Ash Stump

Sadly our only large tree is dying rapidly from die back so we have lost the opportunity to put up an owl or bat box or a tree bee hive. The local kestrel has lost his perch as we had to remove the only remaining large branches. But standing dead wood is very valuable and rare in our too tidy modern society. Extremely rare stag beetle larvae live underground in dead stumps for three to seven years before emerging to make a cocoon in the soil. Many other invertebrates feed on or live in decaying wood.

The ivy is being encouraged as it provides valuable autumn pollen for bees, bumble bees, hoverflies, wasps and flies. The berries have a high fat content and are a nutritious winter food resource eaten by a range of birds including song thrush, mistle thrush, blackcaps, redwing, woodpigeons and blackbirds.The leaves are valuable winter cover and in spring provide food for caterpillars of the holly blue butterfly and the double-striped pug, swallow tailed and yellow-barred brindle moths. There is even an ivy bee which feeds almost exclusively on ivy pollen.