Our agenda today was litterpicking through the woods, and removing bracken, brambles and saplings from Adel Moor. As can be seen from the photos we were blessed with lovely weather.
Two of us chose to litterpick and gathered about three bags of rubbish during the morning.
Our intrepid litterpickers!
The rest of us, eight in all, spent a warm morning working on the moor, focusing mainly on pulling up bracken. If you are wondering why we do this, it is because bracken is extremely prolific and eventually smothers and kills off all other plants. In the photo below, you can clearly see, just beyond our Friends, the dividing line between the heather (which we are trying to encourage) and the lighter green bracken.
Adel Moor is special as the last remaining piece of heathland in Leeds and it is also host to a population of common lizards, though we didn’t see any today.
In the last three Springs, green hairstreak butterflies have been found on the moor. They are not a rare species nationally but until 2020 they were only found in the Leeds area on Otley Chevin.
Fortunately, bracken is usually pretty easy to pull up, though the main part of the root is left in the ground and it takes several years of “bracken bashing” to kill bracken off.
It was heartening to find plenty of heather still hanging on beneath the fronds of bracken.
Two piles of bracken and four of our bracken bashers.
At the end of the morning’s work, the bracken is carried into the surrounding woodland for composting
At the end of the morning’s work, the bracken is carried into the surrounding woodland for composting.Time for lunch!
The chair delivered a report on the last twelve months’ activities – see below.
In the treasurer’s absence, the secretary delivered the treasurer’s report. As at 31st March 2022, FOAW held funds of £475, of which approximately £157 will be spent on insurance in July. The chair said that a further £70 or so will be spent on mini-mattocks which members have found very useful when working on Adel Moor.
After the chair’s and treasurer’s reports, appointment of the officers and committee took place.
All the committee members and officers stood for re-election and were duly re-appointed. In addition, two more people, Steve Joul and Sue Chambers, agreed to join the committee, bringing the number on the committee up to eight out of a possible ten.
Roger Gilbert was re-appointed chair; Judith White was re-appointed treasurer; and Stephanie Clarke was re-appointed secretary. Rob Hall agreed to act as auditor.
The committee members are now: Roger Gilbert; Judith White; Stephanie Clarke; Rob Hall; David Hampshire; David Smith; Steve Joul; and Sue Chambers.
A vote of thanks was passed for the work of Steve Joul, who retired from Leeds City Council in March, and David Preston, who was Meanwood Valley Ranger for three years, and has been appointed full time ranger as Steve’s replacement.
David has been assigned to work with Friends of Adel Woods four days a year and will probably work with us on tasks which FOAW can’t do on their own – eg tasks which need machinery rather than hand tools. He said that he will also be doing a lot of work with corporate groups. We discussed plans for work on Adel Moor, Adel Pond and Adel Bog and Adel Crag. David will also be able to assist with applications for grants for tools and the like.
The Chair’s report
Our last AGM was on the 26th May 2021 in the middle of a covid 19 lockdown. At that time, we hadn’t had any FOAW events since 13th December 2020. So our first event in 2021 was on the 25th July, shortly after what was dubbed at the time “Freedom Day”, the 19th July!
Working on the Stairfoot Lane steps on 25th July 2021
On the 25th July we litterpicked; repaired the Stairfoot Lane steps; removed a fallen tree from the path by the stream and created some drainage channels; and Steve Joul and Roderic cleared the drainage channel by the picnic area.
Since July we have had a further fourteen events – thirteen “work parties” and one birdsong walk. I have adopted the term “work parties” since David H used it to describe what we do: it sounds better than “task”, or “chain gang”! Our work parties have included the following:
seven mornings of litterpicking
two mornings of raking mowings off the orchid meadow (after it had been mown by Steve Joul)
three mornings working on Adel Moor – removing bracken, brambles and saplings
one morning on Adel Pond
one morning on Adel Bog
three mornings of path clearing
a day and a half of surveying and cleaning nest boxes
one morning of working on the hospice woodland, including removing a large tree which had fallen across the footpath
The birdsong walk took place on the 8th May. It was led by Steve Joul, and attended by twenty four people, raising £53.50 for FOAW funds. We saw or heard 19 species of birds. You can find out more about all these events by reading the entries on this blog.
Birdsong walk in Adel Woods on the 8th May 2022
Nature notes during the year
Azalea in Adel WoodsThe lime tree in Stairfoot lane carpark
The blog entry for July 2021 asked: Is Stairfoot Lane carpark the most fragrant part of Adel Woods? This was not a ridiculous question. There is a beautiful, fragrant, yellow azalea just below the carpark. It blooms in May and was still in bloom last Saturday and it casts a wonderful fragrance around the area. To find it, start down the steps leading down to the stream; after the fifth step, turn onto the path on the left, and the azalea is about 25 yards along. There is also a large lime tree in the Stairfoot Lane carpark and it will be coming into bloom and exuding a sweet fragrance in the next few weeks.
Green Hairstreak butterfly photographed on Adel Moor on 17th April 2022 by Joseph Worrilow
I am also pleased to be able to say that Green Hairstreak butterflies were spotted on Adel Moor again last month – the third April in a row. They are not a rare butterfly nationally, but locally they were previously only known in this area on Otley Chevin.
Steve Joul
In March 2022, Steve Joul retired from Leeds City Council and we wish him a very long and happy retirement – and a retirement where he continues to be involved with Friends of Adel Woods!
Steve has worked with Friends of Adel Woods since the group was formed in July 2009 and his first event was to lead a walk around the woods on 4th August 2009 to establish the kinds of tasks which FOAW can usefully carry out.
Making nest boxes in January 2010
Since then he has been a regular mentor, leading us on many work parties, in particular:
making nest and bat boxes in 2009 and 2010, and helping us to put them up
teaching us how to make Christmas wreaths which we made each year until lockdown
helping us to survey and clean the nest boxes each year
improving the Stairfoot Lane steps
guiding us and helping us with work on Adel Moor, Adel pond and Adel Bog
working on the orchid meadow.
A fungal foray: 27 October 2013
He has also led numerous walks and talks over the years including:
birdsong walks
bat walks
nature walks
newt safaris
tree walks
wildflower walks
a small mammal safari
fungal forays
how to carry out a habitat assessment
Inspecting a nest box in January 2020
So, on behalf of all at Friends of Adel Woods, I want to say a big thank you to Steve for all he has done for us over the years.
But all is not lost! He has continued to work with FOAW as a volunteer since he retired – and this evening he has joined our committee!
David Preston
Another reason that all is not lost is that Leeds City Council has appointed David Preston as a full time ranger to replace Steve, and he has been assigned four days a year to work with us.
Completing installation of one of our interpretation boards: March 2021
You may well know that David was Ranger for the Meanwood Valley for three years, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, when he did a lot of fantastic work up and down the Meanwood Valley, including Adel Woods.
We are delighted that David will now be working with us, and already has a list of “work parties” lined up for later in the year. We are looking forward to working with him.
So finally…
All that remains is to thank our committee for all the work they have done over the past year. Likewise to all our amazing volunteers. Friends of Adel Woods would not exist with out the committee and volunteers.
Thank you too for Old Leo’s Rugby Club for letting us use their car park over the last year.
Let’s look forward to another year of fun, laughter and friendship.
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.
A dry mild morning, and at 6.55 am twenty four “larks” (some a little bleary eyed) joined Steve Joul for the Friends of Adel Woods’ eleventh “annual” FOAW birdsong walk. It would have been our thirteenth, but our walks in 2020 and 2021 were canceled due to covid 19.
A flock of expectant “larks”
Adel Woods are part of land owned by Leeds City Council and they offer a range of different habitats where various species of birds, flora and fauna can be found. Steve took us on a tour through these varying habitats to discover what we would see and hear.
Setting off from Old Leo’s Rugby Club carpark, we headed north into Alwoodley Plantation, an area of woodland made up mainly of birch trees, beech trees, holly, sycamores and oaks, but also with a number of scots pine. From there we made our way to the area of open scrubland above the disused rugby field, where in the past we have often seen whitethroats (but sadly not today).
The entrance to the Hospices Woodland, just off Stairfoot Lane
We then walked up to the entrance to the Hospices Woodland, just off Stairfoot Lane, a mixture of young native trees planted in about 2020. We walked through the woodland and back down to the disused rugby field, where we paused to have a look a a small orchard of ten fruit trees planted by Steve last year as a countryside ranger with Leeds City Council.
From there we strolled along Crag Lane and down the steps from the Stairfoot Lane carpark to Meanwood Beck. We made our way along the beck, a very peaceful spot where the only sounds are the babbling of the stream and the calling of the birds, to Adel Pond.
“What’s that over there!”“And that!”That look’s really interesting!
By now it was 8.30 am and we made our way back to Old Leo’s carpark, making a detour across Adel Moor.
On our travels we spotted or heard nineteen species of birds including:
jay
songthrush
woodpigeon
carrion crow
wren
magpie
chiffchaff
robin
great tit
dunnock
blackbird
blackcap
bullfinch
great spotted woodpecker
treecreeper
blue tit
red kite.
One species were were delighted to hear for the first time in a number of years was the willow warbler, near the entrance to the Hospices Woodland. We also had a surprise sighting of a pair of mandarin ducks on Meanwood Beck. The mandarins are an exotic species and this pair had probably come from Golden Acre Park.
We were hoping to see or hear a few more species, but birds like the chaffinch, pied wagtail, starling, nuthatch and feral pigeon, which we could have expected to be around, were lying low today.
Thank you to Steve Joul for leading us on a very enjoyable and informative walk – and thanks to all the “larks” who attended and donated to Friends of Adel Woods’ funds.
On 25th April 2020, local nature enthusiasts, Lisa and Andy, found Green Hairstreak butterflies on Adel Moor – the first finding of this species outside Otley Chevin in the Leeds area.
In April last year, a small colony was found again on Adel Moor, and we are delighted that a Green Hairstreak was found on Adel Moor today. For more information about this species, please see our blog entries for April 2020 and 2021 – links given the end of this post, after the photographs.
Green Hairstreak butterfly on Adel Moor, 17th April 2022: photo taken byJoseph WorrilowGreen Hairstreak butterfly on Adel Moor, 17th April 2022: photo taken by Joseph WorrilowGreen Hairstreak butterfly on Adel Moor, 17th April 2022: photo taken by Joseph Worrilow
To find out more about Green Hairstreak butterflies, please see our blog posts for 25 April 2020 and 22 April 2021
Working on Adel Moor is one of FOAW’s favourite tasks and when Steve Joul said that he would like to spend a couple of hours this morning clearing brambles from the moor, six of us joined him.
This was Steve’s first “work party” with FOAW as a volunteer, rather than as a Ranger with Leeds City Council, and we are very appreciative of the help and expertise he can offer us.
Views across Adel Moor
Today we were trying out a new method of controlling the brambles – pulling them up or, if too hard to pull up, cutting them off at the root. On previous occasions we have dug them up but this can leave the ground looking like a ploughed field, and possibly opens the door to invasive plants like Rose Bay Willow Herb.
Taking a breather
Unfortunately, we found a number of piles of dog faeces which yours truly volunteered to remove: not a pleasant task. Dog faeces change the nutrients in the soil and damage the special ecosystem of the moor, so please spread the word to dog owners to please take their dog’s faeces home.
At the end of a successful morning’s work
The moor is in a good condition thanks to all the work done over the years by Steve, other Leeds CC rangers, corporate groups and, of course, Friends of Adel Woods. At the moment there are some brightly coloured clumps of gorse. Well worth enjoying!
Steve with our pile of bramblesGorse on Adel MoorGorse on Adel Moor
Installing the interpretation panel by the side of the path down to the Slabbering Baby
As part of the Wilderness on Your Doorstep project in the Meanwood Valley, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Adel Woods was allocated three interpretation panels to be sited by the path into the woods from Buckstone Road, on Adel Moor and on Crag Lane near Adel Crag.
After a long delay due to covid 19, they have at last been installed by David Preston and Louise and Emma of the Parks and Countryside ranger team.
On Tuesday, 2nd March, they installed the panel on the path from Buckstone Road(see pictures above) and the panel on Adel Moor (see pictures below).
Installing the interpretation panel on Adel Moor.
They installed the final panel on Crag Lane on Wednesday 3rd March.
The interpretation panel on Crag Lane, near Adel Crag.
They look great! So thank you to everyone involved in applying for the grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, to Dan Malster who organised the design of the panels, to Steve Joul who assisted in clearing the locations for them, and to David, Louise and Emma who installed them – and of course to everyone else who played a part in the long journey from imagining their existence to their installation.
I should say that the lottery funding also covered the cost of installing an interpretation board at Adel Whin on Eccup Lane. Adel Whin isn’t part of the area looked after by FOAW but here is a picture of David installing the panel.
Interpretational panel to be installed near Adel Crag, and on the path down to the Slabbering Baby
As part of the Meanwood Valley, Wilderness on your Doorstep project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, three interpretation panels are going to be placed in Adel Woods – similar in style to the one by the Slabbering Baby.
Today, David Preston, the Meanwood Valley Ranger, met with FOAW committee members, Roger, Judith and Rob, to agree the siting of the new interpretation panels – which we are hoping will be installed in the next few weeks.
Pointing to the proposed siting of an interpretation panel by the path leading down to the Slabbering Baby
There are two designs of panel. The design shown at the head of this post will be placed on the path from Buckstone Road down to the Slabbering Baby and on Crag Lane near Adel (or Alwoodley) Crag. The other will be placed on Adel Moor.
The interpretation panel to be sited on Adel Moor
We agreed the panel on Adel Moor will be installed at the north eastern corner of the moor, where various paths converge.
Let’s put it there!
The moor is looking very good at the moment, and it hasn’t been abandoned during covid-19 lockdown. One of our committee members has been pulling bracken, and David Preston will be strimming areas where the bracken has suppressed all other plant life.
Choosing a position for the third panel. Who is that old codger on the extreme right? Oh, it’s me!
We agreed to place the final interpretation panel at the junction of Crag Lane with the path leading up to Adel Crag.
Adel (or Alwoodley) Crag 11th June 2020
We are looking forward to seeing the new interpretation panels in place in the next few weeks.
Green Hairstreak Butterfly: Adel Moor, Leeds: 25 April 2020. The butterfly was released after having its picture taken!
Local nature enthusiasts, Lisa and Andy and family, were out today doing their permitted exercise, and looking for the common heath moth on Adel Moor, but were excited to find instead a colony of Green Hairstreak butterflies (callophrys rubi).
This butterfly is found throughout the UK but in the Leeds area, it is notorious for being found only on the Otley Chevin. This is in fact the first report of this species outside the Chevin in the Leeds area – so this is a pretty special find which Lisa and Andy have reported to the local recorders of the Butterfly Conservation Trust. .
Green Hairstreak Butterfly: Adel Moor, Leeds: 25 April 2020.
The caterpillars like to live on bilberry, gorse and heather, and so the habitat on Adel Moor ought to be just what they like: it is very similar to the habitat on the Chevin.
The Green Hairstreak has a very short fly period – from April to May. When not in flight, it holds its wings closed showing only the green underside with its faint white streak. The white streak is variable: sometimes it may be reduced to a few dots and may be almost absent.
The males and females are very similar and are most readily told apart by their behaviour: rival males may be seen in a spiral flight close to shrubs, while the females are more often encountered while laying eggs.
Oh, by the way, Lisa and Andy mentioned that they have seen the tail end of a couple of very fast moving lizards in the same spot over the last few weeks!
This is a photo of a Green Hairstreak taken by Steve Joul on Otley Chevin.
Green Hairstreak Butterfly on Otley Chevin. Photograph taken by Steve Joul
The weather forecast for today was cloudy with sunny spells in the morning and rain from 2 pm onwards.
Your correspondent woke at 7 am to a glorious day – a blue sky with not a cloud in the sky.
By 10 am it was overcast but still a pleasant morning and twelve of us, including Steve Joul, met in Buckstone Road to work on Adel moor and litter pick. Three of us set off to litter pick and the rest of us set off to the moor.
Our task this morning (on the moor) was to dig up brambles and saplings, pull up weeds (like rosebay willow herb), and cut back tree branches encroaching onto the moor. We also had a look at what we could do about trees which have been cut down – or in reality coppiced – in the past.
The moor was looking great: the hard work of FOAW and other groups of volunteers led by Steve Joul and the other rangers has really made a huge difference.
The small light green bushes are the coppiced trees.
All was going well until it started to rain at about 11.15. Being hardy souls, we continued with our work, but then the heavens really opened!
Adel Moor: devotion to duty!
We continued working for a few minutes, but it soon became obvious that the rain was not going to stop and we were all completely saturated.
Adel Moor: 11 May 2019
We abandoned ship and packed away our tools – not an easy thing because everything was by now really wet and we had pools of water in our tool bags and wheelbarrow!
Adel Moor: 11 May 2019
On the way back to the car, we came across our hardy litter pickers!
As always, in good spirits! Note the waterfall coming off the path in the bottom right corner.
Ironically, when we got back to the car, the rain slowed down and eventually stopped and the sun came out!
It was a day of mixed fortunes: your correspondent was delighted that so many Friends turned out today to litter pick work on the moor – which is a lovely place to work, and a favourite among Friends of Adel Woods. But it was frustrating to be rained off when there is so much work to do.
PS It started to rain again at about 1 pm and didn’t stop all afternoon.
Friends of Adel Woods 