The dry weather has caused the Chestnut leaves to wither and the conkers are falling already. The unusual Turkish hazel next to the Coddenham centre has a large quantity of nut clusters that have already fallen. Some years trees such as Beech and Oak produce an unusual quantity of fruit and these are known as mast years. The Beech fruit in their case are known as “mast”. When parking in the surgery car park at Debenham I found I was parking on a carpet of Beech mast from a nearby tree! Certainly a mast year.

A dramatic event startled the residents of one of the terrace of houses near Crown corner sitting by their window, when a Kestrel grasping a Woodpigeon flew into their window! The tussle between the two birds continued in the road and the observers, fearing both birds would be run over, pulled the fighting pair into the passage nearby where the fight concluded. A real drama.

There seem to have been a considerable number of Bumble bees around this year with plenty of nectar for them to find before flowers began to wither. A resident of Greenhill was surprised to find, when they were moving their log pile, a nest of grass and moss containing tiny white eggs some of which had hatched into small white larvae. The nest was attended by a Bumble bee. On consulting Google, they found that Bumble bees normally hatch in the spring but in exceptional years they may have a second brood. They carefully covered the nest again so hopefully they will have more Bumble bees. This certainly is an exceptional year!

Brenda Hudson