THE ICONIC RED-BREASTED ROBIN IS AT HOME

On the way to Roughtor I remember we had many singing Robins. This was still the case on our earlier visits this year and in July they were frequent visitors to the feeders and sang for us often. They have a wonderful sound, so joyous. In my mind our Platt belongs to all singing Robins. 

When we first arrived in July, we had forgotten how plant life can explode into life with the ability to cover the earth with various greens, yellows and reds. This has all happened since March when everything in view was moorland black soil. We are surrounded by huge Beech, Sycamore and Oak and these were now in full leaf. Both boundaries were covered in growth and we had no indication whether the flower seeds we had scattered had flowered or the cuttings we had inserted had rooted. So there we were surrounded by what nature can do without help from us. 

We walked the boundaries to note what trees we had. I walked the length to discover what was there. We are lucky to have a variety of species and the ones mentioned below are some of them. On the field boundary side there were large trunks of Pussy/Glaucous Willow that had been severely lopped, but now supported young bright green growth. I was delighted to find two substantial Common Oak Trees looking very healthy and later produced young light green acorns. There is a slight irony here because in February we were at a Herefordshire Wildlife Trust site at Sturts in the north of the county. It was late winter when we searched and found six intact acorns. They were put into soil in a pot and all grew and I transplanted them at four locations on our Platt.

 

Growing from the hedgerow was a “stunted” Common Oak that provided a small canopy for our feeders. The birds hopped in and out of the low branches as they snatched food. Nature had provided many sites for birds as well as insects, amphibians, and anything small. 

When the Platt was cleared trees had to be lopped and cut into lengths. These were stacked and would provide a haven for several species. I knew we would find lichen and this photograph shows a log pile with a Sycamore piece showing a white stain.