Stream works, toad, and more - report from work morning 11 September

Cutting the vegetation

There is a stream down through the middle of the wood that only flows when it's been raining heavily, but we need to clear it every year to make sure that it doesn't overflow and alter the surrounding habitat. So on Sunday we cut our way through the vegetation and dug out the leaf mould and other debris from the stream bed.

The stream going up through the woodland

As we were clearing the stream we first saw something jump away very quickly - a frog, we think - and then we saw a toad ambling its way away from the area where we were working. We're not sure that we've seen a toad in the wood before.

The wood definitely seems to be getting wetter. In the summer the bed of the stream usually develops deep cracks, but only the upper part of the stream had cracks this time.

Lady fern or similar species

Hart's tongue fern

Ferns are also much more widely distributed in the wood than a few years ago. It will be interesting to see what other species changes occur.

Bracket fungi

One tree near the stream regularly has spectacular bracket fungi, some as large as dinner plates.

13 people came on the work morning, so we were also able to do a lot of litter picking and our regular maintenance of the fruit trees.

A big thank you to everyone who helped!