Sahara or Sewage Works?

The repetitive song of the Chiffchaff is an indication that the first of Roundball Wood's Summer visitors has arrived.  The Chiffchaff is a bird of mature woodland with good undergrowth, and is one of Roundball's breeding birds. Because of its small size and olive colouring, it is a bird that is easily overlooked when not singing. However it is common across the county, with Devon holding a large population of between 20,000 to 25,000. 

Chiffchaffs despite their small size are long distance migrants. Many overwinter in Africa, West of the Sahara. Those now singing in our woods and surrounding hedges arrived in late March and may well have set off on their journey back from Africa in February, stopping off on route to rest and feed up for the journey. 

In the past few years more and more Chiffchaffs have been over-wintering in the County. Being insectivorous they need a consistent supply of insects to keep them going in winter months. The places where there is a guaranteed all year round supply, are sewage works, and it is where you are likely to find the Chiffchaffs which overwinter.  Roundball Warden has watched Chiffchaffs in mid-winter making the most of the rich pickings of flies that only sewage can offer. Kilmington and Branscombe works being favourite spots. 

Whether our birds spend the winter across the Sahara or across Branscombe sewage works, has yet to be established. Surviving a Devon winter or a long distance migration makes this a very special small bird.

Sign of Spring or Cash Crop?

Primroses are one of Devon's signature flowers and are now at their best. The lanes around Roundball are full of these flowers and are a sign that at last winter is over. There was a time that they were not just an indicator of spring, but also an opportunity to make some pocket money.

As a child Roundball Warden together with his younger sister, picked bunches of these flowers, tied them up with cotton and went around to neighbours selling them for cash. 

Neighbours were not the only customers for primroses in Devon. Devon Valley Paper Mills at Hele near Cullompton, sent primroses to the buyers of their paper to give them 'a breath of Devon air'. Although I never sold mine to the paper mill, I know some who made a fair bit of spare cash from the operation.

The practice spread to other paper mills and in the mid 1960s the venture received bad publicity in the local press from those who were concerned that the Devon lanes were being stripped of blooms. To address these concerns, Plymouth Polytechnic was invited to look into the practice. Their conclusion was that the level of picking was not a serious threat to a plant that lives for about 15 to 25 years. However over the subsequent years the general attitude of the public towards picking wild flowers hardened, and in 1968 a law was introduced to make the picking of wild flowers for commercial gain a criminal offence.

Roundball Warden now has to appreciate primroses in all their natural beauty rather than calculating how much pocket money he could make from a hedge full.

Thank you Mr & Mrs Brock

One of the questions that Roundball Wardens are often asked is whether there are still badgers at Roundball?  A walk up through the woods and along the top meadow will reveal entrances to badger setts  that look to be unused and overgrown. In fact the badger holes protected by signs in the meadow show no sign of use except by rabbits.

However if you look closer along the boundary of the woods and the meadow and along the hedges adjoining Roundball Hill you will see plenty of evidence of recent badger activity. If you approach Roundball Hill via Roundball Lane you will see a large sett entrance to the left of the steps. It stands clearly with recently excavated sand and often fresh badger footprints. This sett entrance is 300-400 yards from the sett entrances in the woods the other side of the hill and poses the question is this the same sett.


Survey work related to bovine TB in 1977 resulted in a number of badger setts being excavated to see if gassing with cyanide gas would be effective. From this work a typical sett was found to have 38 entrances, 78 chambers and 360m of tunnels. Subsequent excavation work in 1990 estimated a sett as having 178 entrances, 50 chambers and 897m of tunnels. This would suggest that the entrances at Roundball Lane and Roundball Woods may well be part of the same sett.

Setts are not only valuable to todays badgers They can be centuries old and are a valuable resource handed down from generation to generation of the same badger social group. We can only be grateful that there are not more active entrances to trip us up in the top meadow. So for this, thank you to Mr & Mrs Brock and family.

Sitting on damp grass. No Problem.

Another of our early Roundball flowers is the Lesser Celandine. Gilbert White, writing in 1788, describes its first flowering in the Hampshire village of Selbourne, as on average the  21st February. At Roundball this year, the first flowers appeared about a month later, but give them a few weeks and we will see them everywhere. Because they are so common they are largely ignored. That's a pity because they really are a glorious flower with a glossy yellow to the inside of the petals with a bronzy green on the outside.  

They are, however, unpopular with gardeners, as they spread rapidly on disturbed ground where their tuberous roots break up easily and re- root easily. It is its roots that give it the Old English names of Pilewort - the plant given for haemorrhoids. This was based on the old tradition of using plants which resemble the symptoms as cures. The tubers are tuberous and knobbly. I'm sure I don't need to say more! 

The Lesser Celandine is also an early source of pollen and nectar for insects and well worth a closer look. If the grass is damp, remember the Old English name and don't worry.

How old are our oaks?

One of the things that surprises people as they walk up to Roundball Woods from Weatherall Way is how the branch has fallen off the large oak without damaging the fence that surrounds it. Looking closely, it looks as if it was down to the shape of the branch and good luck, but it poses the question is the tree in danger, is it dying?

It is well documented that oaks can live for over 500 years, but how old is our oak? The first answer that comes up is count the growth rings. This can be done when the tree is cut down or by taking core samples. As both of these are not options, another method is to use a rough formulae.  Measure the circumference of the tree in metres and divide by 2.5. By using this formulae it looks as if the age of the oak is around 250 years. This takes it back to the mid to late 1700's.

So is our oak dying? The answer to that is definitely not. Trees, unlike many other plants have evolved for longevity and oaks are particularly long lived. There are examples around the country over 500 years old, so our tree is probably just middle aged. 

In order to survive, trees need a method of getting rid of superfluous branches which were formed when they were young, so the loss of the large branch on our oak is part of its survival techniques. Oaks react to such damage by laying down barriers and walling off damaged areas.  Over their life they survive by shedding higher branches and broadening at the base and often hollowing out.

As I stop for a breather on my climb up to the woods I look at the oak and wonder whether it will still be there in 250 years time. I suspect that this will be down to human intervention rather than the trees ability to survive.

Dogs and Ballet Dancers

At this time of year the main group of Roundball regulars are the dog walkers. Mud seems to be a magnet to dogs, so a lot of owners make a diversion to the River Gissage on their way home. As well as serving as a suitable place to wash the dog, the Gissage and it's  woodland border are the habitat for one of our special woodland flowers.

Wood Anemones are described by Sarah Ravens in her book 'Wild Flowers' as like a group of 5 year old girls in their tutus, going off to their first ballet lesson, pure, pretty and cheerful. Belonging to the Buttercup family they take the opportunity to flower in March and April to make the most of the light before they are shaded out by leaf cover on the surrounding trees. 

The presence of Wood Anemones indicate that the surrounding woodland has been around for a long time and are classed as one of our ancient woodland indicators (AWI).  The reason for this is that their seeds are seldom fertile and any expansion is by root growth. This is a slow process and the plant expands at no more than 6ft in 100 years. Weatherall Way and the adjoining housing development has, over the years, broken up the valley woodland, but the presence of wood anemones is a refreshing reminder that nature survives to brighten our day, even if the dog is still muddy

The wood is full of flowers, but can you see them?

As I walked through the woods at the end of March things did not seem much different than the end of February. However on looking closer, the wood is full of the flowers of one of its most numerous plants.  Golden Saxifrage is a plant of damp and marshy ground where there is continuous movement of water. It is therefore well suited to Roundball. 

The plant forms a mass of vibrant acid green around the many springs in the centre of the woods and along the woodland pathways. It is also a plant that deserves a closer look. Opposite Leaved Golden Saxifrage, to give it it's full name, is one of the woods smallest flowers being only 2-3mm across the flower head. It is also unusual in that it is a flower with no petals. The yellow colour comes from the stamens and the bracts, which are what supports the petals in other plants. It generally flowers from April to June, but as the South West is milder than the rest of the country it can be seen in Roundball from mid March and is one of the woods earliest flowers 

Looking around the borders of the woodland I found individual flowers of Campion, Lesser Celandine, primrose and Dandelion but nothing in the numbers of Golden Saxifrage. So if you don't mind getting even muddier, get down close and appreciate one of Roundball's most numerous plants.