Hoar frost at Pishiobury.

We woke today to find the trees in the Park covered in hoar frost. The temperature overnight was -4 deg C.




As part of the recent spell of freezing weather we had freezing fog yesterday causing ice crystals to grow in a mostly East to West direction.













Looking over the water meadows towards Sheering.




Two of the classic views - looking from South to North and Oak Walk.







Hybrid Poplars and Alders in the Osier Bed.







Looking East from the North gate.

Friends of Pishiobury Park Working Party-Tuesday 30th November.

As we are in the middle of an extremely cold period it was not unexpected to wake up and find several centimetres of snow had fallen during the night.



There was a good turn out of Friends and it was decided to postpone treeplanting as the ground was so frozen. Instead we decided to work in the Field Maple Belt on the north-west side of the park.







It has been decided to leave a screen of trees on the Park side and to coppice the remainder which will be largely Field Maple. At some stage in the past a large number of the trees have been coppiced and have regrown. However, too many large trees still remain and are preventing successful growth of the underwood.



This strip of woodland has been planted up with a variety of hardwood trees in the past as well as a young hawthorn hedge. Trees include Hazel and Cherry.




Our task today was to hand coppice can be smaller trees and clear the area in preparation for using a chainsaw to coppice most of the other trees leaving a few selected standards probably of Oak and Ash.
It will be interesting to create coppice on this area as it is adjacent to the very old Hornbeam coppice stools in the woodland bordering on the main road.





These Hornbeams are probably the oldest trees on the park and probably pre-date the park itself as coppice woodland would not have been created as part of the original parkland landscape. It was probably woodland that was emparked in the 17th or early 18th century.















There were snow showers on and off all day long.



Although cold working it was sheltered from the biting northerly wind in the wood.


The brash was stacked tidily to leave a clear working area for next time.


Bird and animal list seen on the day:-
Wood Pigeon. Magpie. Sparrowhawk. Flocks of Long-Tailed Tits, Great Tits and Fieldfares. Blackbird, Robin. Grey Squirrel. Muntjac. Fox tracks.

Friends of Pishiobury Park.

Today was the first meeting of the Friends of Pishiobury Park with the Countryside Management Service to carry out some conservation work on the Park. The morning was foggy with the temperature below freezing at nine o'clock in the morning.






One task was to dig a shallow trench in which to plant sapling Hawthorn later on. These saplings will form protective ‘roundels’ around the small copses of trees which have been planted.




The other task was to maintain some of the tree guards, remove saplings which had died due to the dry Spring and dig holes for new plantings of Oak saplings. This took place along Oak Walk.




Interestingly, we found a small colony of Bee Orchids which apparently flowered last year on this site amongst the trees. The leaves do not die back in winter and it looks as if they will flower again next year.

Important posting regarding Small mammal trapping meeting.

Please note that the small mammal trapping scheduled for Friday 17th and Saturday 18th September in Hatfield Forest has been cancelled. This was one of the events carried out at the BioBlitz last weekend where it was freely available to all therefore there is no point in repeating it this weekend.

Hatfield Forest BioBlitz 2010.

Come and join in with the first Hatfield Forest…

BioBlitz

·Here at the Wood Fest Sept 11th and 12th.
Free activities will run from midday Saturday until midday Sunday.
·All ages, families, groups, small teams and individuals.
·See how many living things you can find in the woods.
·Bring your finds back to Base Camp to be displayed.
·Sign up to an activity using the information below in advance.



Please sign up in advance for the free activities below by:-
·‘Phone 01279 600726
·e-mail coppicereed@hotmail.com

Saturday 11th September.
12.00pm
Getting fruity
Collect as many fruits and seeds of different types as possible to show what plants grow in the woods.
2.00pm
Barking Mad.
Find as many different types of trees as possible and do bark rubbings.
3.00pm
A load of Nutters.
Search for Hazel nuts to see if any have been eaten by Dormice. Check the Dormouse nest tubes.
4.00pm
A Clean Sweep.
Use a sweep net and garden vac to see what lives in the grass and plants in the woods.
6.00pm
Your Trapped.
Set out a number of Longworth Small Mammal Live Traps to see what small mammals live in the woods. These will be checked tomorrow.
8.00pm
Totally Batty.
Use bat detectors to see which bats live and feed in the woods.

Sunday 12th September.
8.00am
The Early Bird.
Bring your binoculars and go with some experienced birders to check out what lives in the coppice before it gets disturbed later in the day.
9.00am
Deer Coppice……
Use detective work to thoroughly search the woodland block to find evidence of deer. If the ground is soft and we may be able to do some plaster casts. We can also collect and download pictures from some camera traps.
10.00am
Mushroom Madness.
Look for and collect as many different types of mushrooms and toadstools.
11.00am
Beaten Up.
Use a beating tray under the branches of trees to see what insects etc fall out when the branches are shaken.
12.00pm
What A Rotten Job
Carefully pull apart and thoroughly search for anything which may be living in the old rotten wood piles. We may find anything from beetles to toads. We can also check underneath pieces of corrugated iron for snakes and lizards.

BSNHS Winter Programme 2010-2011

WINTER PROGRAMME 2010


FRIDAY 24th SEPTEMBER
Sawbridgeworth Marsh
An illustrated talk by Andy Sapsford,
Warden of Sawbridgeworth Marsh.

FRIDAY 8th OCTOBER
Hertfordshire Flora
An illustrated talk Trevor James
A brief look at the results of the Herts Flora Survey
And the production of the recently published Flora of Hertfordshire
And a brief look at the results

FRIDAY 22nd OCTOBER
Butterflies of Hertfordshire
An illustrated talk by Liz Goodyear – Branch organiser of
The Butterfly Conservation.

FRIDAY 12th NOVEMBER
Orchids
An illustrated talk by Mary Smith,
Secretary of the Essex Field Club.

FRIDAY 26th NOVEMBER
Bird-Ringing – the first 100 years.
An illustrated talk by Chris Dee

FRIDAY 10th DECEMBER
Social Evening and Members’ contributions.


WINTER PROGRAMME 2011


FRIDAY 28th JANUARY
Reptiles and Amphibians.
A digital presentation by Lin Wenlock.

FRIDAY 11th FEBRUARY
Bats – the Worlds most successful mammals?
An illustrated talk by Sylvia and Roger Jiggins.

FRIDAY 25th FEBRUARY
Legs and Wings and Other Things – The Rival World.
An illustrated talk by David Sampson
Committee Member

FRIDAY 11th MARCH
Seaweeds of Essex
An illustrated talk by Ian Tittley

FRIDAY 25th MARCH
Special Roadside Verges of Uttlesford
An illustrated talk by Sarah Kenyon

Friday 8th APRIL
Microscopic Life and the ecology of the River Stort
An illustrated talk by Bob Reed, Chairman of the Society.

Friday 13th MAY Annual General Meeting and Social

Silver Washed Fritillary in Hatfield Forest.

On a hot July afternoon members visited the western coppices in Hatfield forest to search for the Silver washed Fritillary butterfly. Below are some of their excellent pictures of this spectacular butterfly. Thank to the members who have submitted pictures.

Visit to Garnetts Wood, Barnston 17th April 2010.

The woodland is ancient small leafed lime with some very old coppice stools.




This is Goldilocks the woodland buttercup.


In places there are carpets of Wood Anemones like snow.


Watching a pair of Marsh Tits high overhead.


A lovely carpet of three different spring flowers - what can you name?


We gather around an in situ tree carving of a mediaeval knight at one of the major ride intersections.


Here is our species list for the afternoon.
Birds. Green Woodpecker. Missel Thrush. Blue tit. Great Tit. Chiff Chaff. Marsh Tit. Great Spotted Woodpecker. Blackcap. Robin.
Plants. Wood Anemone. Primrose. Lesser celandine. Wild strawberry. Holly. Honeysuckle. Dog violet. Old man's beard. St John's Wort. Pendulous Sedge. Burdock. Sweet chestnut. Ash. Hornbeam. Sallow. Dogwood. Small leaved elm. Bracken. Male fern? Bugle. Red Campion. Dogs Mercury. Bluebells. Ground ivy. Larch. Goose grass. Hogweed. Wild Rose. Red currant. Crack willow. Woodrush. Pig nut. Field maple. Goldilocks. Duckweed. Filamentous green algae.
Invertebrates. Cased Caddis fly larvae. Cyclops. Holly leaf miner. Brimstone butterfly. Peacock butterfly. Orange underwing moth. Bee fly (very numerous). Five or seven spot ladybird. Small Quaker moth.
Amphibians. Smooth newt. Frogs/toads.
Mammals. Badger. Fox. Muntjac. Grey squirrel (bark stripping on trees).

Wild Daffodils.

Our society is privileged to be allowed access to local woods to see lovely spring sights like these wild daffodils and primroses.

Black Poplar planting.

In March in memory of President John Fielding we planted a Black Poplar on the Sawbridgeworth Marsh Nature Reserve where John was a warden for many years and was one of the main movers in its purchase as a nature reserve in the early 1970s.