There were a lot of very hot and sticky FoDFers at the work task this morning!
We were removing sycamore regeneration from a wet woodland site that is designated an SSSI (because of a beautiful little snail). Thankfully we were under the tree canopy although the dense undergrowth added to the jungle feel. Definitely one of the sweatiest tasks we’ve ever done!
It was a split work task this morning so while some were at the forest garden where lots of changes are afoot, a further party was creating another turtle dove drinking pool. The ground was hard and stony to dig through, so was a great effort by everyone including 3 new volunteers, who we hope are happy to return next month!
Thunderstorms are forecast for later but 12 volunteers turned out to a sunny maze this morning. It was quite a physically demanding work task – shifting palettes, clearing some paths of stones and rolling some of the heavier ones out of the way. Some stiffness forecast for tomorrow I should think!
Thank you to everyone who came. We were surrounded by birdsong (I was trying out my new Merlin app) and there were lots of tadpoles and newts lurking in the puddles around the edge of the site.
It was a beautiful sunny morning in the forest as we embarked on our work task and latest project – Drinking Pools for Turtle Doves. Mattocks and spades were the tools of choice (it was quite stony!) as we made the first of a series of drinking pools.
The Turtle Dove is one of our most threatened breeding birds, and it has suffered a very serious decline in the UK. There are various pressures on them such as unsustainable shooting on their migration route, habitat loss in their wintering grounds but also a lack of breeding success here.
Once they return to the UK (usually from late April), Turtle Doves rely on water – much more than other farmland birds. This is because their chicks are fed a ‘crop milk’ of water and seed, so it’s important that they have access to summer-long clean water sources with walk-in access. FoDF will be making a series of drinking pools to support the population that we know returns to nest every year in Dalby.
We banked up unused spoil alongside one side of the pool and sowed it with wildflower seeds which should encourage some butterflies later in the summer.
Thanks to everyone who came along today! A brilliant effort!
A special shout out should go to all the bird watchers who took part in this year’s ‘Michael Clegg bird race’ which raised the funds to allow us to get the tools and materials for the pools and get the project off the ground.
If you would like to support our bird projects, then you can donate to our GoFundMe. https://www.gofundme.com/f/drinking-pools-for-turtle-doves-in-dalby-forest
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.
This month’s work task saw us working at Staindale Lake. We were joined by members of the GoodGym running group who are a group of runners who “run to do good” via community work. They were racing at the Dalby Dash 10k race but offered their services for an hour before the race so they were put to work pruning the accessible trail around the lake. We greatly appreciate their help and hope they had a good run afterwards!
Regular Friends of Dalby welcomed new volunteer Judith F, newly arrived in the area, and our work focused on the area around the bird feeding area. A thick humic soil had built up around the feeders and it was getting very muddy during the winter and made access difficult. As we discovered, a lot of this was simply a build-up over tarmac and so the water just had nowhere to go. Hopefully having clearing it back will make things easier. In addition we dug out a ditch behind the feeders to further help with drainage and the birds immediately sprung into action to get at all the newly uncovered worms!
We also moved the feeders that were hung in the trees (almost impossible to get at during the summer when the trees are in full leaf) and hung them on a newly installed arch and have made room for two new bird tables we’ve arranged to be made.
We have further plans for this area, not least to install a bench to enable more comfortable bird watching. Watch this space!
Thanks to Jeni for the pics!
Thank you to all the volunteers who came along to the work task this morning. There were only 6 of us but it felt like we achieved a lot.
We laid a membrane to suppress the weeds in the area behind the cafe at the courtyard (it’s very stony so that seemed the best way to kill off the weeds). We will work in this area next year as it is technically also part of the forest garden. We have lots of strawberries and currants to plant there.
In addition, we built a bug house (hotel?) with some pallets kindly donated by Mark from the maze . There are so many insects in the garden especially ladybirds and beetles at the moment, so we hope they enjoy their new accommodation!
The forest garden at the courtyard in Lower Dalby
Friends of Dalby Forest 