Goodbye to Pool Wood, Wild flowers, Afternoon Tea and Butterfly Count at Temple Fields

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know how much I am against HS2 because of the huge unnecessary cost and in particular the loss of habitat. For example, 61 ancient woods, which are irreplaceable, will suffer loss or damage from the London to Birmingham phase. In my view the money would be far better spent improving current public transport facilities.

D was keen to visit a local wood that will be hacked down at some stage as it stands in the way of HS2.

Wild flowers on the grass verge as we walked towards the wood.

We had decided to visit sooner rather than later as trees have already been chopped down on the side of the road opposite the wood. As it is the breeding season it is to be hoped that the contractors concerned checked for nests before commencing.

Pool Wood

Sadly the entrance to the wood has suffered fly tipping - at times I despair. While driving to the wood to dump rubbish surely people could drive to the local tip to get rid of it? - there is a council tip not many miles from here.

The wood has already been bisected by the M42 motorway and I believe the section on the other side of the M42 will be left in peace.

This is one of my favourite trees which I have driven past so many times. Although it looks as though it survived a lightning strike at some stage I very much fear this tree although on the very edge of the wood will go. At the moment it will be an important habitat for saprophytic beetles.

I did spot a metal disc with a number and wasn't sure what this meant. I tried to access the tree preservation order section of the local council to see if the tree had a TPO on it but that section did not seem to be working and in any case I suspect TPO's may mean little when it comes to a project such as HS2.

We went a wander through the wood and it is so very sad to think that this ecosystem with all its associated wildlife may not exist much longer.

It is depressing to think that in a few days/weeks/months this is what all the trees will look like.

On the way back to the car D spotted what looks like a Devil's Coach Horse.

To cheer ourselves up we stopped off on the way home at a traffic roundabout to take photos of the wild flowers planted there.

E had been given a voucher to afternoon tea at Nailcote Hall near Balsall Common and we went along one afternoon last week. The hall was built around 1640. It was damaged by Cromwell's troups during the English Civil war. In recent years during restoration a priest's hole was found between the Oak Room Restaurant (where we had afternoon tea) and the entrance hall.

The afternoon tea was rather good and the service excellent.

The hall is now a hotel which holds weddings and conferences and has a leisure complex and golf course. I presume they have constructed these "mock" ruins for wedding photos.

I've done a few Big Butterfly Counts around the garden - it is good to see more Peacocks, Red Admirals and Small Tortoiseshell than last summer but I still haven't seen a Painted Lady!

Earlier this week I returned to Temple Fields, the Natural Burial Ground at Temple Balsall to do a Big Butterfly Count there.

The flowers are perhaps now a little past their best but there are still plenty of

insects about.

Comma

Gatekeeper

Possibly a Lunar Hoverfly - you see a hoverfly like this and think the markings are distinctive until you open the field guide and there are several species with very similar markings!

In total over the 15 minutes of the count I saw:

Comma x 1
Red Admiral x 1
Small White x 6
Large White x 2
Meadow Brown x 1
Gatekeeper x 14
Peacock x 1

Essex Skipper x 1 (identified from a photo by the inky black tips to the antennae)


It was good to see bird feeders in a corner of Temple Fields.

I did pop over the road to the cemetery to collect a few Fox and Cubs seedheads. If anyone knows (Rosie was it you who said you had them in the garden?) the best place to plant them in a garden I would love to know to give them the best chance of germinating although I will put a few on the "no mow zone" of the main back lawn and perhaps a few in the wild flower meadow.


Small Tortoiseshell seen in the garden at home.

All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera