Hello Acorn Club Members
Now the days are longer and a little warmer the woodland is full of bird song. The Top and Bottom Ponds are teeming with life, the bluebells that carpet the floor of the woodland that runs alongside the railway line will soon provide a welcome burst of colour ready for the May Day bank holiday. Woodland plants such as Bluebell and Primrose, flower in spring before the leaves are fully out on the trees as they need plenty of sunlight to make food and grow.
Acorn Club members who visited us over February half term and Easter planted native trees such as Rowan, Oak, Ash, Hornbeam, Birch and Beech around Bottom Pond. The Acorn Club members attached name labels to the tree guards and each time they visit will be able to check the progress of the trees they planted.
The Acorn Club has also been busy creating a new Love Bugs trail by putting up insect boxes and constructing a log pile from the fallen tree branches of Pine, Oak, Beech and Birch. Log piles are a valuable habitat for mosses, lichens and fungi as well as many insects.
In woodlands, fallen wood occurs naturally and many creatures have adapted to use this habitat
In our increasingly tidy countryside, fallen and dead wood is not so common. A pile of logs simulates fallen trees; it is best placed in a shady spot so that it remains cool and damp.
Insects are important to the environment; pollinating plants, decomposing wood and leaves and are a food source for other wildlife.
You could help bring wildlife into your garden by making insect homes; take an old plant pot, fill it with leaves and then turn it upside down and place it somewhere cool, dark and damp or take a bundle of bamboo canes, tie them tightly together and hang them from a tree branch and the minibeasts will soon move into their new home.
Let us know at Kelling Heath Countryside department how you created your insect home, or draw a picture of its design and it will be entered into our competition. Beetle away……..
Mail the Kelling Heath Countryside department click here
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