Category: wildlife

A Stroll along the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path – Part Two

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date February 21, 2015
3 Comments on A Stroll along the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path – Part Two

Welcome back after a bit of a rest and we continue along the beautiful coastal footpath towards the headland at St David’s Head. You left us with our goal in sight as we began our way across rougher moorland.

We were walking a stretch of the coastal path in Penbrokeshire which was my challenge for 2014. We set out intending to walk a mile, far more than I should be walking. We found ourselves going further than intended and still had not turned back. I set myself a new extended challenge. To walk the mile to the headland of St David’s Head and back again. I knew I would suffer for days after but I am a stubborn chap.

We carried on, crossing over a crystal clear waters of a tiny mountain stream. We stopped a while to enjoy the sounds of water rippling over rock, a sound that always makes us feel good! Letting our eyes follow the stream’s track to the sea showed light over the water more akin to late afternoon, almost the sort of light that comes shortly before a sunset, but it was still early afternoon.

We followed the narrow and at times wet track along the cliff top, all the time keeping our eye on the headland we were aiming for, but at times it disappeared from view. Bracken and fungi grew in the short grass, close cropped by sheep.

We followed a stream against the downhill direction of its journey, gradually climbing all the time. We were constantly stopped in our tracks by the beauty of the landscapes. Enjoy my photos!

When we reached our destination we enjoyed a good rest, sitting on comfortable and convenient rock outcrops. Coffee, fruit and in my case a good dose of Ventolin helped refresh us. We felt so pleased, so satisfied. We enjoyed the views from this vantage point, where we could appreciate a vast panorama.

The rock faces were painted in lichen and the grass dotted with fungi even in this bleak place.

From where we sat we spotted a cairn marking the highest point on the headland. We just had to walk a few hundred yards more. Of course along the way we searched for a stone each to allow ourselves to follow our tradition of placing it on the cairn.

We found returning to our starting point a lot easier following a steady downhill track.

Stonechats followed alongside us as we neared the end of our walk. I managed this one poor photo of one of them.

Back where we started off from we can look back over the same wall and appreciate just how far we have been. We could see the headland we had aimed for and reached in the misty distance. We felt exhausted but very satisfied.

Tags coast, coastal path, Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, South Wales, the sea, the shore

autumn bird watching birds garden wildlife wildlife

Late Arrivals

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 16, 2014

Our winter visiting Redwings arrived the latest ever this year. These migrant thrushes usually arrive late October and into November sweeping in in huge noisy flocks. They are very obvious arrivals but this year they have been more stealthy. They just crept in during December with the first appearing in our garden on December 11th. One or two Redwings at a time dropped in to lunch on the berries we grow for them, the Cotoneasters, Crab Apples and Sorbus. They soon discovered that one problem with arriving at the restaurant late is that some of the items on the menu have all gone. The resident Mistle Thrushes moving in from the woods had already indulged on the Sorbus berries and our Blackbird population had made inroads into the crop of “Butterball” Crab Apples and started dining on the Cotoneaster bushes. You can see from these photos that they were taken during heavy rain! It didn’t stop the birds from feeding though!

One male Redwing seems to dominate, being larger and sporting much brighter markings. His eye stripes are striking and his speckled chest is covered in the blackest and biggest streaks and spots. He is featured in the final two photos of the set below.

One thing we noticed as the berries started getting in short supply was that some House Sparrows mixed in with the Blackbirds and Redwings to gorge on the berries.

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We still haven’t seen any Fieldfares this winter. These winter migrant thrushes usually arrive with the Redwings. There will certainly be few berries left for them when they do come!

Tags autumn, berried shrubs, berried trees, berries, birds, blackbirds, cotoneasters, garden wildlife, House Sparrows, Redwings, thrushes, winter, winter gardens, winter migrants

countryside landscapes migration Powis Powys trees Wales wildlife woodland woodlands

Waterfall Walkabout

We made a quick visit to the waterfall at Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, in Powys last year and vowed to return. So in late august we did just that not thinking that being still in the holiday period it would be so much busier than our previous spring visit. But many people were walking off into the hills so our wander was still quite quiet.

After our usual coffee and cakes which we enjoyed in the cafe at the base of the falls we set off up a narrow path and quickly found the stream that flowed rapidly from the falls themselves. The cafe is part of an interesting and unusual endeavour, a business which involves a campsite and retreat as well as the cafe, a little empire to nourish the body, the soul and the mind. It is a place to find peace and get close to nature.

We heard the falls well before we saw them, the roaring and rushing of water dropping over 100 feet splashing on rock outcrops as it falls. When the falls come into view we are always forced to stop just to stare and take in the scene. It is simply beautiful, a place where the gentle beauty of nature is disturbed by the sheer power of water. A mist of spray drifts among the trees. All around is green, bright almost fluorescent green. Ferns, mosses and lichen reveling in an atmosphere full of droplets of water, very pure clean water, not yet subjected to man’s pollution. It won’t be long before this stream, crystal clear but for a hint of the coffee brown stain from peat, will be subject to agricultural run-off. Nitrates, herbicides and sheep dip chemicals. But for now its purity adds to the delight of the place.

After enjoying being close to the roar and rumble of the waterfall we took a narrow track into the valley. Our feet made no sound on the pine needles that covered the path so we could hear the sound of the falling water getting quieter as we moved deeper into the heavily wooded slopes of the valley side. The trees grew close together so had grown tall in their search for light.

Every boulder and the bases of every tree trunk were carpeted in mosses and lichens, soft and silky to the touch.

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The boulders had been rolled down the slope by the forces of gravity after the equally powerful force of erosion had separated them from the rock faces of the vertical outcrops towering above the tree line. Erosion had also removed the soil and scree that once anchored this tree and its roots to the ground. Today it somehow remains upright by holding on with only half of its giant roots still in the ground.

The openness at the end of the woodland afforded us vast views of the mountain range underneath which we had driven to find the waterfalls.

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In a place dominated by huge trees, massive mountains and rugged rock faces it is good to study tiny delicate things as a contrast. There can be no more delicate flower then the Harebell and no smaller plants than mosses, lichens and algae (algae and lichen are not strictly speaking plants). Although the beetles we came across were small at only a centimetre or so long they certainly did not look delicate. They looked tough as they moved through the grass with purpose. Theses little chaps are powerful predators in the mini-beast world.

Fruit was colouring up on Hawthorns, Rowans and wild Crab Apples. We imagined that once the migrant thrushes passed through Wales they would home in on this valley side and gorge themselves on this fruit bounty.

On the more exposed slopes of the valley trees live short lives and they grow stunted by the harsh winds and cold winters. This does though give them beautiful shapes, their branches and trunks taking on bonsai like twists and turns. The clean air here meant they wear coats of lichen, moss and algae. The first three pictures below are of a dead tree, partly felled but still giving a home to these tiny members of the plant world.

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On our return back along the track we took a detour to see if we could get a closer look at the falls by going upwards. The path rose steeply and we found ourselves on a ledge almost halfway up the falls so we did get different views but not as dramatic as we had hoped for.

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What a great place this is, possibly as close to wilderness as we can find in this part of Wales. The walk isn’t easy or indeed sensible for either of us – me walking with a crutch and one leg without any feeling and Jude being scared of heights and hating walking with a gap alongside. But we did it and we enjoyed! And we will probably do it again! No – we will definitely do it again!

Tags ancient trees, crab apples, fruit., hawthorn, lichen, mosses, mountain streams, mountains, Powis, Powys, rowans, streams, trees, Wales, waterfalls, woodland, woodlands

community gardening garden design garden furniture garden seating garden wildlife gardening gardens gardens open to the public natural pest control outdoor sculpture poppies recycling sculpture wildlife Yellow Book Gardens

A Wonderful Community Garden

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date August 14, 2014
2 Comments on A Wonderful Community Garden

Returning from a few days away down south we made a diversion from the direct route home to visit a community garden in the Wiltshire town of Swindon, a town renowned in its heyday for manufacturing everything to do with railways at their peak in the era of steam.

As Jude, aka The Undergardener or Mrs Greenbench, and I are involved in running an allotment community garden we were keen to see what was going on at TWIGS, another community garden which like us open under the auspices of the National Garden Scheme.

TWIGS stands for Therapeutic Work in Gardening in Swindon, which proved to be a perfect reflection of what goes on in what we discovered to be an amazing and caring enterprise.

It was hard to find even though the directions in the NGS’s Yellow Book made it look simple. We navigated our way around the bypass searching for the right exits and often failing, until we found the right district. We wriggled through industrial and business parks in search of a garden centre which shared its grounds with TWIGS.

When we successfully arrived were welcomed by this cheerful planter alongside the gateway in. Once inside we immediately spotted colourful borders and rows of busy polytunnels.

Come around with us now as we wander the paths of TWIGS discovering their wonderful work.

The staff and volunteers here help their clients who have problems of all sorts, to regain their pride and confidence through raising plants, looking after chickens, making bird boxes and insect homes, creating gardens and crafting sculptures and much more. The plants raised are used both in the gardens and for sale in the little nursery and the nestboxes and insect homes are found around the site to encourage wildlife as well as for sale to visitors.

The gardens themselves are peaceful places, calm and quiet and great places to relax in or retreat to. The gardens are managed using organic approaches and in partnership with nature. They must have such a strong effect on those who care for them or like us just visit them.

There were some original ideas here too created by the clients, such as this sedum planter.

We found wandering around TWIGS a most enjoyable, relaxing and enlightening experience. It shows what can be achieved by dedicated people who want to use gardening and working with nature to improve the lives of others. It was good to visit another community garden which proved to be very different to our own at Bowbrook Allotment Community.I shall finish with this set of pictures which illustrate what TWIGS is all about. A sunken retreat had been designed by an artist in residence and built by the TWIGS clients using all recycled materials. It is a peaceful place to sit and widlife has found homes within it.

Tags bird boxes, communal gardens, community gardening, community spirit, garden arches, insect homes, insect shelters, outdoor art, outdoor sculpture, Swindon, Wiltshire

community gardening fruit and veg garden wildlife gardening gardens grow your own hardy perennials National Garden Scheme NGS Shropshire Shropshire Wildlife Trust wildlife Wildlife Trusts Yellow Book Gardens

Our Allotment Yellow Book Open Day

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date July 27, 2014
2 Comments on Our Allotment Yellow Book Open Day

This was our 4th annual NGS Open Day at our allotments, Bowbrook Allotment Community. In the past we had been dogged by bad weather, heavy rain, high winds and once even excessively high temperatures. But today was to be different – the weather was perfect so we were set for a successful day. We open under the auspices of the National Garden Scheme and thus we are proud to appear in their famous Yellow Book.

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Members of the public are invited to look around the individual plots and all our communal spaces. They can follow our Interest Trail, look at the wildlife areas and the communal gardens and the children have quiz sheets to enjoy and can use the features we have made for our members’ children such as the Willow Dome, Turf Spiral and Willow Tunnel. We turn our Communal Hut and the area around it into a Tea Shop for the day so that our visitors can indulge in tea, coffee and home made cakes and biscuits.

All the money raised goes to the NGS’s charities including Macmillan Nurses, Marie Curie and Help for Hospices.

Here are a few of the scarecrow creations members came up with. Little Miss Muffit, Peter Rabbit, Little Red Ridinghood, Dr Foster et al.

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On one plot visitors were asked to help Little BoPeep find her lost sheep. I will admit it took me ages to find him for a photo shhoot

The Wildlife Trust brought all this equipment for bug hunting and the volunteer from the Shropshire Mammal Group stayed on all afternoon entertaining and informing.

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Visitors took every chance to sit and enjoy our tea shop, where refreshments were on tap all afternoon.

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A few of the younger members just relaxed in the sunshine!

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Jude the Undergardener found a good spot to set her stall selling our herbaceous perennials she had grown from seed.

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Members were on hand to talk to our visitors, give advice and answer questions. Some visitors found comfy seats all round the site.

A good day was had by all and we felt proud to have raised over £1000 for such good charities.

Tags allotments, Bowbrook Allotment Community, Bowbrook Allotments, community gardening, community spirit, decorated wheels, mammals, National Garden Scheme, NGS, scarecrows, Shropshire Wildlife Trust, Yellow Book, Yellow Book Gardens, Yellow Necked Mice

community gardening garden buildings garden design garden ponds garden pools garden seating garden wildlife gardening gardens gardens open to the public Land Art log piles logs National Trust nature reserves outdoor sculpture The National Trust trees water in the garden wildlife woodland

An Interest Trail for Children – Dunham Massey

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date June 25, 2014
2 Comments on An Interest Trail for Children – Dunham Massey

We have created an “Interest Trail” around our allotment community garden, and we see it performing two roles, firstly it guides all our visitors around the site taking in as big a variety of features as possible and secondly it performs as an activity trail for children. It has proved very popular. Whenever we come across a similar trail in large gardens or parks we always have a look to see how the idea has been executed. We visited the National Trust garden, Dunham Abbey, primarily to enjoy the Winter Garden but we discovered that since our last visit a few years ago a couple of the gardeners have created a children’s trail so we could not resist trying it out.

It was wonderful! Come with us and enjoy! We found the sign and below it one of the decorated bikes and then enjoyed a woodland wander before discovering the first of many fun and educational features designed for children.

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Any child who is brought here is very lucky indeed! At our allotment we also have features and arrange activities for the children and grandchildren of our members and their friends so we left with many new ideas.

Tags Cambridge, children and gardens, gardening for children, log piles, nature trails, woodland

birds countryside hedgerows landscapes nature reserves swallows trees wildlife woodland woodlands

Up on the Downs – a wander on chalk uplands.

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date May 11, 2014
2 Comments on Up on the Downs – a wander on chalk uplands.

We have wanted to take a walk on the “Downs” for a while now and we have it written in our “to do” book. However whilst visiting my brother, Graham and his wife Vicky in Farnham we took the opportunity to make a half hour drive which led us to the car park at the start of a gentle walk along Old Winchester Hill. The panoramic views gave an added incentive to get going despite a cold, biting wind.

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Although it is still relatively early in the year we had expectations of seeing site specific plants and birds. We were not to be disappointed.

Lady’s Bedstraw, White Deadnettle and Cowslip were probably the most frequently occurring flowering plants.

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It was good to see one of our native Euphorbias growing along the woodland margins. This Wood Spurge looked so similar to some we grow in our Plealey garden.

As we reached the end of the ridge the path changed direction and we walked along a track between woodland and open fields. The woodland birdlife was in full song with summer migrant Warblers joining the resident Robins and Dunnocks. Above our heads Swallows called constantly. Over the farmland the song of Skylarks and the calls of Lapwing, two of our ground nesting birds, was carried on the wind for us to enjoy. We were really surprised to see large areas of very mature yew trees growing within areas of the usual deciduous trees, as we do not see them growing like this at home in Shropshire. They formed dark patches on the hillsides. We ventured underneath them and all of us found them decidedly spooky as they cut out all sound and much of the light leaving us in gloom. Beneath them nothing ventured to grow, apart from one lone, brave Elder seedling.It is no wonder that they feature strongly in ancient myths and folklore.

When we stopped for our coffee break on the only bench on the walk we were soon joined by a small flock of very inquisitive rare breed Herdwick Sheep, the sort I think that Beatrix Potter helped to save from extinction up on her Lake District farm.

Beyond the sheep the views were stunning and far-reaching.

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After our coffee break, with a slice of cake as well of course for added energy, we walked through the ancient hill fort with its Bronze Age burial mounds. It is amazing how interesting mounds of earth can be!

I shall finish off with one last view of this unique downland landscape and one of the wildflowers growing right alongside the track. We have waited a long time for our first walk on the Downs. It was worth the wait.

Tags birds, Hampshire, hill forts, hills, landscapes, The Downs, wild flowers

allotments bird watching birds community gardening garden wildlife wildlife

A Morning at the Allotments – Checking the Bird Boxes

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 22, 2014
1 Comment on A Morning at the Allotments – Checking the Bird Boxes

We usually check out the bird boxes around the allotment site in late autumn but as the autumn and early winter were so wet and windy we didn’t fancy using the ladder on the soft, waterlogged ground. Eventually in mid-January we got it done.

Pete and I wandered around the site with step ladders and trug and of course both wearing a good pair of gloves to avoid any little nips from the nest mites that may still be in residence. They would normally have been killed off by now if we had had cold spells but with the milder than usual temperatures we were taking no chances.

As usual all the holed boxes had been nested in by Blue Tits and Great Tits so we removed the old nest materials of fine grasses, horse hair mosses etc. and put them on the communal compost heaps to rot down.

A bonus find was a Dunnock nest at the bottom of a cotoneaster shrub in the Autumn Garden, built just 9 inches from the ground. These secretive little songsters are normally very shy, spending much of their time skulking in hedge bottoms searching for insects and invertebrates. This pair were confident enough to build their nest right alongside a pathway, just a couple of feet from where people regularly pass following our “Interest Trail”. The nest is hard to see but try to spot it in these photos.

Completely different in character to the Dunnocks Great Tits are far more brazen. A pair had nested in this nest box fixed to the Communal Hut 2, one of the busiest places on the site. They gave hours of entertainment for members who could watch them taking nesting materials in, then the male bird feeding the female as she incubated the eggs and then the busiest time of all when both parents fed their hungry youngsters. Free entertainment when we enjoyed our tea breaks.

The nest boxes and bird feeding stations around the site afford members, their families, friends and our many visitors with plenty of entertainment and of course for the children they have an important educational role to play.

Of course being an all organic site we rely on our feathered friends to help us with our pest control. When feeding their nestlings the adult birds catch thousands of aphids and caterpillars.

None of the open fronted boxes were used last nesting season so we are hoping for success this year. We have tried moving a few to more secluded places where the birds may feel more confident to try them out. As our extension opened in the spring this year we have more nest boxes to go up – a job for the next week or two.

Tags allotments, garden wildlife, nest boxes, organic gardening, wildlife

autumn countryside nature reserves photography reflections trees wildlife woodland

Our First Woodland Walk of the Autumn – Part Three

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 20, 2014
3 Comments on Our First Woodland Walk of the Autumn – Part Three

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We begin part three just as we draw close to the lake itself. The trees dripped with more moss and the fungi seemed to get more colourful.

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We reached the lakeside where we found the calm surface created the clearest of reflections.

Our return journey along the woodland path afforded us glimpses of the hills that surround the lake and its wooded fringes.

So our memories of this lovely woodland walk have helped us escape the wild, wet and windy days of January. Now we can look forward to a warmer and brighter spring leading to an even warmer and even brighter summer!

Tags fungi, Lakes, mosses, reflections, reservoirs, Wales, wildlife, woodland, woodlands

autumn autumn colours countryside landscapes light light quality nature reserves photography Powis Powys reflections reservoirs trees wildlife woodland

Our First Woodland Walk of Autumn – Part Two

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date January 17, 2014
4 Comments on Our First Woodland Walk of Autumn – Part Two

Back to Vyrnwy the woodland nature reserve of the RSPB based around a huge reservoir, where we continue our walk enjoying the sights, scents and sounds of an autumn wood.

We moved on to where the path turns a corner and we cross a tiny stream over a wooden bridge. Today the bridge looked very different. Each side was covered in a growth of ginger brown fungi. We were literally stopped in our tracks in amazement! We had never before seen such a sight and probably never will again.

In the close vicinity the atmosphere was so humid that you could feel the dampness in the air. Moss enjoyed the sauna-like conditions and grew on tree trunks. The trunks dripped with the moss, making them look like little green figures beneath the trees. We continued to find a variety of fungi some of which grew high off the ground. One in particular looked as if a frisbee had been thrown so fiercely that it had dug deep into the tree trunk.

The humidity here, partnered with the bright light creeping through the branches, made the shades of greens and brown glow richly.

The air got damper and the shafts of sunlight lower as we passed this old moss-covered stone wall and reached the lake. We shall find the lake in the third and final part of my First Woodland Walk of Autumn – Part Three.