Coyney Woods: Into the woods...

Urban wildlife isn't always the foxes 

raiding your bins, or the pigeons in the 

town centre. Pockets of remnant wild habitat 

surrounded by urban sprawl count too. 

Coyney Woods - Local Patch Mk. II. The closer and smaller natural retreat on my doorstep. I can be on this Local Nature Reserve (LNR) in 5 mins from my house, it's just 500 hundred yards or so from my back door. And while I say small we're talking about 75 acres in total give or take - that's still somewhere in the region of  50 football pitches for those who struggle to visualise an acre. No heathland here, not a lot in the way of wetland either, no ponds anyway. A few small streams emerging from springs, and associated marshy areas, which are interesting features. As the name suggests we are dealing primarily with woodland but interspersed with patches of scrub and rank grassland. 

The woodland is mixed species, the main area predominantly Common Oak (Quercus robur), Hazel (Corylus avellana) and Birch (Betula pendula). Around the borders a wide range of species can be found, some native some non-native, too many to list here although I will try at some point. I assume the latter have encroached from surrounding gardens over time as the almost the entire site is bordered by either residential or commercial property. In the wetter portions are several species of Willow (Salix spp).  

In the scrub areas Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) and Bramble (Rubus fructicosus) are the most common shrub species but are intermingled with Bracken (Pteridium aquilinium), Great Willowherb (Epilobium hirsutum) and various thistle and umbellifer species, as well as the occasional Oak and Crab Apple (Malus sylvestris). With no grazing animals (other than the odd Rabbit) and no management in the form of cutting or mowing (other than the footpaths) it is massively over grown and rank, some periodic cutting would do a world of good.

Map

The above map, generated using DEFRA's online mapping tool MAGIC, highlights the several different pockets of woodland which together form the LNR, highlighted in red. The green areas of the map highlight the woodland areas, with the white areas within the red border the scrub and grassland areas. The aerial image screen grab from Google maps on the left gives a slightly better idea of the varied habitat and how the two main habitat types grade into each other.

The map also shows just how cut off these areas are, literally an island of green amongst a sea of urbanisation. Of course urbanisation doesn't necessarily mean isolation. The surrounding houses have gardens which themselves contain habitat suitable for many of the species found in the woods proper, or at least form corridors or stepping stones of suitable habitat for species to disperse into or out of the reserve.  Dispersal is often a problem for urban wildlife but in this specific area not as much of a problem as is often the case.

The wildlife certainly don't seem to mind too much, Buzzards (Buteo buteo), Great Spotted Woodpeckers (Dendrocopos major), Tawny Owls (Strix aluco), Grasshopper Warblers (Locustella naevia), Kestrels (Falco tinnunculus), Sparrowhawks (Accipiter nisus); the list goes on. If it's large enough for me to feel like I'm all on my lonesome in there, and to distract me for hours on end, then the wildlife that occupies it probably think it's big enough too.

As with Park Hall, I don't want to tell you everything about the site in one go, so I have something left to write about in the future. I hope this gives you a brief but insightful introduction to another local patch which you hopefully will be hearing a fair bit about in the future.

Richard

Park Hall Country Park: Where dinosaurs roamed...

Of the two areas I visit most often, 

Park Hall Country Park is by far the 
bigger, and more diverse in habitat. 

It extends to 135 hectares, or about 325 acres, and in practise the area available to explore is somewhat larger. An adjoining golf course shut several years ago, and the land is freely accessible; it even contains some flower meadows as good, if not better, than those of the country park itself.  

It is slightly further away from home, 1.3 miles door to border so about half an hour walk, or a touch less, but the extra distance is worth the effort. The landscape includes cliff-sided canyons and other exposed rock faces, ponds and pools, flower rich grasslands, both coniferous and deciduous woodland and heathland.

This wide range of habitats in close proximity means there is an equally diverse range of species, both flora and fauna, which can be seen there. One impressive claim made by the limited literature on the park is that all five species of British Owl have been seen there (Barn, Tawny, Little, Long-eared & Short-eared), although this is not a claim I can confirm yet, hopefully one day!

Map

A map of the Country Park area from MAGIC (DEFRA's online mapping tool) showing some detail on habitats. Approximate country park area (including the golf course) shown in red: 

• darker greens depict woodland, lighter green deciduous and darker coniferous; 
• lime green and peach are different types of grassland (there are other areas not highlighted, I think because they are not deemed to be a priority habitat); 
• purple indicates heathland, based on my experience on the ground it seems like there is more than indicated here in the North East (top right) corner; 
• also within the left hand (west) area of woodland there are a series of large ponds, other smaller ponds are scattered around the site, some of which are ephemeral (they dry up, or at least reduce significantly, in the summer).  
• The brown dot in the centre indicates the centre of the the Hulme Quarry NNR and SSSI area, specifically the exposed rock portions (see below). 

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To prevent this post becoming too long I'll post short summaries of the various different habitats in the future - for some I'll wait through until spring or early summer to be able to both show and describe them at their best. For now, a little taster of the more unusual and unique of the habitats found there. 

Rocks & 'The Grand Canyon'

The exposed cliff faces also provide nesting opportunities for 
birds, here a rather poor, and now old, shot of a Kestrel

In addition to its designation as a Country Park, portions of the site are also designated as a National Nature Reserve (NNR), the only one in Stoke-on-Trent, and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), both known as Hulme Quarry. Both these designations are due to the geological features of the site exposed during the quarrying work which ended in 1970.

These exposed portions of rock, specifically from the 'lower Triassic Bunter Pebble Beds (Cannock Chase Formation) of the Sherwood Sandstone Group' (see SSSI Designation) apart from allowing geologists a good look at the contrasting layers of sandstone and pebble conglomerate, create a rugged and, for Stoke-on-Trent, unique landscape.

The undulating topography created by basins and ridges, canyons and hollows, aside from giving your legs a good work out, mean that the vegetation alternates from exposed to shaded to never lit within yards. This results in variable and distinct flora, and almost certainly by extension invertebrate fauna, communities in a very small area. The sandstone bedrock results in a very sandy soil over much of the site, undoubtedly one of the reasons for the heathland, with its low nutrient, quick draining properties, and water rounded pebbles abound in the footpath surfaces.

As can be seen from the picture below the vegetation in these rocky areas of the park consist largely of scrub, with some birch and pine tress and an occasional oak or rowan. The gorse and broom, when in full flower, contrast spectacularly with the purple of the heather and the red sandstone cliffs to make for stunning outlooks earlier in the year. At this time of year, although we lost the purple, the birch tries its best to make up for the diminishing yellow.

Bare rock and sandy soil are both great of course for warm loving invertebrates, and during the summer around the pools dragonflies abound, while butterflies and hover flies make the most of the extremely rich nectar resource from the wide range of flowering plants.

The largest of the 'canyons' to be found at Park Hall, demonstrating the dominant feature of the country park, and the
defining feature of the NNR and SSSI.

I hope this has given you a little taste of one of the patches I get to call local. I look forward to sharing with you more in depth ventures up to Park Hall Country Park over the coming months.

Richard 

An Autumn Walk...

How many times have you come across a scene and wished you had a camera to record the moment? A week or two ago I stumbled across just such a scene, very local to me, on a detour home from dropping my daughter at school, but this time I had a camera!

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The shafts of early autumn light pierced the tight canopy of reluctant leaves, illuminating a perfect path to the woodland floor through lingering remnants of morning mist. But for the whisper of morning traffic on the road a hundred yards behind, I could have been one hundred miles or one hundred years from civilization that morning. After attempting to capture the un-capturable vista, I moved on quietly through the trees. 

Before long the drone of the road was lost amidst the chorus of rustling from high above, the creak of tired limbs and the calls of the residents. One Jay in particular made his presence heard. As it flew ahead through paths of light pioneered by dawn, the azure flashed on its wing, like a memory of a blue bell, long since disappeared from the carpet of woodland flora. 

Emerging at the far side, despite having been abandoned by the Jay, I wasn't left wanting for colour! As if in a bid to burn off the last of the clinging haze, the bracken had ignited, flames of yellow and rusty red trying to upstage the sun. The trees looked down enviously, out of fashion, some way behind the latest seasonal colours, for now.        

  

The flowers were not to be outdone, even if they were now vastly outnumbered - at a distinct seasonal disadvantage, the Devils-bit Scabious had aimed for subtlety and nailed it. In a close cropped patch, flanked by the fledgling stream they made their stand, purple amongst the fading green of the retiring summer grasses.  

  

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Welcome to my Blog. 

Welcome also to my 'local patch', or one of them, Coyney Woods. I'll post up something describing it a bit less abstractly in the not too distant future. 

It really is a hidden gem, surrounded as it is by residential and commercial properties, hiding a history of its own with foundations of an old structure, the mark of former ground works and remnants of refuse piles in the depths. Not to mention the history the trees themselves are evidence of - the wood was previously coppiced, now long since abandoned but immediately obvious if inspected with a trained eye. Or an untrained one: one of the roads now bordering it is called Coppice Grove, a bit of a hint!

I've introduced myself in one of the pages on the blog (links above), so I won't do it again here but please feel free to have a look. I hope this blog proves to be interesting and hopefully also informative.