Warnham LNR - Walnut Tree Plantation

Bramble Bashing at Warnham LNR

Another cold morning greeted the volunteers from Horsham Green Gym as they paid a visit to Walnut Tree Plantation at Warnham Local Nature Reserve. This mornings task was to cut back the ever encroaching Bramble from around the Hazel coppice which was planted in 2015. The Bramble up until now has helped us protect the new Hazel saplings from being browsed by Roe Deer but it has now become too extensive so the group did a great job removing some of the Bramble.

As you can see from the photo above the hazel whips eventually started to appear once we got deeper into the Bramble. The next job was to remove the tree tubes from the whips that had died, the use of the Bramble to protect the whips was pretty effective here and there weren't to many that had been browsed off and killed. It is hoped that the increased light levels afforded by the scrub clearance should give the whips an excellent growth year coming up.

 Once all of the tree tubes had be removed we started the last section of the coppice job which was to reinstate the woven hedge which serves as a barrier to keep most of the public to the paths.  In this area of the Plantation the ground flora is very good so we try to keep trampling to a minimum and Helen and Peter were rightly very proud of the job they had done with the barrier! Thank you very much once again to all the Horsham Green Gym members who attended the task. The next volunteer task is at Broadbridge Heath Bike Jumps off Byfleets Lane on Tuesday 31st January. This is a very exciting project of turning the now redundant BMX jumps into a butterfly haven. The meeting location is postcode: RH12 3PA or the OS map ref is TQ152 319

Job Done!

Our visitors have also been busy with their respective cameras this week and we have had a number of photos sent in for use on the blog. I hope you enjoy the lovely selection sent in by one observer this week of a few of the common species seen around the Reserve at this time of year. Also of note the Water Rail(s) seem to have taken up residence in the Woodpecker Hide once more so keep your eyes peeled on here for some nice photos 

 Robin

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Grey Squirrel