The main uprights supporting the roof of the resource centre are several pine trees planted at Forrest Hills over 40 years ago by our uncle George Newsham. These were felled last year and dried in the barn. Each needs its own custom-made metal shoe, welded on site, to secure it to the floor slab.
Slits cut into each tree base hold the shoe. They were then lifted into place and temporarily secured.
Delivery took place last week of several packs of Kerto beams which will link the uprights and support the roof trusses.
Currently making use of one of our nest boxes is this pair of barn owls photographed in May. Many years ago a rehabilitation project with Muncaster Castle saw the release of several barn owls at Forrest Hills. Since then there have been the occasional sightings in flight but this is the first time any have been seen appearing to nest.
More commonly seen are tawny owls, such as this one photgraphed two years ago, which along with little owls regularly nest in the area.
On May 10th we attended Gail Armstrong’s ‘Bats for Beginners’ course along with about 20 other people. The course covered the natural history and life cycle of bats with a special focus on our native species. Identification techniques were introduced using several dead bats and handling techniques using a few live species. After an excellent buffet we headed out for Leighton Moss armed with bat detectors and found several different species emerging from dusk onwards including Noctule, Whiskered, and Common and Soprano Pippistrelles. Details of other events can be found on the North Lancashire Bat Group website.
Several evenings since then have seen us out around Forrest Hills identifying our own bats. Not straightforward but we have found Noctules and Pippistrelles (not sure which!) and are hoping to find more. During the recent warm weather we were up at 4am one morning and saw 4 noctules still up and busy feeding high above the fly fishing lake.
Lancaster Beekeepers Association, of which we are members, held the theoretical sessions of their ’introduction to beekeeping course’ at Forrest Hills on April 24th, May 1st and May 8th. The course was very well attended by up to 40 new beekeepers.
Our own bees are doing well after uniting two hives (previous BLOG).
We try to manage the golf course as sustainably as possibe. As part of this, on a cold day in April, greenkeeper Steve began a new organic treatment to control moss on the greens. This involves spreading Vulcamin as supplied by Simon Brockholes.
