Snowdrops in the woodland Walk Tuesday 20th January 2026.

 There is a good show of snowdrops in the Woodland Walk section nearest to the westgate. Just over the bridge in the old Hornbeam coppice the Few Flowered Garlic is just pushing through.

New Lime Walk.20th Jan 2026.

 In January 2026 a rather ad hoc message was received from CMS regarding a new Lime Walk In Pishiobury Park. A quick visit revealed some red topped canes in the ground and orange crosses marked on the grassland. The following day we were alerted to the fact that they were getting the planting site ready. Being curious I had a follow up visit the next day and was quite frankly appalled at the level of damage that had been done. It looks like something like a flail mower had been used and several Bramble thickets had been completely eradicated exposing live rabbit warrens where it would appear that absolutely no consideration had been given to the fact that the burrows almost certainly had rabbits in residence and it should be a local nature reserve!

It would appear that the 1766 Drury and Andrews map of Hertfordshire had been used as a reference but this is hand drawn and not accurate. Up until the present time the park has vaunted as a Capability Brown Park and it is well known fact that he disliked formality in the landscape and yet here we are planting a new formal avenue! A close look at the map will show three avenues in 1766 and it is assumed probably erroneously that the northernmost one is what is being tried to replicate.

CMS came Tuesday 13th January and the holes had already been dug for 40 new lime trees. Initially, no rabbit guards had been provided but that has now been done on the advice of one of the Friends. Glendale are supposed to be coming back to install wooden enclosures before the cattle come in May. Shown below are a series of photograph taken this afternoon 20th January from West to East as a record of the planting. It is hoped if the vegetation is allowed to grow up particularly in the ditch area then maybe the rabbits will return.

There is evidence that there never was an avenue of trees here is provided by the next slide which shows the remains an oak tree which was felled in 1939 as part of the Timber Requisition for World War Two. At one time the park was littered with these pollard heads but they have steadily been burnt up especially during the time when 200 Elm trees went out of the park in the early 1970s due to Dutch Elm disease. A ring count on a similar one at that time gave a planting date of 1722 and there is every reason to believe that the the one in the slide would have been of similar age and proportions. There is therefore good evidence that there would have been an oak tree standing in the middle of what of what they think was an avenue of lime trees in the 18th century. Why don't people use their Oliver Rackham Eyes!

Poor rabbits, let's hope they can return because due to myxomatosis and hemorrhagic disease, they are now largely abs from the surrounding countryside but we are fortunate in having a thriving colony in the park where they are doing no damage at all but are part of the biodiversity and food chain as well as an opportunity to educate people.

Below you can see where they have dug a hole in the Big Dig 2011 - 13 site where we excavated with all the proper permissions on the site of the old cattle sheds and we had to get a derogation to do it because of damaging the grassland!

 We have had some slightly damper conditions lately and this is encouraging fungi and fruit. I believe that this one is a type of Boletus parasitic boletus. There were several growing in F2. If it is this one then it could be a rare type but it is more likely to be an example of a common bolete variety.

 Surprisingly, in spite of all the dry conditions there is a damp area by the bridge in E6. it is possible that this was the site of an old pond or maybe somewhere where there is a general Drainage Direction. Whatever the reason there is a lot of earthworm worm cast activity which is very unusual bearing in mind that the rest of the soil on the park is bone dry.

 October 2025 Update.

Following on from the driest spring on record and a dry summer the park is looking dry but not parched due to recent dews and lower temperatures.

Some small shrubs are showing extreme drought stress as are patches of Bramble in full sunlight.

Cowslip Survey April 2025.

 In April 2025 the Cowslip population was surveyed on the Park. The results are shown on the map using ACFOR where A= Abundant, C= Common, O= Occasional, R= Rare.

It has been a rather mixed year for Cowslip's because March was the driest on record and this has been largely reflected in the growth of the plant's and especially the height of the flowering heads. In some cases in the driest areas the plants are really quite stunted and the flower stalks really short. In just a very few cases there are the properly formed tall flowerheads as expected.

Fully formed flowering plant as usual.

Stunted plants and short flowerheads.

Interestingly, some of the groups of plants are on the same location as they were recorded in the very first survey of this plant in 1980 so presumably they are essentially the same plants or their offspring and this has been repeated in several other places in the survey. Square F8 is an example.

It is open to speculation how these groups of plants continue from year to year and it is open to question if new plants arise from seeds shed by the parent plants or they originate from offsets once again from the parent plants?

There is no obvious way in which Cowslip seed is dispersed other than passively so the occasional appearance of an isolated clump on a site not recorded before is also unexplained.

In many ways this survey replicates what was found in 1980 and if anything the population has expanded slightly in spite of increased footfall impact.

Dawn Chorus 2023.

 At the start of May last year a sound recording was made of the dawn chorus and a video vlog added later in the day. National Dawn Chorus day 2024 will be May 5th to enjoy again but you must be there at dawn which is about 4am with sunrise at 5.17am. Follow the link below to hear the chorus.

https://youtu.be/uBn1UOzbVPQ?si=m5KcEffkqgunszcl