Category: Wenvoe Wildlife Group

Mighty Oaks From Little Acorns Grow

‘Mighty oaks from little acorns grow’ and we have many fine oaks in the Parish. The recent decision to remove two of the immature oaks on the Upper Orchid Field has prompted some questions on the best ways to promote and enhance biodiversity. So, first some thoughts on the oak tree. They take around 150 years to mature and produce a good crop of acorns at which point they will typically have a girth of around 3 metres 50 cms. An oak with a circumference of 5 metres will be about 300 years old and take us back to the reign of George l. The oaks being removed on the Upper Orchid Field varied between 70cms and 110cms.

Wenvoe has many oaks, whether you are looking in the school playground or wandering around the Playing Fields. There are some good-sized oaks still left in and around the new Grange development. The best collection are on the fields either side of the road to the Golf Club where there are around 20 in a typical Capability Brown landscape. Not that Capability Brown was ever involved but his son–in-law, Henry Holland, did work on the design and development of parts of Wenvoe Castle. The girth of some of these trees would put them at 200-300 years old. The Wildlife Group will be measuring and surveying these trees and recording them on the Woodland Trust Ancient Tree Register – this does not guarantee their survival but increases the chances of the wider community at least being aware of them. There are two types of native oak – the English and Sessile oak. The former is the main one to be found here and is distinguished by having the acorn on a short stalk. The Sessile Oak has a stalkless acorn although, just to complicate matters, they can hybridise so the tree you are looking at could be a bit of both.

The oak tree can support a wider range of wildlife than any other native tree so plays an important part in the ecology of an area. However two oak trees will not have twice the variety of species as one although it may well have double the volume of them. To increase the range of species in an area it is necessary to plant a range of different tree varieties each of which will attract a number of species which favour that type of tree. Many species are almost exclusive to a particular tree-type, such as the White Letter Hairstreak on Elms or the Four-spot Lift Moth on Dogwood. It is difficult to estimate how many trees we have lost just in the last ten years but road-widening, housing development and natural ageing will have accounted for several hundred. Whilst some losses are inevitable it is noteworthy that there is little evidence of any plans to replace them in this parish by the local authorities.

On the positive side a number of residents have been planting trees whether as individual trees, fruit trees or hedgerow and these include donated packs from the Woodland Trust. The Wildlife Group have planted 190 trees this year, including 15 Oaks, and including many varieties that, although native, are probably not found in the area at the moment such as Black Poplar, Aspen and Purging Buckthorn. It is planned that the Upper Orchid Field will have 30 native tree species growing by the Summer of this year which will make it almost unique locally. We do have our wonderful parks such as Bute and Roath but most of the trees are non-native specimen trees. Tree walks will be held once the trees are in leaf and a Tree Trail is being developed for the Upper Orchid Field.

It is around 13 years since the Wildlife Group first got involved in looking after the Upper Orchid Field.

At that stage it was quite neglected and the sloping area was covered in self-seeded Ash trees. At first the Vale of Glamorgan Council were prepared to cut the field but financial issues soon meant that they could no longer help. Currently the field is cut by a contractor with removal of debris and the costs are shared between the Wildlife Group and the Community Council. The field is important because it is one of the last wildflower meadows in and around Cardiff and Britain has lost around 97% of its meadows in the last 100 years. We have plenty of fields but these are mainly just grass with a few nettles, creeping thistles and docks and relatively devoid of wildlife. In contrast the Upper Orchid Field has records of over 400 species of plant and animal and that is without having any expert surveys done. Also the field is a popular spot for walkers, joggers and families with great views and plenty of colour from Spring on, including several thousand orchids in the Summer.

We have noticed that Bramble has been creeping in from the perimeter and we have lost in excess of 5% of the area of the field to this recently. Hence the combined efforts of the Wildlife and Environment Groups to reclaim this land in the last few months and the large bonfire piles awaiting a good dry spell.

There are also 7 immature Oak trees (see this month’s Nature Notes) in the middle of the field and as these grow larger we estimate that we will lose 25 square metres of wildflower area each year. We decided to remove three of these to maximise the space for wildflowers although we are planting 16 more trees on the perimeter of mixed species which will greatly increase the biodiversity on the site – including Black Poplar, Cherry, Buckthorn, Aspen and Rowan.

However, with some creative work by Mike Tucker we now also have a small area set aside for young families where you can picnic.

We shall celebrate National Meadows Week with a tour of the site on 6th July – check What’s On nearer the time for more details

WILDLIFE GROUP

As we head into a New Year it is worth pausing to review how we got on in 2020. Covid managed to affect many people’s lives and for those who had friends or family catch the virus it may well have been a difficult year. However, one consequence has been the number of people who have started exploring the countryside and discovering our Community Orchards and Nature Reserves. These have been created by the Community and for the Community and without the following we would not be where we are today. First a thank you to the landowners, principally the Reader family who have allowed us to create several wildlife oases on their farms. Then there are those who donate and in the last few months this has included 4 benches (Tricia, Ann and Abi), some tools and a small pond (Pat) and not least, the Tuckers who managed to raise a fantastic sum for the group from the Reindeer event. We refurbished and installed two new noticeboards donated by the Village Hall Committee and Community Council. Some individuals have donated plants (Sue & Mike) and many have volunteered for the Group either by clearing bramble, cutting back trees, planting hedgerows and fruit trees, painting noticeboards and repairing benches. Lee and Dominique walk all the way from Barry before working hard at the Goldsland sites. John Smith cut the Goldsland Orchard for us saving goodness knows how many volunteering manhours. Many helpers are from outside Wenvoe (Peter from Radyr, Pat and Roger from Llanishen, Phil and Shirley from Dinas Powys). So to all those who have helped, particularly those who have not been mentioned but do sterling work for us, a sincere vote of thanks. We hope to be in touch with you all again this year.
And for those who wondered about the photo we included in our article last month, this is East Orchard castle near St Athan – a surprising ruin complete with house, barn, chapel and dovecote.

Wildlife Group Activities

Our newest recruit is a Peregrine Falcon – plastic of course but don’t tell the crows! Benches and similar structures that we install in our sites can prove popular, not only with people, but also crows, rooks and starlings with all the associated deposits that come with them. Our Peregrine is intended to deter them. We shall see – but as crows are pretty intelligent it is possible that they will realise that although the Peregrine is the fastest bird, even fastest animal, on the planet, believed to achieve speeds of 200 mph when diving, ours is somewhat static, achieving just the odd wobble in high winds.

We had another good conservation day working on the Upper Orchid Field and re-opened a number of the paths which had become overgrown with brambles and Blackthorn. The challenge now is to keep the paths open so if you have occasion to walk there, consider taking a pair of secateurs and snipping away at the odd bit of undergrowth. Hopefully, the contractor will have been able to cut the field by the time you read this but access has proved a bit of a problem with the takeover of Cemex.

Waitrose have again come up with a donation to Wildlife Group funds, for which we are most grateful. Even before Covid, applying for grants was becoming harder as funding bodies increasingly favoured larger organisations and those living in deprived areas. For example the much-publicised Local Places for Nature capital grant starts at £10,000 and the Biffa landfill tax refund at £5,000. The Small Grants scheme is ‘currently closed to applicants’. Community Packages for Nature offered by the Welsh Government must be ‘located in areas of high physical environment deprivation with limited access to nature’.

We are doing particularly well for apples this year as our trees start to mature with the Welsh Orchard producing an abundance. An apple-tasting session found that Cissy came out top closely followed by Afal Wern. Equal third were Machen, St Cecilia and Pig Aderyn. Cissy dates back to the 18th century. It was raised by a Mr Tamplin from the Malpas area who called the apple after his sister. The Elizabethan Orchard has produced its first Walnuts and Figs. Work on the Bee Lod Glade is progressing with the planting of Escallonia, Eucryphia, Euonymous, Gipsywort, Evening Primrose and Purple Loosestrife. Planting containers have been constructed out of recycled timber. A 100+ tree hedgerow from the Woodland Trust is due for delivery during November.

Wildlife Group

September Improvements

Continuing with our theme of noticeboards we have erected another donated one, this time from the Community Council for which many thanks. The old noticeboard had been in storage but has been refurbished and installed at the Bee Loud Glade. We now have a total of 8 larger noticeboards, one small one and two information notices scattered throughout the parish. Plantings have included two Amelanchiers and a donated Bay at the Bee Loud Glade and during October we shall be adding Escallonia, Eucryphia and Euonymous – all particularly good for pollinators. Three Mahonias will follow towards the end of the month. Fruit, mainly apples but also a good crop of Medlars, are coming along nicely in the orchards. There is a lot of current interest in Quince (Cydonia) and whilst we have planted 4 they do take time to mature. Our oldest one (about 5 years) in the Community Orchard produced little fruit this year but seems healthy. This could be down to a lack of pollinators which is increasingly becoming a world-wide problem. Interestingly our most productive orchard is the one which has beehives.

Regular visitors to the Upper Orchid Field may have noticed that the meadow is shrinking! Just consider that the benches were all originally on the edge of the grass but several of them are now a few metres back as the brambles advance into the field. Ian Moody organised a start on the fight back with a mix of Environment Group and Wildlife Group members and several of the benches are now accessible again. We hope that the annual cut of the field will also involve further removal of bramble. If visitors to the field could take a pair of secateurs and snip the odd bramble, every little helps. We were also delighted to receive an offer of two teak benches in response to our appeal in the last What’s On and these will be installed down in the Bee Loud Glade.

Noticeboard Recycled

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A noticeboard is now up in the Goldsland Orchard. It may look vaguely familiar to some as it was the old Village Hall noticeboard. Our thanks to the Village Hall Committee for passing it on when they replaced it. It will be repainted our standard Sage colour and will then have notices on it which will describe the background to and history of cider apple and perry pear orchards. Many of these are wonderful old varieties such as Gwehelog and Blakeney Red (perry pear), Gabalva and Twyn y Sheriff (Cider or dual purpose) along with a mix of other fruit including Medlar, Quince, Plum and Damson. The group have been planting daffodils donated by Dyffryn Gardens, treating timber structures with preservative, strimming, brush-cutting, weeding and pruning.

A leaflet describing the orchards and their locations will be appearing on the Wenvoe Village website ( http://wenvoe.org.uk/?p=8128 )  and copies of the leaflet will be available around the village shortly. We have received donations of old gardening tools, a small pond and some damson suckers. We can always use spare tree stakes and if you have a surplus bench do get in touch as we are always being asked to provide more seating by visitors to our sites. For up to date information about the group and any events we organise, check our Facebook page – Wenvoe Wildlife Group

Orchard Noticeboards Refurbished

Despite lockdown a number of Wildlife Group members have been working on our sites either as individuals or couples.

The main focus has been on the noticeboards of which we have 6 large ones, one small and two more due to be erected soon. After a trial we have opted to repaint them Sage-coloured which blends in more with the countryside and is distinctive to the parish. The Welsh and Elizabethan Orchards have been completed and the notices re-affixed. The Community Orchard has been repainted and notices are back up. We shall move on to the Wild Orchard next. These play an important role in communicating what we are doing and why with visitors, many of whom are from outside the village.

Other work involves clearing vegetation and strimming paths, trimming willow, planting in our raised beds and cleaning the benches and other furniture which is as popular with wildlife as humans but with the inevitable consequence in terms of ‘bird poo’. A new bench has been installed at the top of the Upper Orchid Field in memory of the Kennetts who lived in Barry but were supportive of the Wildlife Group.

We continue to receive regular photos from residents either notifying us of plants and animals spotted or asking for help in identifying them. These are added to the wildlife recording database for South East Wales (SEWBREC) which ensures the records are properly logged and retained. Species recently include Dwarf Spurge (plant), Shaggy Ink Cap (fungus) and Pied Hoverfly. These and many more can be seen on our Facebook pages.

When working in the orchards, we often meet people who say that they were not previously aware of them. So each month we shall refer to one of them.

The Community Orchard is closest to the centre of Wenvoe and on the Playing Fields. To get there take the footbridge over the by-pass and continue down Station Road. After 100 metres turn right into the Playing Fields and the orchard is at the very far end hidden behind a hedgerow. You can also take the tunnel from Vennwood Close and follow the path.