Brook Wood doings

Brook Wood is full of mud and green shoots! We have protested about the drainage work that has blocked a footpath. Meanwhile, spring approaches apace - a surprisingly nice number of Lesser Celandine leaves are emerging in clumps both in the wood and along the streamside, plus a few Bluebells.  - George

Valley birds

A walk down the lower valley on Saturday found a Buzzard circling low near Dancing Bridge, plus 40 Redwing. Also the unusual sight of a pair of Jays flying over the flooded River Wheelock above the village bridge - rare to see them in the open (except in October when they collect acorns)!  - George

Explorers finds! (& see pics below)

Our explorers today were surprised not to find the (now demolished!!) Fairfield Avenue garages, but found quite a few early season creatures: Garden and Brown-Lipped Snails, shoots of Pignut and Yellow Iris, Hazel catkins; and birds - Blue-Tit, Robin, House Sparrow, Dunnock, and an odd glimpse of Goldfinch and Bullfinch for one or two!  - George

Brook Wood Explorer Session-19th Februrary

The weather was grey and overcast, but that didn't stop several volunteers and two families joining together in Brook Wood to explore the area. Numerous bags of litter were removed throughout the sesssion as well as several larger pieces of rubbish.

The families made some bird feeders to take home and hang in their gardens...

Before heading off to explore more with George and Andrew...

Returning very muddy but with lots of enthusiasm for building a bug hotel with Dick...

Many thanks to everybody who attended the event, we will be holding similar sessions in the near future so follow the blog to keep updated.

Great Trees!

A walk to Filter Bed Wood and nearby areas found some great trees! Huge old Crack Willows are a feature of FBW, and some have magnificent Bracket Fungi on them. Here are pictures of each. How about people photographing their favourite trees in the Wildlife Corridor and posting the pictures here? - George (+ Dick M)

Fairfield Avenue birds today

I had a look for birds around the open "meadow" below Fairfield Avenue today - Chaffinches, Goldfinches, Robin, Blackbird, Great and Blue and Long-tailed Tits, all in 15 minutes. A good spot! Better still, a singing Nuthatch and - wow! a perched Buzzard that flew right in front of me  - George

Winter thrushes - Redwing

Those little thrushes in flocks whistling in the tree tops this month are mostly Redwing. This was one in Sandbach Park in Jan 2010 [picture: Sandbach A Rocha Group]. There are ones both there and in Brook Wood today. - George