Winter Storms and Wildlife in the Wyre

Well what a wet winter! But how amazingly warm! Hardly a frost all January!

Not that frost is a problem, when one is snug inside with a roaring fire in the log burner!

Our first guests to stay in the Byre, found refuge from the icy blasts of their native Canada, where the temperature when they left was minus 32 degrees. Arriving here to a "tropical" plus 10 degrees, and immediately rushing out to explore the wildlife in the surrounding fields.

Sitting high and dry on a hill, the strong winds have been more of an issue for Manor Holding, than any excess water, but apart from one ancient hollow orchard tree festooned in evergreen mistletoe, our trees have all stood the test of the storms unscathed. Those trees that did fall across public roads elsewhere in the district were swiftly cleared away by landowners and highway authorities.

Despite these winds we still have a few sweet apples clinging onto one late cropping tree in the top orchard.

The wider forest however has lost several taller fir trees, particularly next to new forest clearings intended to increase the ecological and age diversity of the woodland. This selective clearance policy greatly enriches the ground flora and fauna, the visual interest and the landscape value of the coniferous parts of the forest, as do the associated broad meandering sunny rides and narrower shady trails. The fallen trees will assist in this enrichment process, which encourages the original native species of this ancient forest to recolonize those areas, where post-war commercial coniferous plantations have usurped the place of the natural deciduous species.

Below us in the Severn Gorge, Bewdley's new portable flood defences have withstood the Severn’s torrent with flying colours. Although the multitude of mobile groundwater pumps, brought in to lift surface water from the road gullies into the river, did effectively clog up the town centre traffic; forcing all through traffic to use the bypass. However the flood defences proved quite a tourist attraction in their own right, as pedestrians took advantage of having the old, Thomas Telford designed, stone bridge to promenade free of motor vehicles.

But now the sun is blazing in a brilliant blue sky decorated with scattered fleecy clouds, and wild flowers are blooming hurriedly before the trees throw a fresh green blanket across the landscape.

Nigel Dobson-Smyth

Manor Holding