Blues in the Wood

A walk Roundball Woods is guaranteed to lift the spirits whatever the weather, but a walk in the woods in May has to be the best. After a long winter the woods are alive with new growth.  Bright green and blue are the colours of the month. Leaves and buds are now showing on all the trees and a generous sprinkling of violets cover the banks, hedges and hillsides of Roundball.

It's the bluebells however that steal the show.  Britain has 60% of the world population of bluebells with the majority in the west of the country. Bluebells are flowering 2-3 weeks later this year but are well worth the wait. A walk through a bluebell wood on a warm May day is a treat for the senses. The combination of colours and scent of a bluebell wood is something to be savoured.

It is also worth taking some time to get closer to the ground on your walk up the hill. The violets along the hedge rows are also providing a scattering of blue in profusion not seen for many years and are flowers that deserve a closer look.

So if you are feeling blue, get up the hill to the woods and give yourself a treat. Just don't forget to take your wellies.

Come and join us in the woods.

The wardens of Roundball Wood are organising a guided walk around the woodland at 2pm on Sunday 12th May. The walk, which will last for approx 2 hrs will be an opportunity to find out more about the woods, it's plants and animals and see the work that is currently being done to improve the footpaths. 

The Roundball Wood Wardens have now got their own webpage and blog which keeps people up to date with what's happening in the woods. QR codes have been placed on the entrances to Roundball and allow those with mobile phones to get straight to the website and blog. The blog can also be accessed via the Roundball Wood page on www.honiton.gov.uk. 

The walk up Roundball Hill can be quite strenuous and after one of the wettest Winters on record the woodland is still drying out so suitable footwear is recommended. We will be meeting at the bottom of Roundball Hill by the gateway next to the Nature Reserve at Battishorne Way. Anyone interested in joining the walk is asked to book a place by phoning the Town Council on 01404-42957 or emailing  towncouncil@honiton.gov.uk

I'm a Queen Bee and it's all down to Me.

On a visit to Roundball Meadow this week I stopped and watched a Queen Bumblebee for about 10 minutes.  Keeping close to the ground the bee quartered the meadow passing many flowers without stopping, but always checking out bare soil and holes in the ground. 

Unlike Honey Bees which over-winter as a colony, in the Bumblebee world only the queen survives the winter.  After hibernating underground or behind the bark in dead trees, the queen emerges to feed up and then find a suitable site to build a nest. Using old mouse or vole nests, the bee creates a nest site in which she forms a small honey pot from secreted wax . She then fills it with nectar and having been fertilised by a male in the previous year, she then gets on with the business of laying eggs to form a new colony.

The Bumblebee I watched was no doubt searching for a suitable nest site. A remarkable insect with a great responsibility. Being the sole survivor of her colony the creation of the new generation is all down to her. As a friend of mine said 'a woman's work is never done' .

Making up for lost time

After waiting months for spring flowers at Roundball, they all come along at once. There is little doubt that the last few weeks has seen primroses, celandines and wood anemones in numbers that few peoples can recall seeing before. Plants are a lot smarter that we often assume, and after being held back by the cold spring they are making up for lost time. Their objective is to flower, get pollinated and set seed for the next generation, and are making the most of the good weather to get started.

After putting up with all the cold and wet weather it's great to see the sun, and some locals have already been seen in Honiton High Street in 'T' shirts and shorts. We are making the most of the good weather whilst it lasts and the wild flowers at Roundball are doing just the same. 

It looks as if after waiting for so long, we are now witnessing one of the best displays of wild flowers for many years. It's been worth the wait.

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.

Do we have Dormice?

Dormice are present in hazel hedges and woodland across East Devon but we don't know whether they frequent Roundball Woods.  Dormice are nocturnal and spend about half the year in hibernation so you are very unlikely to see them. However East Devon is a stronghold for these adorable small mammals. The warden has found evidence of them in neighbouring woodland so there is every chance that they may be resident in our wood. If they are present they are probably hibernating in amongst the base and roots of hazel coppice and will not be waking up until April time when the weather warms up.

There are two main methods of surveying for dormice. The first is a nut search. Dormice leave their own distinctive tooth marks on hazel nuts, so we will be collecting nuts in the autumn to look for evidence. The second method is by placing plastic nest tubes in the woods to see if dormice use them as temporary day nests.  If we find evidence we will be putting up purpose built dormice nest boxes and see if they are used.  Dormice are a protected species and it is illegal to disturbed them and you need to be licensed by Natural England to handle them, so we would request that if you see any of the tubes you do not disturb them. 

One of the Roundball Wardens is working towards obtaining  his dormice handling licence and took the above photo whilst checking nest boxes in woodland bordering Dartmoor last Autumn. If we discover dormice at Roundball we will keep you posted on this blog and hopefully provide photos of one of Devon's most elusive animals.

A Perfect Place of a Picnic?

Roundball Wood volunteer wardens took a break from their labour last Saturday to have a picnic in one of the few dry places in the wood.  We have been had to cancel several work days because of the weather, so a short dry spell and a glimpse of sunshine was welcome. We decided to wait until the ground is dryer before we continued our work on the footpaths and instead concentrated on coppicing hazel near the Woodhill View entrance to the woods.

At Roundball we have a 10 year rotation of coppicing, or cutting down hazel to encourage new growth. There is plenty of evidence that this has happened in the woods for generations, and it is a common countryside practice to cut hazel to provide wood for fencing, bean poles and many other purposes. Our reasons for coppicing hazel in this area is three fold. Firstly, to allow more light in an area which has bluebells and primroses. Secondly, to provide timber for improving the pathways and thirdly to create a hedge alongside one of the main pathways in the woods.

You will notice that we have layered some of the main hazel stems by partly cutting through the base, bending them over and layering them. We have then used the brash or small branches and twigs to fill in the the gaps. We are hoping that this combination of live and dead hedging will be start of a path side hedge and are expecting to see plenty of evidence of new shoots in a couple of months time.

Along with holly, hazel forms the main understory, or lower level of trees in the wood. It does not generally fruit, or produce hazel nuts until the seventh year after coppicing and it is for that reason that we coppice no more that 10% of the hazel annually. Hazel produces an important food source for wildlife in the woods and we need to do what we can to maintain its productivity. 

As well as our resident squirrels and wood-mice, hazel is also a favourite food for dormice. Our aim is that Roundball Wood should become a perfect picnic place for dormice as well as wardens, but more about that in a future blog.

Wardens Day Out

Saturday saw one of the Roundball Wardens having an away-day. The destination chosen was Weymouth & Portland. In particular the Portland Bird Observatory and Field Centre, based in the old Portland Bill Light House.

The observatory is a great place to visit. It was established in 1961 to provide a focal point for anyone interested in the natural environment of Portland. Because of its geographical position, some 6 miles out into the English Channel, it has proved a site of major importance for the study of bird migration. A daily census of migrant and resident birds has been undertaken since its inception, with a programme of bird ringing also carried out there. To date over 180,000 birds of 200 species have been ringed, with subsequent recoveries as far north as Norway and Sweden and as far south as Ghana and Nigeria.

The centre has one of the best stocked shops of new and second hand natural history books in the country, and has caused a considerable lightening of the wardens wallet. The old lighthouse provides accommodation for observatory members and visitors, with some rooms high up in the tower. A tremendous view in unique accommodation, but a somewhat hazardous trip down to the loo in the middle of the night! It is a fascinating place with a friendly welcoming warden and a system of gardens and small ponds all designed to attract passing birds.

What has all this to do with Roundball Wood? Well... the spotted flycatchers, chiff-chaffs  and blackcaps that frequent Roundball Wood and surrounding area in the summer may use Portland as an arrival and departure point. Bird ringing and recovery at the Portland Bird Observatory provides vital records and information that helps us find out more about the lives of our summer and winter visitors. So the next time you are on Portland why not call in. 

Room to Let

On Saturday the Roundball Wardens used a welcome break in the cold weather to review the housing stock in the woods.  Whilst in other areas of Honiton proposed new housing development is causing concern, in the woods it is welcomed with no objections. Recognising the needs of new couples this spring we have erected 6 new starter homes, also known as nest boxes.

The existing boxes have also been cleaned out and renovated. In some of these older boxes you may have noticed that the entrance holes are larger than in others. This is the work of our resident Greater Spotted Woodpeckers and Grey Squirrels who see the young of Blue Tits and Great Tits as a good meal for their own young. To remedy this we have fitted metal plates to the front of the boxes to reduce the size of the entrance holes and hopefully make it very difficult for Woodpeckers and squirrels to gain access.

We have had nest boxes in the woods for several years and they have been well used. However up until now we have not kept records of what birds use the boxes or the percentage of use. This year we have numbered the boxes and are recording their take up. We will be publishing the information on our webpage and be keeping you updated via this blog. In the meantime if you know of a couple of Blue Tits looking for a room, send them our way.

Rabbiting On

I've now had enough of the snow and slush. It's almost a week since I first went out with my camera, excited about the opportunity of photographing the woods in a covering of white. They are now a combination of slushy grey and muddy brown, so I don't think I'll bother with the camera on my next trip. 

What the snow did reveal was that the woods and adjoining meadow has a very active population of rabbits. I have noticed droppings on other visits but never seen one, probably because I am making too much noise. The rabbit tracks in the snow at the weekend reveal animals coming out of the woodland edge onto the meadow where they were digging away the snow to get at the grass and roots.

With rabbits legendary interest in procreation and the fact that doe's can have up to 60 young a year, it's a wonder that we are not overrun. The reality is that very few survive into adulthood. Young rabbits cannot defend themselves and are food for foxes, weasels and our resident tawny owls and buzzards.

Disease is another controller of rabbit population. Myxomatosis first appeared in the 1950's  and caused deaths on such a large scale that in some areas the army was called in to remove the corpses. The disease is now well established throughout the country and it's re-emergence from time to time prevents a resurgence in the population. Some rabbits now spend less time in burrows where disease spreads easily and live most of their lives above ground. There is some evidence that this is the case for some of Roundball's rabbits. If I'm correct, I bet I'm not the only one who has had enough of the snow and slush.

Green spaces turn White.

With a weekend of snow, Roundball Hill became one of the most popular places in town. The fields beneath Roundball have for generations been the place for sledging, and this weekend was no exception.  Dodging a multitude of children of all ages, I made my way up to the woods, admiring the many improvised sledge designs varying from recycling bin covers to old paddling pools.

With several inches of snow the wood looked magical. The white contrasting strongly with the brown of the mud! With the weather so cold I was not expecting to see any wildlife, but was pleasantly surprised. Although singing to defend territory was suspended in the search for food, there was an abundance of birdlife.  Long tailed tits, goldfinches and nuthatches were feeding in the trees, and blackbirds, a thrush and a robin were foraging in the ground disturbed by walkers. The resident buzzard was also using one of the trees to watch out for suitable prey. 

It is now common to see more birds in and around town than in the countryside and today was no exception.  Although you would expect the adventures on the slopes to drive off the birds, the opposite seemed to be the case. In the field below the woods was a large mixed flock of blackbirds, song thrushes and redwings. The birds were making the most of the ground disturbed by sledges and walkers to hunt for earthworms and insect larvae. The redwings are winter visitors from Scandinavia and there is a strong possibility that the blackbirds were also visitors from Northern Europe. 

The last time I slid down the hill was on an old fertiliser sack. However as these days my scrapes and bruises take longer to recover, I restricted myself to taking photographs and enjoying the wildlife of all descriptions on Honiton's white, green space. 

Don't forget your Wellies.

Roundball Wood has always been wet wood, but this year has seen it wetter than ever. Bad weather has stopped two of our wardens work days, but it has not stopped the many dog owners who use the wood and surrounding land to exercise their pets. Many times recently I have been in the woods and been greeted by a bounding Spaniel or Labrador, shortly followed by a mud splattered owner.  Many owners take their dogs down to the River Gissage at the end of their walk for a wash before they go home. Although I seem to get equally muddy, I have so far resisted the temptation of a dip in the Gissage.

As part of our work to make the wood more accessible the wardens have been building raised walkways. We have been coppicing some of the holly and cutting the main trunk in to short sections. We then lay the sections in the muddy parts and use them as a base for a raised walkway and hand rail. It seems to work well and is a reasonably priced solution to making the worst areas passable. We usually manage to lay 6 to 8 metres of walkway on a work morning, but have a way to go yet. It is also a way to recycle the coppiced holly and reduce the need to carry so much timber up the hill to the woods.

We are planning more work days later in the winter if the weather improves. In the mean time if you a thinking of a walk around the wood, don't forget your wellies.

Kissing is in Season

I noticed another plant flowering at Roundball today. The gorse bushes in the meadow at the top of the wood and on the slopes of the hill are coming out in flower.  There is an old country saying that 'When gorse is in blossom, kissing's in season'. The good news is that Western Gorse flowers from January to June and also sporadically throughout the year.  Once associated with common lands, moorland and cliff tops, it has become more common beside motorways and roadside verges. It is also increasing other areas of land due to a fall in grazing. 

Gorse is a member of the Pea (fabaceae) Family. If you can avoid the spines and get in close you can see the similarity of its flowers with those of the sweet peas in your garden. Later in the year you will notice the gorse setting seed in pea like pods, and on warm summer days you will also notice that the flowers give off a wonderful cocoanut like aroma.

Also known in Devon as 'Fuzz' or 'Furze', gorse once played an important part in in rural life. In past times it was a valuable source of fuel. Giving out intense heat, gorse was used in bakers ovens, for firing bricks and tiles and also used in lime kilns. Another use was as fodder. In hard winters, where other forms of food were in short supply gorse was crushed or chopped and fed to horses and cattle.

Being a plant of of common land and rough open spaces, Richard Mabey, in his book 'Flora Britannica' describes gorse as an area where lovers can meet and lose themselves in its dense thickets. The bad news is that if you try this on Roundball Hill, half of Honiton will be able to see you.

  

Red for Danger

Amongst our Christmas Cards was at least one with a picture of a robin. This seasonal bird is the one that everyone likes to see. The friendly robin that follows me when I’m working in Roundball Woods and who is there when I'm digging the garden. A very friendly bird. Unless that is, you are another Robin!

Robins are amongst the most territorial of all our woodland and garden birds. Defending a territory is initially done by singing to announce a presence and define the boundary of their area. However they will defend their patch with such ferocity that few intruding robins hang around for a fight. Robins will not only attack other robins, but will also have a go at anything red and robin sized. 

In my teens I remember reading David Lack’s book, ‘The Private Life of a Robin’, where after learning about their territorial behavior I carried out an experiment. I got a piece of red cloth, tied it around the top of a bamboo cane, and put it in the garden within site of our local Robin. Within seconds of me moving away our robin came down to the red cloth and proceeded to attack it until it was in pieces. No wonder other robins seldom hang around.

It is because of this fierce territorial behaviour that the only bird you are likely to hear singing throughout the year is the robin. Robins will even carry on singing at night if there are street lights or any other means of lighting their patch.

So... if you hear melodic birdsong after dark, or in the autumn and winter months, you should be able to impress your friends and family by identifying the song as that of a robin. Without even looking!

Singing in the Morning

Walking up to the woods at the weekend, it was good to hear a Song Thrush singing from the top of an oak tree. Along with other farmland and woodland birds there has been a serious decline in Thrush numbers from the 1960’s. Between 1970 and 1990 the species declined by 54% on farmland and 27% in woodland. The good news is that numbers have now stabilized, with a Devon breeding population now standing at 45,000 pairs. 

Song thrushes are particularly vulnerable to hard winters when frozen ground makes feeding difficult, but recent spells of mild winters have seen their numbers rise. They are partial migrants, with most birds remaining in their breeding area throughout the year. Some birds move south to France and Spain in the winter and are replaced by others moving south from Scotland. The chances are however that the bird I heard singing was a bird that decided to stay in Honiton over the winter.

The song thrush song is one of the most distinctive of all birds. Although the song is similar to that of the blackbird it can been clearly distinguished by the way the bird repeats phrases. Their song is much more complex than other members of the thrush family with individual birds having a repertoire of over 100 different phrases. At this time of the year they can be heard singing to stake out territories early in the morning with the rest of the day spend feeding. As the days draw out we expect to hear their fantastic song throughout the day.

One of the Roundball wardens, Dave Witt is our bird expert and responsible for the photo on this blog. We will be placing more of Dave’s bird photos on our webpage soon.

Hunt the Catkins

After mentioning hazel catkins in my first blog, they were difficult to find on my walk around the wood this morning.  I eventually located some at the top of the wood. Asking myself why they are there and not at the bottom of the wood, the answer is fairly obvious, the top of the wood faces South and has more light, encouraging plants to flower earlier. Together with holly, hazel forms the main under-storey of Roundball Wood and is one of the first trees to flower. Catkins, the flowers of the hazel, are around a long time before the tree starts to come into leaf. Trees such as hazel and alder are dependent on the wind rather than insects for pollination and get a head start in the process of setting seed.. Other plants rely almost entirely on insects and their flowering is much later, coinciding with the emergence of pollenating insects in the Spring.

There was one blackbird and a wren singing in the wood this morning setting territories very early. Other birds are very much in winter mode with finding food being the priority. Groups of coal tits and blue tits were making their way through the trees and much to my surprise there was a group of seven siskins in the alder trees. By far the largest group I have seen in the area.

Siskins are winter visitors which many of us see on our bird tables. In the past few years they have also been summer visitors with several pairs breeding in and around Honiton. The alders in the  wood provide a valuable food source for siskins and other seed eating birds. As well as being early flowering, alders retain their cones until early spring, and it was the seeds in the cones that were attracting the siskins.

New Year - New Blog

It's the beginning of January and the start of a new blog by the wardens of Roundball Wood, Honiton.

As anyone who has visited the wood knows, Roundball is a wet wood and after all the recent rain it is very wet underfoot. We have been working recently to improve the paths and avoid the wettest of spots by a system of raised walkways. The 1st of January 2013 saw some of us walking up to the woods carrying timber for our next work-day on Saturday 12th January. 

The steepness of the ground and its boggy nature means that most things have to be carried up, but it's good to get some physical activity after all the over-eating at Christmas  Our new raised walkways can be seen in the East of the woods and covers one of the worst areas of the path around the wood They are work in progress.

Its encouraging that so early in the spring you can already see new signs of life in the wood. Hazel has started to produce catkins and a pair of greater spotted woodpeckers were amongst the birds beginning to pair up prior to the breeding season. We will be fixing some new nest boxes soon and will hopefully report occupancy during the spring

We are currently looking at ways of sharing info on the woods to a wider public, and are planning the following

• Leaflets on the woods to be available at Honiton Bottom Bridge Gateway.
• A dedicated web page
• QR codes on the information boards to enable you to link to the webpage and this blog.
• Themed walks in the Spring
• Working with East Devon District Council Countryside Services to encourage local schools to use the wood as a resource

More details will be published on this blog and in the local press when they are available.