Thank you to everyone who came to today’s work task and stayed to attend our in person AGM afterwards (thanks to the cafe who provided tea and coffee and amazing lemon cake!).
We continued to tidy up the forest garden, tackled the small willow structures in the park and did a bit of cutting back and reinstate the view from David’s seat on the Yellow trail which had become quite overgrown.
David was one of the original FoDF committee members when the Friends were first formed and the bench was placed here in his memory when he died in 2012. Take a moment next time you are passing and enjoy the view once more!
The view from David’s seat. March 2022.David’s seat
It was a cold and frosty Dalby morning for our first work task of the year. In previous years, we’ve often had to split the willow task across two days, but we had a brilliant turnout of volunteers so we managed to give all the structures a haircut and get them under some sort of control!
We cut back most things by hand but were rather jealous of ranger Holly’s mechanised loppers! We also said goodbye to Simon, our go-to ranger for everything these last few years, as he moves roles within Forestry England. We’re sorry to see Simon leave, but he can definitely come back anytime if he brings more of those cakes for breaktime!
No helping with the Christmas tree sales or festive crafts for us this year, but it did mean we had our first December work task ever! This year we spent it at the maze which was new to a few people including Andrew who is joining us as part of his Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award.
It was very muddy (as usual) but we had mince pies at break time and managed to prep more areas and clear paths as the last circle starts to take shape.
Merry Christmas!
Clearing the paths: before and after. Muddy work.Mark plus a happy band of muddy volunteers at the maze
It has been a good year for the birds of Staindale Lake feeding station. Not only has the area been given a spruce up and up-grade, there has been a very obvious increase in the number of birds using the area. The Friends have improved the area and there are numerous Blue, Great, Coal and Marsh Tits, in numbers so high they seem to be all around the feeders get filled! There are lots of Chaffinches, which more than once, have been joined by Bramblings. Greenfinches, Robins and Blackbirds. Siskin numbers are also up on the year before too, and Nuthatches and Great Spotted Woodpeckers are frequent visitors.
In the summer months, you are almost sure to see Warblers, including Lesser Whitethroats and Willow Warblers and the iconic Chiffchaff. On the lake, a Kingfisher has been hunting , and there are lots of Bullfinches and Jays. The Winter saw visits by Yellowhammers and a Goldcrest.
New bird houses have been added
The amount of visitors who have approached Lindsay whilst filling the feeders, are aften asking about the birdlife and complimenting the area.
During the 2018/9 winter, accessing the area was an issue. Troublesome snow and ice persisted for quite a while, making it impossible for us to get to the birds when they would have desperately needed the help most! However, despite the cold conditions, when we finally managed to get up to the lake safely, there were plenty of birds all around, and so most managed to make it.
New feeding arch which has allowed us to add a greater variety of feeders such as Nyger
We now have two new bird tables now and a feeding arch full of different feeders. This year we added Nyger feeders to possibly attract Redpoll and they certainly are attracting Siskins. We have yet to record Redpoll, but always keep a look out!
We are considering adding a low barrier across the area where currently cars pull right in and are hoping to put a seat there instead to allow visitors to stop, sit and watch the birds.
Our worktask this morning was at the maze. It was colder than we were expecting and we even had some hailstones and rain showers every so often. We mended pallets, shifted stones and weeded the inner circle, and even found a little lizard – who did not move very much having been fooled into thinking that the earlier sun meant it was warm!
Thanks to everyone who came including two new volunteers Sue and Vanessa.
The Friends of Dalby Forest will be at the annual Fear in the Forest event on Halloween night (31 October). Amongst the live bugs and bats, Wizard Phil and Haunted Hedy will be helping the younger visitors with some spooky crafts.
Thank you to everyone who came out this morning under an amazing blue sky but frosty underfoot for our worktask today.
We removed the tree tubes from the hedge saplings we planted a few years ago along the Ellerburn trail. We had a great turn out, one of the largest of the year and also welcomed new volunteer Janet.
We’re thrilled with our new Autumn art frame which you can find near the Owl Pow Wow in the Enchanted Wood. We’d love to see pictures of your own creations!
We are sad to be saying goodbye to Hillary and Peter Turton who have recently stepped down from their FoDF volunteer director roles in September 2017 as they are moving away from the area to be closer to family.
It has meant some reorganisation of administrative responsibilities for the Friends as Peter was chair and Hillary was both treasurer and worktask organiser!
Julie Dadswell has taken over as treasurer and Judith Winters (already a director handling the website, Twitter and Facebook accounts) has taken on the worktasks and events role and will liaise with the Forest Rangers.
We are very grateful to Peter and Hillary for all the time they’ve spent on keeping the Friends going as they stepped in at a time when it is fair to say we really needed some momentum, energy and spark to keep going. They have become great friends to many of us and will very much be missed!
They may be around for another work task as the house move goes through but we hope that won’t be the last we hear of them!
Friends of Dalby Forest 
