I feel I have lost an old friend, the huge Walnut Tree that has dominated the overflow car-park finally gave up the ghost last night and crashed to the ground. It was the first thing I looked to as driving down into the reserve. So many memories, my last sighting of a Turtle Dove within its' lofty boughs three years ago, the squirells raising their kits in a hole. The fabulous Tawny Owls in the Owl box and Jackdaws in yet another hole. Seeing the decaying carcase broken across the dirt, it was obvious it had come to the end of its' day. Most of the wood was rotting or rotten.
So aside from the vertebrates afore-mentioned, with the shattered remains laid bare it revealed the treasures within. I could see myriad invertebrates at a loss and hiding away from the unwelcome exposure, so my feeling is the collapsing event had not been long since.
I shall on a personal level really miss that tree, that said, if it was that unsafe as it now appears, it is best removed and to that end Mother Nature has done the job for us.
RIP exceptional tree.
I shall try and date it on Monday when the chainsaws bite into it and hopefully expose the rings and reveal another of her secrets, I think having measured her girth this Spring, she was at least 2 or 3 hundred years old.
As a tribute here is Joyces' Poem about trees:
The North Kent Marshes are a very special area and worth preserving at all cost.