Highnam Woods, alive to the sound of...

...chainsaws!

We have reached the point in the year when suddenly a lot of work seems to happen in a short period of time at Highnam Woods. Contractors are busy working at coppicing this years plots, which are the area adjacent to the chicken farm and a small area next to the carpark and the main road. When you next visit the woods you may be somewhat surprised to see the area by the car park and hide, in particular, more open than you are used to, and certainly not the kind of area to encourage breeding nightingales, which is the primary reason for the coppicing work, but in 3 - 4 years time when the trees have sent out new shoots and are growing nicely, this will be perfect for these birds, so I'm afraid a little patience is required in order to see the benefits in these areas, but hopefully this year we'll see how similar work has paid off in other areas of the reserve. Once this is complete they will be continuing our work removing non-native sycamores from areas of the reserve, this year concentrating on our eastern boundary.

This week we will also have a separate team of contractors working more in the central area of the woods thinning an area of maturing ash woodland. This work is not designed to benefit any one species, but is being carried out for the benefit of the woodland area in general as it will reduce the shading in that area allowing more plants to grow through and form a better understorey. It will also give the remaining 'canopy' trees more space to grow into and allow them to grow stronger, rather than continuing to race each other to the sky, which has caused them to grow very tall but not strong, hence they fall over relatively easily.

There is more work planned for the winter too, which I will discuss more when details are clearer, but meanwhile, if you go down to the woods today, be sure not to get a big surprise - please remain aware of where contractors may be working, follow any signs or direction from workers, and give machinery a wide berth.

It is certainly worth a trip at the moment, despite the very muddy paths. The feeders are attracting marsh, blue and great tits, woodpeckers, dunnocks and robins as usual. Bullfinches, stock dove and nuthatch were all quite vocal today, and there are occasional sightings of woodcock and mistle thrush too.

Hannah