July 2014 Field path from Toby Lane towards Woodbury

This month we look at the public footpath towards Woodbury that begins on Toby Lane, opposite Toby Cottage.  Throughout this walk there are stunning long views to the Haldon Hills in the west (on the opposite side of the Exe estuary), across Exeter, and to the Raddon Hills in the north-west.  The way crosses six fields - presently under cultivation with meadow grass, maize and wheat - before reaching White Cross Road opposite the Parsonage in Woodbury.  It also passes through and alongside a series of hedges, ditches and field margins that are relatively rich in a variety of wildlife habitats, and form important wildlife corridors.  The way is full of bird- and insect-life - from swallows (they love the telephone wires!) and gold-finches, to bees, crickets, hover-flies and butterflies.  

Field path entrance opposite Toby Cottage (above),
opening onto views of Haldon Hills in the distance (below)

Relatively rich habitat of trees, hedge, ditch and field margin.

In general, footpaths have been created by generations of ordinary people going about their business, and still for us today they provide a vital link to the land, albeit more usually for leisure.  Historically, footpaths connected farms, churches, schools and settlements in times before carriages and vehicles: farm labourers may have walked many miles to work each day, and children may have walked long distances to school.  

Such public rights of way became legalised by the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act of 1949.  They were based on parish surveys by Parish Councils, and several rounds of public and landowner consultation produced a final Definitive Map. This record is kept under review by the County Council, and can be modified where evidence suggests that new or modified routes would fulfil a current need.

This particular footpath appears on a map of the late nineteenth century but is possibly much older, connecting the handful of farms that used to exist here, in the area between Toby Lane and Canonwalls Farm, with the church and businesses in Woodbury, perhaps including the tithe barn which used to exist at the site of the Parsonage.  Perhaps it was used by people on foot to avoid Deepway and White Cross Road, which would have been churned up by wheeled traffic and livestock.

At this time of year, the vibrancy earlier in the season gives way to the characteristic dark greens and auburn hues of high summer. Fewer new wild flowers appear in July, and mostly they are in open areas and in woodland margins.  This year, however, many plants have flowered and begun to seed up to a month early.  The verges of Toby Lane have a distinctly late summer feel already.

The wide verges of Toby Lane are coloured by an abundance of seed-heads.

At the entrance to the field path and in one of the ditches several fields away, one unusual plant is found flowering in profusion. Its appears to be a member of the water-cress family, possibly Narrow-fruited Water-cress or a hybrid.

Narrow-fruited Water-cress [?]

Here there is also a magnificent stand of Great Willowherb, which is found in abundance in damp places, such as the ditches beside lanes and fields, and can be seen throughout this walk.  It spreads rapidly by underground stems, so that it often forms large clumps, to the exclusion of other plants.  It is distinguished from its cousin Rosebay Willowherb by larger, more spaced out individual flowers.

Great Willowherb

At the time of writing, the first field is un-cut, and provides a relatively rich experience of grasses and plants in both flower and seed, and the sight and sounds of insects.  The mixed flora includes Buttercups (Creeping- and Field-), White Clover, and Creeping Thistle.

Creeping Buttercup

White Clover is one of the wild flowers most rich in pollen and nectar, and is hugely important for insects, as well as for fixing nitrogen in the soil.  It occurs widely in grassy areas.

White Clover

Creeping Thistle is considered a pest by farmers and gardeners because of its rapid spread - by seed and by fragments of rhyzome.  However, a stand of the plant in flower is an invaluable source of nectar for many insects.  If you are brave enough to put your nose to it, you will find that the flower smells of honey.

Creeping Thistle

Hedgerow flowers along the path include (as well as Great Willowherb) Common or Hedge Bedstraw, Tufted Vetch, Bramble, Meadowsweet, and Hedge Bindweed.

Common, or Hedge, Bedstraw

Tufted Vetch and Bramble

Bramble

Meadowsweet

Hedge Bindweed

One plant that is unfamiliar to us and was not recorded in the Woodbury Wildflower Survey (completed in 2011), is Many-seeded Goosefoot.  It apparently occurs locally throughout England south of a line between the Humber and the Severn.  At 1m tall it is a striking plant that grows on light, nutrient-rich waste ground and disturbed cultivated land.  We found many specimens growing along the edge of the fifth field where there is a wide field margin.

Many-seeded Goosefoot

Throughout this walk, it is hard to remain unaware of the distinction between the cultivated land and the rest.  Modern agricultural practice is extremely monocultural, and often leaves wide areas of bare soil which can quickly become degraded by erosion and flooding.  By contrast, the hedges, ditches and margins are more species-rich, although much has been lost in the last century due to modern farming methods and land management.  

Monoculture of rye grass beyond the field margin

Bare soil between maize plants.

At the corner of the sixth (and last) field, where the land dips down towards Woodbury, there is an area of degraded land which has been subject to flooding in the last few years, and no crop is growing in this hard, cracked soil.

However, it is a great lesson to realise how nature is reclaiming this ground and restructuring the soil through the emergence of a number of plants that thrive on waste ground, together with an abundance of insect life.  Growing here we found Field Bindweed, Scentless Mayweed, Common Speedwell, Sun spurge, Greater Plantain, and Scarlet Pimpernel.

Field Bindweed

Scentless Mayweed

Common Field-speedwell

Sun spurge

Young Greater Plantain

Scarlet Pimpernel

Seeds and fruits

Amongst the many seeds and fruits developing now are Sorrel (giving the fieldscape an auburn tinge), the many Umbellifers, Field and Dog Roses, Red Campion, Hedge Woundwort, and Lords and Ladies.

Sorrel

Cow Parsley and other umbellifers

Rose

Red Campion

Hedge Woundwort

Oil-seed Rape

The distinctive red berry-like fruit of Lords and Ladies is highly toxic for humans, but loved by birds.

Lords and Ladies

Birds

Bird moult

At this time of year it can feel as if the birds have simply disappeared: there is little birdsong, the garden and countryside can seem eerily quiet, and there may be few birds to see, and - when they do appear - they can look quite strange.  The breeding season is over, the young no longer need to be fed by the parents, and territory no longer needs to be fiercely maintained, so the birds can put their energy into the process of moulting.  Adult birds are shedding their worn out feathers and growing new, strong, warm feathers to see them through the winter.  Young birds are losing their first feathers and moulting into their adult coats.

Moulting is a drain on birds' resources.  When feathers are shed there may be heat loss, affecting insulation, and when flight feathers are lost, more energy may be needed for flight.  This is why many birds become inconspicuous for a time as they may be more vulnerable to predation.  Generally moult will not overlap with other processes which drain energy reserves, such as breeding or moulting.

[Information for this section is taken from an RSPB article about bird moult]

Dawn chorus

At midsummer, on June 21, Sally Elliott noted the following birds singing during the dawn chorus:

At 03.55am the Song Thrush began, followed (in order) by Swallows, Robin, Blackbird, Wren, Blackcap Warbler, Chaffinch, and finally Wood Pigeon at 04.38am.

However, such is the reduction in birdsong at this time of year that just over two weeks later, on July 9, only the Song Thrush could be heard, beginning at 4.30am.

Familiar and well-loved though the Song Thrush is as a garden bird, its numbers are declining seriously, especially on farmland - and it is in fact now on the 'Red List', meaning it has the highest conservation priority.  The Song Thrush's habit of repeating song phrases distinguishes it from other singing blackbirds.  You can listen to it and read more here.  It is similar in appearance to the Mistle Thrush, but is smaller and browner, with smaller spotting.

Song thrush (above) compared with Mistle thrush (below)