Village Voice Oct / Nov 2017 Issue 182

WOODLAND
& GREEN SPACES
As we head on into autumn the weather is
getting colder and leaves turn brown The
residents of the wood are feeding, building up
their reserves for the oncoming winter. One
thing that has become noticeable is the number
of half consumed acorns and beechnuts
scattered around trees. Presumably eaten by
squirrels. A neighbouring wood has been
thinned significantly and probably driven a
number into Common Wood. For the first year
ever I have them eating crab apples which are
normally taken by migrating birds.
We have dormouse boxes into the wood and a
recent inspection revealed that many have been
taken over by Glis Glis. They chew the wood to
enlarge the hole to get in. I'm told they will even
kill and eat native dormouse. We often find
other residents such as bees slugs shrews and
woodmice . If you see a box please leave it
alone as the licenses required to open it. If you
see one open on on the ground let me know and
I will go and replace it.
For those of you who use the wood you may
have seen the three sculptures that have been
installed as part of a joint project with Penn
Wood. Sculptress is Ruth Wheeler and I had
hoped to give some background. Maybe next
time. The three in Common Wood are located at
the main entrance, by waymark three and a
bench at the top of the hill in Farther Barn field
Village Voice October/November 2017
with a view back over the main body of the
woodland. Thank you to Russell Read for his
perseverance on this project. The sculpture at
the main entrance is a woodland scene, and the
third is of a bluebell, being at the beginning of
Bluebell Way.
As we head into winter we will start carrying
out work parties and people are welcome to join
us for a couple of hours occasionally to carry
out tasks. We generally aim for the first
weekend of each month and the first one after
publication will be on the 5th/6th of November
and 3rd/4th of December. If you'd like to be
informed of times locations et cetera please
contact me and give me your email address and
phone number. One task we need to done is to
thin some plantations so if there are any tree
surgeons out there who would be willing to give
up some time voluntarily to help us out we
would be most grateful. Mike Morley
www.pennandtylersgreen.org.uk
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