags of rubbish.
The rest of us helped David Preston, our local ranger, to dredge Adel Pond (also known as Mill Fall pond). This pond is man-made and was dug to supply water to a flax mill that once operated here. The pond fell into disuse and silted up until about thirty years ago when Steve Joul led a team of volunteers in digging it out again. It is now a wonderful habitat for frogs and newts and all sorts of aquatic insects.
Dredging the pond has been an annual task for Friends of Adel Woods every Autumn since (and including) 2009. The first thing we have to do every year is clear out the many large logs and rocks which somehow find their way into the pond. Many are concealed under the water and a bit of a tripping hazard. Fortunately, there was only one minor mishap today!
Once the logs and rocks have been removed, it is a question of digging up silt and putting it into buckets to transport away. Today we had four diggers in the pond, and one principal barrowman.
The pond is fed on the north side by a single ditch bringing in a stream of water throughout the year. Unfortunately, the stream also brings in lots of mud and clay as can be seen in the photos.
It is important, therefore, to clear as much mud and leaves from the ditch as possible and three volunteers focused on this task.
Each year we find in the mud where the stream enters the pond many broken fragments of china. Presumably these are the remains of cups, saucers, jugs and plates thrown into the pond by day trippers when Verity’s Cafe, which used to stand nearby, was in it’s heyday. Or perhaps they were thrown in when Verity’s closed down. This year, one item seemed to be a complete vase but unfortunately it shattered into many fragments as yours truly lifted it out of the mud.
At noon, we ceased work to wash down the equipment before heading home for a shower and a nice Sunday lunch.
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 or be added to our mailing list, please get in touch by leaving a comment on our website. Our next event is on Saturday the 4th November when we will be litterpicking and working on Adel Bog with David Preston.
Tonight David Preston, Parks and Countryside ranger with Leeds City Council, led an enthusiastic band of “bat detectorists” on a walk round Adel Woods: our mission to learn about bats. It was a clear, dry and mild evening so a good night for finding the object of our study.
We met at 7.15 in Old Leo’s car park where David (pictured in the orange hi-vis jacket) outlined the plan for the evening and gave an excellent introductory talk about bats, their importance ecologically and how to survey them, and shared some interesting facts about bats around the world. Perhaps one of the most surprising facts was that there are seventeen species of bat in the UK, several of which can be found in the suburbs of Leeds! David handed out paper “cut outs” showing the relative sizes of some of the UK species.
In preparation for this evening’s walk, yours truly (ie me!) had been out in the woods three evenings this week to find out when and where bats were likely to be found. The good news is that there were bats present in various locations – in Old Leo’s carpark; by the track leading down to the cricket pavilion; in the practice rugby pitch to the north of Crag Lane, and around the picnic area and Adel Crag. At this time of year they seemed to be appearing in flight at about 8.10 pm (sunset was at about 7.40 pm). At this time of year, bats are building up their fat supplies to prepare for their winter hibernation.
A pair of the twenty or so bat detectors brought by David
Whilst it is possible to see bats in flight at dusk, it is not possible – at least not for the non-specialist – to identify the particular species by sight. The way to detect the presence of bats, especially as it gets dark, and to identify which species is present, is by using a “bat detector”. And so David had brought twenty of so for us to use.
David explained that whilst bats have excellent eyesight, they find their way about and catch their insect prey using an echo-location system. As they fly, they send out high pitch sounds, and the echos from these sounds enable the bats to track and catch insect prey. The high pitch sounds are too high for human hearing and so the bat detector picks up the sounds and converts them into clicks which humans can hear. It also identifies the pitch of the sounds which helps you to know which species of bat is making them, and David handed out sheets which gave the frequency of the different bat clicks. For example, the noctule bat, the UK’s largest bat makes clicks at the frequency of 25kHz; the pipistrelle on the other hand, makes clicks at the frequency of 50kHz.
After a quick lesson on how to use the bat detectors, we made our way to have a look at some bat boxes which Friends of Adel Woods made and put up in the woods in January 2010 under the tutelage of Steve Joul, then a ranger with Leeds Parks and Countryside.
Steve Joul holding a bat box in January 2010 to show the slot in the bottom of the box used by bats to enter and leave the box
We put up eight bat boxes near Old Leo’s clubhouse, four on each of two trees. We put the boxes approximately twenty feet up, with the boxes on each tree facing roughly North, South, East and West so that the bats could choose the best for them. Bat boxes differ from tit nest boxes in that they don’t have a hole on the front of the box. Instead, the back of the box protrudes down below the box and bats land on this and then crawl into the box and come out again through a slot in the bottom.
The Echo Meter Touch Active Bat Detector
Whilst Friends of Adel Woods put up the boxes, it would be illegal for us to take them down and have a look inside. This was therefore a good opportunity for David to use his specialist Echo Meter Touch Active Bat Detector which fits on a smart phone, to see if there were any sounds of bats in the vicinity of the boxes. Unfortunately, it detected no activity near either set of boxes.
However, when doing our annual survey of the FOAW tit boxes, two years running we were surprised to find a noctule bat hibernating in one of them! David also recounted that when surveying dormice in North Yorkshire (which he is licensed to do) he has found bats roosting in dormouse nesting boxes; and he has even found a tit box containing a tit nest and eggs, with a dormouse sharing the box!
From the bat boxes we made our way towards the moor, past the cricket pitch, looking out for bats and listening for any noises coming from our bat detectors. The first clear sounds and sightings of bats came as we crossed the stream behind the cricket pavilion. Our detectors told us that the bats in the area were noctule (25kHz), pipistrelle (50kHz) and soprano pipistrelle (55kHz) bats.
From there we made our way up to Adel Moor, which we thought could be a good place to see and detect bats. However, we just picked up the odd sign of bat activity. So yours truly took the opportunity to explain the importance of the moor as a habitat for common lizards and green hairstreak butterflies, and to talk about the work which Friends of Adel Woods and the Parks and Countryside rangers have done to maintain the moor.
Part of the screen of David’s Echo Meter bat detector
From the moor we returned to Old Leo’s carpark via the cricket pavilion and made our way from there to the disused rugby pitch where there have been a number of bats earlier in the week. Again we detected bats but not as many as seen on earlier evenings – and the battery on David’s Echo Meter ran out!
However, when we were in the disused rugby pitch we heard tawny owls calling from opposite ends of the field.
By now it was 9.15 pm and time to finish. The preliminary results from David’s Echo Meter bat detector, subject to proper analysis, were that we saw and detected four species of bat:
noctule
pipistrelle
soprano pipistrelle
natterers bat
This is a print out from David’s Echo Meter. As can be seen, most bat activity was detected in the area in front of the cricket pavilion.
Thank you to David Preston for leading an interesting and enjoyable walk, and thanks to everyone who attended. It was a great evening.
I hope that you have found this blog post interesting. The next “educational” event organised by Friends of Adel Woods will be on the afternoon of Sunday the 8th October 2023, when Steve Joul will be leading a Fungal Foray.
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to protect, enhance and maintain Adel Woods and to work with Leeds City Council and other groups and organisations to that end. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out a variety of tasks in the woods. If you would like to join us, have a look at our website for upcoming events: we welcome everyone who would like to help us to look after the beautiful woods on our doorstep.
Today was our final “Bracken Pulling Wednesday” on Adel Moor, and our fourth morning of working on the moor during July. Today we had an excellent team of six volunteers – and the next day a seventh who turned up a day late, but still did an excellent morning’s work on his own!
Over the years Friends of Adel Woods, the Leeds City Council Rangers and various other groups have done a lot of work on the moor to keep it in good shape. The difference that the work has made can be seen by comparing views below of the northern area of the moor with the south western area which has not received as much attention.
The north eastern area of Adel MoorThe south western section of the moor: a profusion of heather, bracken, brambles and saplings
Our aim during our four July events has been to reduce the amount of bracken to allow other plants such as heather, bilberry and gorse to thrive. Clearing saplings in the western section of the moor is a task for another day using tools like tree poppers and mattocks.
We focused today on clearing areas of bracken where heather or bilberry were still present under the canopy of bracken.
We started in the southern area of the moor where we expected (based on our work last Saturday) to find a lot of heather surviving under the bracken. However, we found that much of the ground under the bracken was bare. We therefore moved round to the south western area where we did find a lot of heather surviving under the bracken.
Getting stuck in!
However, it was very clear that a lot of work needs to be done in the south western and western areas of the moor to clear saplings. There are a lot of young oak trees and birch trees.
Rose Bay WillowherbJuniper Polytrichum Moss
There is a modest amount of rose bay willow herb on the moor. We cleared some of this. It was considered rare until about 150 years ago but it has spread dramatically over the last hundred years probably due to the corridors provided by railways. After the second world war it was called “bomb weed” due to its tendency to appear in bomb sites. It has a beautiful flower.
During our bracken pulling we revealed a beautiful patch of star shaped moss -see the photo above. A quick look on an iPhone app told us it was Juniper Polytrichum Moss.
Thank you to all who have participated in bracken pulling during July – including the Meanwood Valley Volunteer Rangers who worked on the moor last Wednesday with David Preston.
PS
Thank you to the person who found my New Zealand sun hat and hung it up on a tree. We found it on Friday and it is now safe and sound!
Our objectives this morning were litterpicking and continuing with our work on Adel Moor, reducing the amount of bracken, removing tree seedling and brambles.
Adel Moor
We had a small but select group of seven. One of us went off litterpicking along Crag Lane to the Stairfoot Lane car park and picked up just over a bag full of litter.
Clearing bracken on Adel Moor
The rest of us worked on Adel Moor. Today we were continuing with our work of reducing the amount of bracken on the moor, but also removing brambles and tree seedlings, saplings and rosebay willow herb.
The chair of Friends of Adel Woods assisting Judith with a tough bramble
We each found different things to do. Three of us focused on pulling bracken; one of us concentrated on clearing brambles and bracken from around the main clump of gorse; and two of us roamed over the moor, clearing up odd patches of bracken, rosebay willowherb and brambles among the heather.
One of the patches of bracken had a very healthy population of heather plants surviving beneath it – as can just about be seen in the before and after photographs below.
A patch of bracken before – at 10.43 am……and after at 11.57 amrevealing a healthy patch of heather
It was another enjoyable morning on the moor. We worked through a couple of heavy rain showers but as we finished the sun came out. Some of the heather was just coming into flower.
Today was the second of our three “bracken pulling Wednesdays” on Adel Moor led by Barbara. It coincided with a “bracken bashing” and sapling removal event by the Meanwood Valley Volunteer Rangers led by David Preston.
We all met at the Slabbering Baby entrance to Adel Woods on Buckstone Road at 10 am. There was a little confusion at the start as people didn’t realise there were two groups. However, the confusion was soon dispelled as the Volunteer Rangers had orange Hi-Vis jackets, while the Friends of Adel Woods had yellow ones.
Friends of Adel Woods pulling bracken on Adel Moor
The Friends of Adel Woods took up where we finished last Wednesday at the North Eastern end of the Moor, while the Volunteer Rangers worked a little way round to the East. It was a much cooler day than last Wednesday, but fine weather until about 11.30 when there was a brief but heavy shower.
There was a good turn out for both groups (twelve for FOAW) and soon large quantities of bracken were being transported to compost heaps in the woods to the sound of happy conversation.
Meanwood Valley Volunteer Rangers working on Adel Moor with piles of bracken in the foreground
The Volunteer Rangers were also clearing small saplings using a tree popper.
The Volunteer Rangers stopping for a brief cuppa
The Friends of Adel Woods worked until 12 and were able to clear a large patch of heather to reveal heather and a large amount of bilberries. There are before and after photos below. The Volunteer Rangers were to continue till 3 pm and had the misfortune to be caught by two torrential downpours!
Friends of Adel Woods surveying the completed job.Before……and afterAdel Moor: 12 noon on Wednesday the 12th July 2023
If you would like to know more about why we clear bracken from Adel Moor, have a look at our blog post for 5 July 2023
Today was the first of our three “Bracken Pulling Wednesdays” led by Barbara. The bracken in question is on Adel Moor.
It was a lovely morning and eleven of us met in Buckstone Road at 10 am. On reaching Adel Moor, we were rewarded by the site of a kestrel hovering over the moor. Surely, a good omen!
In case you are wondering why we pull up bracken, it is because, if left to its own devices, it will out-compete other plants and create a mono-culture – as can be seen from the photographs. Adel Moor is a habitat worth preserving: it is the last bit of heathland in Leeds and home to plants like heather and bilberry and a population of lizards (of which we know there have been three sightings this year).
Last August Barbara led three bracken pulling Wednesdays and it is gratifying to see that the area we focused on last year is still largely clear of bracken.
We had a good morning and the eleven of us were able to clear a large area of bracken as can be seen in the photographs.
A big thank you to all the volunteers who helped today!
Five Friends of Adel Woods relaxing after a hard morning’s work!
A beautiful June morning and another great turn out of twelve Friends of Adel Woods, including four new volunteers.
Most of us met with David Preston, our local ranger, at 10 am in Buckstone Road.
Four of us set off litterpicking, starting at the Village Green and the main road near Tesco’s, and then heading along Crag Lane to the picnic area. We had another regular Friend doing some freelance litterpicking too.
The rest of us joined David in working on Adel Moor – pulling up bracken, rosebay willowherb, brambles and saplings.
The reason we do this is to preserve what is the last piece of moorland in Leeds which is also home to a precious colony of viviparous lizards. We haven’t seen any for a couple of years, but I am pleased – and excited – to say that today we had two separate sitings!! We didn’t get a photograph – as they are very quick and secretive creatures, but the photo below is one we took in April 2014.
Viviparous or common lizard found on Adel moor in April 2014
You may notice that the lizard in the photo has a truncated tail. This is because, if threatened by a predator, a viviparous lizard can shed its still-moving tail to distract the predator and escape. This is called “autotomy”, which is Greek for “self-cut off”.. I am pleased to say that in this instance the autotomy was due to some previous encounter, not the result of FOAW’s intervention, and the lizard can grow a new tail. No lizards were harmed in the taking of the photograph!
These lizards are called “viviparous”, which means giving birth to live young, because the females do not lay eggs: they incubate the eggs inside their bodies and give birth to between three and eleven live young in July.
Friends of Adel Woods with David Preston: 4th June 2023
Getting back to our morning’s work, we were lucky that David was able to bring two “tree poppers” which are excellent tools for rapidly pulling up small saplings up to about a metre tall.
A large and medium sized tree popper
We were able to pull up a large amount of bracken, brambles, rosebay willow herb and many small saplings and we had a very enjoyable – though warm! – morning.
Friends of Adel Woods: tidying up at the end of the morning: 4th June 2023
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
Friends of Adel Woods 