Not a post about Brandon Lee...

If I could get away with a post all about the film then I would but alas this is a gardening blog.
I spotted a couple of crows hopping about next to the Priestley building as I was working there, so here is my bird of the day.
The carrion crow (Corvus corone) is part of the Crow family (Corvidae).

It is one of the cleverest and most adaptable of our birds. They are usually solitary creatures and often found alone or in pairs. They will come to a garden for food and can very quickly work out whether it is safe, and will return often to take advantage of whatever is on offer. Their diet consists of carrion (dead and decaying animal flesh), insects, worms, seeds, fruit, and any scraps they can find.

They can be found all year round almost everywhere, from cities to moorland, and woodland to seashore.

(Photograph taken by myself, Thursday 31st March)

(Information taken from the RSPB website, www.rspb.org.uk)

Anyone fancy a pint?

Unfortunately no, I'm not talking about alcohol. Sorry. 

On Monday, Jen, Sam, and I headed off to the student accommodation blocks at Kirkstall Brewery. The weather on Monday was terrible. It rained pretty much constantly so we definitely needed our waterproofs and wellies on. 

We went here to check on the trees planted over the last couple of years. 

Some were planted in November and the team were lucky enough to see some deer grazing in the area. 

The trees are still attached to posts to keep them stable in bad weather conditions, and to ensure they have the support they need to grow straight and become established. Once they are well established we will remove the ties completely.

We needed to check the supports because the tree trunks can grow so fast that the ties become too tight and then choke the tree. You can see from the picture below what happens when a tie is too tight. This was only one years worth of growth, so we need to pop down at least a couple of times a year to check the trees. 

It's very unlikely that the tree will survive with such extensive damage, but we'll keep an eye on it just in case. 

So Sam and Jen went round cutting the old ties and then replacing them with new looser ones. 

We managed to get all the ties replaced and not get too wet in the end, so all in all it was a very satisfying afternoon. Although it would have been amazing if we had seen the deer grazing this time. 

(Photos of the deer taken by Rach in November, the remaining by myself on 8th February 2016)

#wildlife #biodiversity #groundsmaintenance