Nature Notes 2008

Wooplaw is a wonderful habitat for wildlife. It supports a wide range of mammals, birds and plants – all of which have been carefully recorded over the years. If you want to see the extensive species lists that have been built up by long-time Wooplaw volunteer Jon Mercer then click here.

From time to time we have held events aimed at involving people like yourself in appreciating Wooplaw’s natural riches first hand. These have included dawn chorus vigils, bat watches, moth trapping nights, and fungal forays – where local experts have been on hand to point out the things we might not have noticed on our own. Some of these experts have moved out of the area – so, if you have this sort of expertise, and would be willing to lead a ‘nature’ event, please get in touch with us at . But you don’t need to be an expert to appreciate the wild life at Wooplaw, there is plenty you can see just by walking quietly around yourself – whether it is the glimpse of a Roe deer, hundreds of frogs croaking amorously at the Axehead pond, or a mysterious luminous fungus glowing eerily at night.

We try to manage the environment at Wooplaw to encourage wild life to flourish. We have done this partly by creating particular features (like the two ponds), partly by planting a mix of new trees that is attractive to a wide range of insects and birds, and partly by using recognised management techniques – such as coppicing, pruning and mowing – to match the woodland to the needs of wild life. Beyond that we generally leave nature to get on by itself. However, in two instances we have gone a step further by providing a specialist man-made habitat:–

Owl Box
The first Wooplaw owl box was installed in a tree alongside the all-ability path in Big Wood. For years it sat there unused until a storm forced us to fell an area of conifers in front of the log cabin. Almost immediately Barn Owls moved in to take advantage of the new hunting area and have raised good broods of youngsters – even in nationally bad years. In 2006 they raise five owlets and, in 2007, three. But, in 2006 we realised that the owl box was coming to the end of its life and there was as danger that it might fall to pieces.
The Hawk and Owl Trust generously provided us with a new, specially designed, replacement box. But the transition from old box to new had to be carefully managed. First we put up the new box on the same tree as the old one and left it for nearly a year for the owls to get used to. Then, after the year’s brood had fledged, we ushered the owls out of the old box and dismantled it. The move proved successful and in 2008 several owlets were successfully raised in the new box. See pictures here.

Otter Holt
Otters regularly travel along the Allan Water – which passes through the corner of Axehead Wood, through our neighbours’ land, and then runs the length of Gullet Wood. You can often see otter spraint on the banks near the Axehead pond and there have been sightings of otters in both Axehead and Gullet.
Sites where otters can establish a holt are at a premium, so we have provided an artificial holt near the Axehead Pond. Basically the holt is a very low log cabin with many internal, interconnected ‘rooms’ and a brush wood roof. The first otter holt was built 1995. There was evidence that otters went into it but they didn’t take up residence. Over the years, the roof collapsed and the timbers rotted away and in 2007 the Edinburgh University Conservation Volunteers helped us build a new one. Now we must wait to see whether the otters like this one better than the first! See pictures here.