A uncommon, residing elm tree
On the wooded slope of a valley that sweeps away from my dwelling and gallery in Thixendale, grows one in all England’s rarest species: a powerful outdated elm tree. This massive, lovely, tree is one in all only a handful of residing elms left within the nation. At one time these elms dominated the English panorama. However greater than 60 million have been killed in an epidemic of Dutch Elm Illness that each one however obliterated the species.
Barn Owl in Elm Entrance | Bespoke Print Accessible on Request
Residence to wildlife all 12 months spherical
In winter, with its leaves all gone, you may actually respect the great thing about the tree skeleton of this explicit elm. It has branches that twist and sweep gracefully to the bottom and is topped by a thick thatch of twigs. On a winter’s night pheasants roost on these branches, their darkish silhouettes trying like big Christmas decorations. And by day, this elm is a roost for tawny owls.
In the summertime, when the owlets fledge, they kind a crèche within the branches and the mother and father sit shut by maintaining a tally of them. Stoats additionally frequent the hole across the roots and an array of small birds feed among the many leaves. Lately, I’ve seen a clutch of barn owls, peppered via its branches. Tawny’s may be aggressive, so it was astonishing to see these two species of owl sharing the identical cover.
Extra life-giving timber
Though this tree is uncommon, all timber are recognized life-givers. Right here on the Yorkshire Wolds, the ash timber are common with inexperienced and nice noticed woodpeckers, robins, and redstarts. Treecreepers additionally wish to nest below the peeling bark.
Shelter even after they’ve died
I’ve discovered that even when timber have died, they proceed to help life. Elm is a really laborious wooden and plenty of timber proceed to face lengthy after being pronounced useless. Their trunks stay a function of the panorama for years, like skeletons, their bark slowly peeling away and the naked wooden beneath bleaching within the solar.
On the farm the place I grew up, in close by Givendale, I bear in mind one dying elm with a big hole burr on it. A pair of little owls returned there 12 months after 12 months to lift brood after brood. One other dying elm I knew of was dwelling to a pair of barn owls and the roots of one more grew to become dwelling to a stoat household.
Reworking an outdated elm right into a hen field
Some years in the past I got here throughout an unlimited fallen elm throughout a chilly winter stroll. I cherished the furrowed, silver of the bleached bark. There was a bit of it that had a worn entrance gap and this was stuffed with character. Impressed by the gnarled shapes within the bark, I made a decision the hole trunk would make a superb prop for a hen to perch on in a portray.
To influence a wild hen to pose on, I hit on the concept of turning it into an enormous nest field. And so, with the assistance of a pal, I hoisted it into the again of his truck and took it again to my workshop.
I spent most of that Christmas sawing the perimeters of the jagged trunk to show it right into a usable hen field. It was an enormous piece of timber, measuring 5ft excessive and 5ft throughout. I trimmed the highest and backside off in order that I may put a roof and a flooring on. Nevertheless it was nonetheless too massive to manoeuvre and so earlier than trying to hoist every half into place, I sliced it down the center like an Easter egg,
Tawny owl chick, authentic portray
I needed to place the elm field into the fork of a sycamore tree that, paradoxically, grows near the stay elm tree close to my home. So I constructed a platform and positioned this within the sycamore for the field to relaxation on. It was too heavy to carry, so I used a pulley connected to my automobile to winch it up into place. As my spouse drove the automobile slowly backwards, I stood on a ladder guiding it up. Then I put the 2 halves again collectively as soon as it was up.
Owls transfer in
The next 12 months a pair of tawny owls nested on this grand outdated elm nest field. And the field has been used yearly since by totally different barn owls, kestrels, and tawny owls. I’ve painted these hen’s portraits posed on the entrance of the field many times.
Including expertise
It wasn’t lengthy earlier than I added cameras to the field in order that I may watch the birds as they reared their younger inside. One summer time, seven barn owl chicks have been raised inside it and I used to be in a position to watch them from the second they hatched to their first, hesitant flights. Watch the clip under to see all of them dozing off contained in the nest field within the heat of a summer time’s afternoon.
Elm’s guests embody smaller birds, stoats & squirrels
One autumn, my surveillance digicam revealed a complete of seven totally different species visiting the elm stump over the course of every week. I watched transfixed as my recording performed again a tawny owl, a pair of kestrels, a barn owl, a blue tit, and a treecreeper – which climbed steadily up, after which down, the stump, combing the rutted floor of the bark for bugs.
And these have been simply the hen species. The digicam additionally caught a stoat investigating the field and a squirrel climbing awkwardly, one again leg stiffly following the opposite, via the opening.
Symbiosis contained in the elm tree trunk
The connection between the wildlife species sustained by my decaying elm trunk is fascinating. The method is symbiotic. First, the owls or kestrels nest inside, elevating their younger. Right here they cough up pellets made up of the undigested skeleton and fur of the voles that they eat.
The garments’ moth, Endrosis Sarcitrella, or white-shouldered moth, then lays its eggs inside these pellets. When the larvae emerge they feed on the fibres of vole fur earlier than crawling up the perimeters of the tree hole, to pupate within the crevices.
Right here the larvae change into fodder for treecreepers, wrens, blue and nice tits, serving to to maintain these small hen species via the winter months. The decaying pellets additionally entice flies, which in flip draw spiders that entice small hen species.
The cycle of life
And so the cycle continues. It’s heartening to suppose that my outdated elm trunk, years after I discovered it and took it dwelling to make use of as a backdrop for my work, and probably a long time after it really died, continues to be giving life to so many creatures. I’m so impressed with it I’ve named it the ‘tree of life’.
Woodpecker at Fotherdale, restricted version artwork print
Making extra hen containers from outdated tree trunks
The success of this outdated elm field led to additional initiatives. and I now have greater than 10 containers constructed from elderberry, elm, beech, ash, elm, and sycamore. I’ve seen the birds of prey select totally different containers to nest in annually. Lately I’ve additionally tailored smaller branches into nest containers for stoats and weasels and one in all my newest work includes a stoat peering out from the doorway of a hole ash log, see under.
Stoat: Sitting Fairly, restricted version artwork print
Woodpecker & wren drill holes within the field
Every field has a digicam both hidden inside or skilled on to the skin relaying stay photographs of the key lifetime of its occupant again to my studio. A field I constructed from an ash stump was a favorite with the kestrels residing right here this 12 months. However a terrific noticed woodpecker hammered a dent into it and now a wren is making it worse and threatening to drill proper via. However this can be a nuisance I’m completely satisfied to stay with since I get to observe these birds carefully by way of my cameras.
It’s good to know that timber by no means cease sustaining the residing. And that my particular hen containers go on to present outdated and fallen timber a brand new lease of life – each as hen containers and as pure props in my work, movies, and pictures.
