Despite a misty and damp day and an unpromising weather forecast, eleven of us met by the Cricket Pavilion, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, for this morning’s work party.
Five of us chose to litterpick, and six to clear holly on the Meanwood Valley Trail.
Litterpicking
“Despite the murky weather I enjoyed my litter picking walk through the woods.”
Our litterpickers picked up about five bags of rubbish between them. They ranged widely through the woods: around the rugby club, along Crag Lane, through the plantation woodland and the Stairfoot Lane carpark. They collected the usual stuff: sweet/crisp wrappers, bottles, poo bags and broken glass and found a car battery which had been dumped near Stairfoot Lane.
One of our litterpickers brought a saw so that she could clear some fallen logs on three paths in the northern part of the woods.
Path Clearing in Alwoodley Plantation
Path clearing on the Meanwood Valley Trail
We path clearers made our way down from the Cricket Pavilion to the pond, and and from there proceeded up the Meanwood Valley Trail as far as the picnic area, trimming back holly on our way.
Another successful morning! And a big thank you to all our volunteers!!
By the way, we left our off-clippings in the woodland on either side of the trail in accordance with guidance from Leeds City Council. However, someone has moved clippings into the centre of the trail – possibly to provide a surface on top of the mud. It wasn’t us!
About Friends of Adel Woods
We hope that you have enjoyed reading about our activities and would be delighted if you would like to join us.
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events such as bat walks, fungal forays and birdsong walks.
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, keep an eye on our Home Page.
You don’t need to book to come along to one of our work “parties”: just come along!
If you would like to join our email mailing list, please get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.
We are just about to complete our sixteenth year since Friends of Adel Woods came into being, and the last twelve months have been successful with many work parties and educational walks and talks.
Work parties
Usually, our work parties comprises a team of litterpickers and another team carrying out a task such as path clearing.
In the last year we have had twelve mornings of litterpicking and picked up about fifty bags of rubbish – so hats off to our dedicated band of litterpickers! We haven’t kept a tally, but it seems likely that since Friends of Adel Woods was formed, we have picked up over eight hundred bags of rubbish – in addition to disposing of larger items such as tyres and beer barrels!
Some of the rubbish we have collected over the last year
As well as litterpicking we have completed fifteen and a half mornings on the following tasks:
one morning working on Adel Moor with David Preston removing bracken, brambles and saplings.
one morning clearing bracken from around the Buck Stone
three mornings mowing the orchid meadow
four mornings clearing paths and fallen trees
three mornings working on Adel Bog (1 with David Preston)
one morning dredging Adel Pond with David Preston
one and a half days of nest box cleaning and surveying with Steve Joul
one morning putting tree guards on the orchard in the practice rugby field
Working on the orchid meadow with David Preston
Educational events
Since the last AGM we have had six educational walks – five with Steve Joul, and one with Leeds City Council ranger, David Preston. They were all a great success.
A fungal foray with Steve Joul on 17th November 2024
Steve led a variety of walks:
30th June: exploring biodiversity – a joint event with Alwoodley 2030
20th July: a stream and pond safari
29 September: a fungal foray
17th November: a fungal foray
4th May this year, a birdsong walk
On 28th August David led a guided batwalk attended by twenty six adults and nine children.
A bat walk with David Preston on 28th August 2024
I know from speaking to people who attend, and the messages I get from participants after these events, that people really enjoy them.
The Friends of Adel Woods Blog
If you would like to know more about our activities, please have a look at our blog entries.
Grants
Putting tree guards on the orchard in bitterly cold driving rain
We have received two grants in the last year.
In February we received a grant from Alwoodley 2030 to purchase tree guards for the orchard in the practice rugby field as the trees were suffering damage from deer and rabbits.
This month the Leeds Together Fund awarded Friends of Adel Woods a grant to purchase three litterpickers and six bin bag hoops. The purpose of the grant was to put on a community event during May and on the 31st May we are having a community litterpick.
Improvements to the Stairfoot Lane Carpark and Crag Lane
The Stairfoot Lane carpark after improvements
In December Leeds City Council resurfaced the Stairfoot Lane carpark and created a separate fenced off path through the carpark for the route of the Meanwood Valley Trail to keep pedestrians away from vehicles. This was clearly a big improvement.
In February the council resurfaced Crag Lane from the Stairfoot Lane carpark to Old Leo’s rugby club. This involved scraping off the mud from the surface, laying hardcore and then creating the new surface. This end result is a great improvement to Crag Lane.
Crag Lane after resurfacing work
However, my particular reason to mention this is that one of our regular volunteers, Matthew, contacted me on the 9th February, before the work was completed. He was very concerned because he had noticed that the hardcore used was of poor quality – containing crushed bricks, concrete, white ceramics and plastic piping – which was completely unacceptable in a woodland area. I contacted our local councillors and David Preston and passed on Matthew’s concerns and the result was that the worst hardcore was scraped off, and replaced with better quality hardcore.
So thank you very much to Matthew.
Water Quality in our Local Streams
Possible pollution in Adel Beck
Pollution of our rivers is a hot topic at the moment and in the past it has been raised with me by members of Friends of Adel Woods. One of the problems about looking into this is having accurate information about whether the streams are polluted or not.
In October last year I met up with a PhD student at Leeds who is active in promoting citizen science projects relating to water quality of our local streams. On 10th October, I walked with her along Nanny Beck and Meanwood Beck to look for signs of pollution and in February I organised a meeting of members of Friends of Adel Woods who would like to get involved in a water sampling project. About fourteen people attended the meeting. I am organising a meeting to form two or three groups who will take responsibility for the sampling. While it makes sense for Friends of Adel Woods to help steer this project, I am hoping that this will become a separate self-sustaining project.
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust event
On the 19th November, three of our committee – Steve, Sue and myself – went to an event organised by Alwoodley 2030 when Yorkshire Wildlife Trust gave a talk on the state of nature in Yorkshire.
Thank yous
Working on Adel Bog
So as usual, I would like to thank our committee and volunteers for all the work they have done over the last year. FOAW would not exist without the committee and volunteers. And I am looking forward to another year of fun, laughter and friendship. New members are always welcome!
I would particularly like to thank Judith for all the work she has done as treasurer over the last 16 years, and Stephanie who was our secretary from 2009 until July of last year.
Steve Joul on a stream and pond safari
Thank you to Steve Joul for leading five educational events this year – and helping to raise funds for Friends of Adel Woods.
Thank you to David Preston for the work he has done with us the last year. David is changing jobs to join the Public Rights of Way team imminently, and so we may not work with him again.
Looking to the future
As I and the rest of the committee get older, I get more concerned about how to ensure that Friends of Adel Woods continues for years to come. This is something which we need to consider over the coming year. New volunteers are always welcome!
Roger Gilbert
Chair of Friends of Adel Woods
COME ALONG TO FRIENDS OF ADEL WOODS EVENTS!
We hope that you have enjoyed reading about our activities and would be delighted if you would like to join us.
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events such as bat walks, fungal forays and birdsong walks.
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, keep an eye on our Home Page and come along to one of our work parties.
If you would like to join our email mailing list, please get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.
Despite it being a rather cold and damp morning, we had an amazing turn out of twelve Friends (including a toddler) and a spaniel!
Nine of us chose to do a litterpick and two of us to do some path clearing.
The litterpickers
The litterpickers split into two teams. One team picked up litter along Crag Lane, along the track to the cricket pavilion, and then along Buckstone Road and across the Village Green.
The other team focused on the Village Green, the area around the edge of the Village Green, and the playground area.
Between them they picked up nine bags of litter. A fantastic achievement.
Path clearing
Before (looking down the path towards Crag Lane)…
We two path clearers made our way along Crag Lane and onto the “diagonal” path on the right, just before Old Leo’s carpark. A short way up this path, a tree had fallen and although part of it had been cleared from the path, it was still making the path very narrow.
….and after
Having cleared away the many branches, we made our way further up the path and trimmed back a holly bush which was growing over the path.
Before……and after
We then made our way westwards along the path towards the former rugby field and tackled another large tree which had fallen across the path.
Before….
The trunk of the tree was too big for us to tackle, but we were able to clear away many of the branches.
…and after
Finally, we made our way down to Crag Lane, and towards the picnic area. Part way along we cleared away the branches of another fallen tree.
Whilst on Crag Lane we took the opportunity to have a look at some improvement work which Leeds City Council is carrying out to its surface.
Resurfacing work to Crag Lane, looking in the direction of the Stairfoot Lane carpark Resurfacing work to Crag Lane behind Old Leo’s
Come along to Friends of Adel Woods events!
We hope that you have enjoyed reading about our activities and would be delighted if you would like to join us.
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events such as bat walks, fungal forays and birdsong walks.
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, keep an eye on our Home Page and come along to one of our work parties.
If you would like to join our email mailing list, please get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.
A fine morning and nine of us met in the Stairfoot Lane carpark at 10 am – four volunteers for litterpicking and five for clearing footpaths.
Some kindly soul had left half a dozen bags of compost – possibly from a cannabis farm – just over the fence from the carpark. Before we left we emptied the compost into the undergrowth and put the plastic bags in the carpark waste bin.
Litterpicking
Our litterpickers made their way along Crag Lane to Old Leo’s rugby club carpark. They found little litter on Crag Lane or around Adel Crag. However, there was plenty in the Stairfoot Lane carpark and around the rugby club and they picked up about two bags including lots of bags of dog faeces, many bottles and a filled disposable nappy.
A special mention goes to Rowan, our youngest volunteer this morning, who was very enthusiastic and very good at spotting difficult to see bits of glass!
Path clearing
Our path clearers first of all tackled a birch tree which had fallen across the path from the Stairfoot Lane carpark up to the hospice woodland. We then pruned back some holly a little higher up the same path.
Clearing holly on the path up to the hospice woodland
Our next destination was Adel Crag where another silver birch had fallen over between Crag Lane and the Crag. We also took the opportunity to prune some of the scrub in that area.
Clearing a fallen birch tree in front of Adel Crag
In August Storm Lilian blew two very large oak trees over onto the Crag. The trees are far too big for Friends of Adel Woods to tackle, but we completed our morning’s work by clearing away some of the smaller branches to the side of the Crag.
Adel Crag at the end of our morning’s work
Finally, we cleared away a pallet which had been left by the Crag.
Join Friends of Adel Woods!
We hope that you have enjoyed reading about our activities and would be delighted if you would like to join us.
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events such as bat walks, fungal forays and birdsong walks.
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, keep an eye on our Home Page and just come along to one of our work parties.
Over the last fifteen years we have picked up over four hundred bags of rubbish – which makes you wonder what the woods would look like today without the loving care our volunteers have given them.
In our first two litterpicks alone in July and August 2009 we picked up fifty three bags of litter plus many things which will not fit into a plastic bag – like a chair and a shopping trolley. You can find our reports here – July 2009 and August 2009.
If you would like to join our email mailing list, please get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.
Adel Crag, partially concealed by two fallen oak trees. Photo taken by Val Compton
Two teams today: one to pick up litter, and the other to clear up some of the trees toppled by Storm Lilian on the 23rd August. Two trees which are beyond our capacity to tackle are two mature oaks blown over onto Adel Crag. We are hoping that the Forestry Department will clear the trees away.
The tree team
Five of us set off from the Stairfoot Lane car park along Crag Lane. Our first target was a fallen tree about 50 yards along which someone had partially cleared from the path. We spent ten minutes clearing it fully from the path, before moving on to the picnic area.
The picnic area, looking southwards down the Meanwood Valley Trail
At the picnic area a large silver birch had blown over the course of the Meanwood Valley Trail. It had also fallen onto a small oak tree, breaking some of the branches from the oak. The branches from the trees covered one of the picnic tables, rendering it inaccessible.
A tangle of birch and oak branches
We set to with loppers and bow saws and it turned out to be a much bigger job than anticipated, taking us nearly an hour and a half to clear the debris.
The picnic table covered in birch and oak branches
After we finished, the picnic table was completely cleared – and it was a pleasure to see some people sitting at it enjoying a picnic a few days later.
Happy Friends of Adel Woods relaxing after a job well done!
We ran out of time to clear away all of the birch, but the tree trunk was really a job for a chainsaw. We are hoping that if and when the forestry department clear away the oak trees from Adel Crag, they will spend an extra five minutes removing what is left of the birch tree.
The litter pickers
While the path clearers were with saws and loppers, our happy team of litter pickers were busy on Stairfoot Lane and in the woods – picking up five bags of litter.
Sadly, they found a lot of flytipping – two carpets, tyres, tiles, garden waste, and bags of rubbish.
Tyres dumped in Adel WoodsRubbish awaiting collection in the Stairfoot Lane carpark
JOIN FRIENDS OF ADEL WOODS
We hope that you have enjoyed reading of our activities.
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events such as bat walks, fungal forays and birdsong walks. 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 – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.
Our next events
Our next work party is on Sunday the 13th October 2024 when we will be litterpicking and working with David Preston, our local countryside ranger, to dredge Adel Pond and clear the ditches feeding it.
On Saturday the 2nd November we will be litterpicking and working with David on Adel Bog
For further information, please have a look at our home page.
Today, despite a further month of seemingly daily (or nightly) rainfall since our last event, Spring seemed to be almost here. It was a mild, dry day and the sun actually came out at midday!
This morning’s activities were litterpicking and path clearing. We met in the Stairfoot Lane carpark at 9.55 am and although we had a slow start, in the end thirteen Friends turned up – five litterpicking and eight working on clearing paths. And it was really great that we had three first-timer Friends, two of whom were young people!
The path clearers made our way to the picnic area near Adel Crag and trimmed back holly which was narrowing the entrance to the Meanwood Valley Trail and then made our way down the trail.
The Meanwood Valley Trail viewed from the picnic area in Adel Woods
About fifty yards down the trail, a large birch tree had fallen across the path. It was too big for FOAW to deal with, but three of us removed branches which obstructed the path and trimmed back some of the branches from the “top” of the tree to reduce the weight pushing the trunk towards the ground.
The birch tree lying across the Meanwood Valley Trail
We have notified Leeds CC’s forestry department about the tree trunk.
After clearing part of the birch from the Meanwood Valley Trail
After working on the tree, we joined five other members of our team who were pruning back holly further down the Meanwood Valley Trail.
Friends of Adel Woods working on the Meanwood Valley TrailClearing holly from the entrance to one of the side paths
We don’t have any photographs of the litterpickers, but between them they picked up three bags of rubbish which was a great achievement.
A big thank you to all who took part today and helped to look after our woods.
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 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
Our next work party will be on Sunday the 21st April when we will be litterpicking and working on Adel Moor from 10 am to 12 noon.
On Sunday the 5th May, our committee member and expert naturalist, Steve Joul, will be leading a birdsong walk – from 7 am to 9 am.
Further details are given on our homepage and will be sent out via our mailing list.
Putting up a nest box for blue tits on the Meanwood Valley Trail
When we surveyed the FOAW nest boxes on the 13th and 14th January, we found that three needed replacing, but only had one spare nest box to put up in their place. The committee therefore agreed to purchase two Schwegler tit boxes from Ark Wildlife. We purchased one with a 32 mm hole which is suitable for blue tits, great tits and nuthatches, and one with a smaller 26mm hole which is suitable just for blue tits.
They arrived yesterday and Steve Joul and your correspondent put them up this morning. We already have one Schwegler nest box near Old Leo’s clubhouse and we have been very impressed with it. It was donated to us in 2010 by our member Tina and it is very well designed and as good as new.
The blue tit box on an oak tree by the Meanwood Valley Trail
This morning we put up the first nest box on the Meanwood Valley Trail about 100 metres north of the Seven Arches aqueduct. While there, we took the opportunity to have a look to see how the Seven Arches looks following work carried out by its owner, Yorkshire Water, to remove trees and brambles growing on the structure. A few weeks earlier, our local ranger, David Preston, and the Meanwood Valley Volunteer rangers had cleared scrub from the Scotland Wood side.
The Seven Arches photographed from the Scotland Wood sideand looking good!
We put up the second nest box on the Meanwood Valley Trail just north of Adel Pond.
Putting up a tit box on the Meanwood Valley Trail north of Adel Pond
The Schwegler nest boxes are made of a mixture of woodchips, concrete and clay and are long-lasting- expected to last for up to 25 years. We are looking forward to see how our new nest boxes have fared when we survey and clean them next January.
Snowdrops by the side of Buckstone Road
On the way home afterwards it was a pleasure to see the snowdrops by the stream running alongside Buckstone Road.
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 morning a month to carry out various ”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. Please get in touch by leaving a comment on this website if you would like to take part in our activities.
The Seven Arches aqueduct, with a fallen tree in the foreground.
A lovely day for part two of our annual nest box clean and survey. This morning we had a team of six and we decided to complete our survey by starting at the Seven Arches and making our way up the Meanwood Valley Trail.
When we reached the Seven Arches we found a huge tree had been blown over by the recent high winds, but were rewarded by a fine view of the aqueduct following recent clearance work carried out by David Preston and his team of Meanwood Valley Volunteer Rangers.
The morning session….
This blog post will focus on what we found during our work today. You can find a lot of information about the purpose of cleaning the nest boxes, the birds that use them, and the kind of things we find, in yesterday’s blog entry, which can be found here.
This morning we cleaned and surveyed twelve tit boxes and one treecreeper box.
Of the twelve tit boxes, ten contained tit nests (of which three at least were blue tit nests), one contained a nuthatch nest, and we don’t seem to have made a record of what we found in the twelfth. The treecreeper box contained a lot of leaves indicating it had been used by a squirrel for roosting.
A nuthatch nest in one of our woodstone boxes
Nuthatch nests are very different from tit nests. Nuthatches will use tit boxes but usually plaster around any gaps with mud, and rather than using moss, grass and feathers as nesting material, nuthatches use material chips of bark, so the nest looks like a bowl of branflakes! The nest we found today was sparse and there was not a lot of material so it is possible it was not completed. You can see a better example of a nuthatch nest in one of our wooden nest boxes photographed in January 2019 here.
The treecreeper box is a bit unusual. Treecreepers are so called because they creep up the side of tree, looking for bugs to eat. They nest high up in small gaps behind the bark of trees, and the tree creeper nest box is intended to offer something similar to the gap behind bark. It is about twice the depth of a tit box, and the entrance is on the side of the box, near the bark of the tree. We have found a tit nest in our treecreeper box in previous years, but this year we found a lot of leaves indicating that it had been used for roosting by a squirrel. You can see a photograph of the treecreeper box here
One first this year was that we found a large amount of “sawdust” in box 39, and a large hole in the back of the box. Since the back of the box was against the trunk of the tree, the hole could not have been made from the outside by a woodpecker and it must have been made from the inside by a woodmouse.
Looking expectantly to see what will be in the box!Cleaning one of our nest boxesInspecting the job!
We retired for lunch, a piece of Christmas cake and a comfort break at about 1.25 pm.
The afternoon session….
Re-energised after lunch, and raring to go!
This afternoon, starting from just below the Slabbering Baby, we made our way up the Meanwood Valley Trail and surveyed the final seven nest boxes – six tit boxes and one robin box.
The robin box had not been used. The tit boxes had all been used though one nest appeared not to have been completed. One nest contained five unhatched eggs and another four unhatched eggs. However, since great tits lay seven to nine eggs and blue tits eight to twelve eggs, the nests may well have been successful.
Cleaning nest box 29 at the Slabbering BabyThe nest and four unhatched eggs in nest box 42Measuring the entrance hole on one of our wooden boxes
Friends of Adel Woods made and put up our wooden boxes under the tuition of Steve Joul in January 2010 and January 2011. We also purchased and put up a number of woodstone boxes in 2013. The woodstone boxes are made of a mixture of cement and sawdust. The advantages of woodstone boxes is that they do not rot and are usually easier to clean. On the other hand, they are very heavy!
Cleaning out one of our woodstone boxesWinding up at 4.30 pm
In summary
Yesterday and today we surveyed and cleaned out forty one nest boxes – thirty six tit boxes, four robin boxes and one treecreeper box. Apart from one nest box, for which we do not seem to have made a record, all of the tit boxes were used last Spring. One of the tit boxes was used by a pair of nuthatches. None of the robin boxes had been used by robins, but two had been used by tits for nesting and two by squirrels for roosting. The treecreeper box had been used by a squirrel for roosting.
Thank you to everyone who helped over the weekend: thanks to Steve for letting us use his ladder; and thanks to Andrew who transported the ladder to Alwoodley!
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 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. Please get in touch by leaving a comment on this website if you would like to take part in our activities.
A fine but cold day for day one of our annual survey and clean of our nest boxes in Adel Woods. At 10 am we had an amazing turnout of nine people - and later on twelve when three more people joined us in the woods!
We have thirty eight tit boxes and four robin boxes in Adel Woods, so we had our work cut out! Tit boxes are the familiar nest boxes with a round hole in the front. Robins will not use tit boxes and prefer a box with a large opening at the front (as shown below) placed near the ground – or not to use a nest box at all.
We need to clean the nest boxes because tits and robins do not re-use nests from previous years. In 2021 we were unable to clean out the nest boxes due to the covid lockdown and when we surveyed the nest boxes in January 2022 we found that in Spring 2021 nests had been built on top of the previous year’s nests. This probably happens all the time in natural nesting holes, but it is not a good start for young chicks because the old nesting material is frequently full of fleas and mites, and sometimes is very wet.
A robin box made by Friends of Adel Woods – note the large entrance.
Our morning’s work
We set off down Crag Lane and then up the “diagonal” path on the right hand side of Crag Lane, just before Old Leo’s car park. We paused at the entrance to the path to have a look at some Yellow Brain fungus (see yesterday’s blog post) and then started work cleaning our first nest box, number 17.
FOAW’s tit boxes have three different sizes of entrance hole. The two larger sizes, 28mm or 32mm, allow access to blue tits, great tits or nuthatches. The smallest entrance hole, 25mm, permits access only for blue tits. Coal tits may use nest boxes, but prefer a nest box only a metre or so above the ground so they do not use our tit boxes which are all at least three metres from the ground.
Nest box 17 seemed to contain two typical tit nests made of moss and grass – a great tit nest containing two unhatched eggs, and, on top of it, a blue tit nest containing one unhatched egg. Blue tit and great tit eggs look very similar, but great tit eggs are slightly bigger (17.5mm x 13.5mm) than blue tit eggs (15.6mm x 12mm).
Replacing the damp proofing on box number 17
We have covered all our wooden tit boxes with damp proofing plastic to keep them dry. This has been very successful over the years, but the plastic gets holes where pecked by the birds and this year we had to replace or patch up many of the nest boxes.
A typical tit nest made of moss, feathers and grass found in box 18
This morning we surveyed eleven tit boxes and two robin boxes. Ten tit boxes had nests inside them, and one a partly built tit nest. Some had one or two unhatched eggs concealed in the nesting material but since great tits lay seven to nine eggs and blue tits eight to twelve eggs, we infer that most of the nests were successful even though some eggs did not hatch. One nest contained the skeleton of a fully formed bird – probably a chick, but perhaps an adult. One contained a sweet chestnut shell, indicating that after the tits departed a wood mouse moved in for a while.
Turning to the robin boxes, one contained lots of leaves and had clearly been used by a squirrel for roosting, while the other contained a partly formed tit nest.
A blackbird nest at the base of a downey birch
One of the most exciting finds was made by Steve Joul when he found a blackbird nest near the ground at the back of the tree on which nest box number 8 was hanging.
No report on our nest box surveys is complete without a photo of Steve climbing a ladder!Nest box material well and truly processed by insects and containing larvae or maggotsViewing “Tina’s nest box” – a posh Schwegler box near Old Leo’s clubhouse
We continued working till about 1.20pm when we adjourned for lunch and a piece of Christmas cake. We had surveyed the nest boxes in Alwoodley Plantation, the boxes on the path running north adjacent to the disused rugby pitch, and the nest boxes on Crag Lane behind the rugby clubhouse.
Our afternoon session
Five of us resumed work at about 2.30pm and surveyed the nest boxes along Crag Lane from the rugby club to the picnic area, and then started to make our way down the Meanwood Valley Trail. surveying and cleaning nine nest boxes – eight tit boxes and one robin box.
The robin box contained a tit nest and leaves on top of it suggesting that a squirrel had used it for roosting. Of the tit boxes, seven contained a nest, and one contained moss which looked very fresh suggested that it may have been put there this year, even though it would be early for tits to start nesting.
A tit nest made in part with man-made fibres – probably from tennis balls
One of the striking features which we always find in tit nests is the use of man-made materials – probably the covering of green, yellow or orange tennis balls – to make the nest.
Black “witches butter” fungus and hairy curtain crust fungus on a tree stump
A propos of nothing we found these excellent examples of fungi this afternoon.
Time for a cup of tea!
We finished work at 4.35 as it was getting too dark to see.
In summary, during today’s survey we found that all the tit boxes were used. The nesting material in some tit boxes was dry, but in some it was very wet indeed – perhaps not surprising in view of the recent months of seemingly relentless heavy rain. Fortunately, today we spruced up twenty one nest boxes for this year’s broods.
Several of the nests contained droppings, indicating that the nest box had been used for roosting, as nesting birds do not defecate in the nest and clean out droppings from chicks.
Thank you to everyone who helped with today’s workparty!
To read more, have a look at tomorrow’s blog entry for day two of our annual nest box survey and clean.
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. We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to make new friends and enjoy getting out in the woods.
Yesterday we had heavy rain all day – not a day to encourage people to come out in the woods today. However, we still had an excellent turn out of eight volunteers (including yours truly) – though two didn’t find us till quarter to twelve!
We met in the Stairfoot Lane car park. Our objective today was to clear paths and we split into two teams. The ladies set off to cut back holly and do some litterpicking as required; the gentlemen set off on some muddier (though probably not much muddier) tasks.
Working on clearing the drainage pipe on Crag Lane.
The gentlemen’s first job was to unblock the drainage pipe under Crag Lane, near the picnic area. In all the recent rain, the pipe had become blocked with mud and leaves and there was a large pool across most of the path. It was a matter of a couple of minutes to unblock the pipe so that the pool could drain away. However, it took another twenty minutes or so to clear away all the mud so that it would not block the drain again.
Clearing away mud on Crag Lane.
From there we made our way to the Stairfoot Lane steps which are much used by walkers. On 30th September we had replaced some of the timbers and generally tidied them up. However, since then the Autumn leaves had fallen on them, moles had created a number of mole hills, and the heavy rain of the last few months had washed a lot more mud onto them.
Tidying up the Stairfoot Lane steps – before.
We cleared away the leaves and levelled the surfaces of the steps and – as can be seen from the photograph below – restored them to a beautiful pristine state. We also cut back some of the holly growing over the steps.
The Stairfoot Lane steps – after.
The two work parties met up at 12 noon in the Stairfoot Lane car park. In addition to cutting back holly, the ladies had been road testing two different types of plastic rings for litterpicking – they help keep the mouths of plastic bags open when litterpicking. You can see one of the rings in the photograph below.
Checking out one of the litterpicking rings.
Unfortunately, the ladies did not take any photographs of any of the paths where they cut back holly, but did supply a number of “after” photographs taken on the 12th December – one of which appears below.
Friends of Adel Woods: one of the paths worked on on the 10th December.
All in all a very successful and satisfying day!
A happy band of 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 morning a month at the weekend to carry out various jobs, and we also put on educational events – such as birdsong walks, bat walks and fungal forays.
Our next events will be on 13th and 14th January when we will be surveying and cleaning the FOAW nest boxes, and on the 20th January when we will be picking up litter and improving paths.
Further details will be published on our home page over the Christmas holidays. In the meantime, the committee of the Friends of Adel Woods wish you a very merry Christmas and all happiness in 2024!
Friends of Adel Woods 