Birmingham Business Park – The Most Established Business Park in the Midlands

Bird Life

The woodland walk is an ideal environment for many birds to nest and feed, a multitude of birds are catered for here, either within the trees or hedges providing natural nesting sites or via the 31 bird boxes we have placed around the site, we provide and maintain a landscape to be sympathetic to the bird life, ensuring berry’s are left on shrubs for food, and leaving nesting material available.

As such the Park is rich in many varieties of bird’s from the well known Robin to rarer breeds such as Goldcrest and Siskin.

Some of the birds you may see along the woodland walk include:
Goldfinch, Siskin, Robin, Blue Tit, Thrush, Goldcrest, Heron and Woodpecker

Plants

The Woodland walk is managed to promote natural flowers, in recent years we have aided this by planting foxgloves, oxeye daisy’s and Cowslips, we also sow an annual flower seed mix on the edge of the Woodland walk next to the gate by the road to give a blaze of colour through the Spring, Summer and Autumn. A careful balance of plant life is maintained to promote seasonal interest, habitats and food sources, the grass and natural meadow flowers are cut to the ground in late Autumn, bulbs are left to naturally drift and when they have finished flowering we leave them to allow there nutrients to return back into the bulb.

Plants and flowers are a key part of natures eco system, providing food, pollen, habitat and colour to the natural world, they also play a key role in our everyday lives, did you know; Recent studies have shown that grass is one of the best materials to offset carbon emissions.

80% of all medicinal drugs come from plants. There are approximately 352,000 different flowering plants in the world, currently 25% of these face extinction in the next 20years. The smallest flowering plant in the world is the Wolffia Angusta, its so small you can pass it through the eye of a sewing needle.

The largest flower in the Uk is said to have been grown at the Eden Project, the flower of the Titan Arum reached 2.97m tall. Around ¼ of the worlds land is covered in grassland.

Hedgerow

Hedges Our native hedgerows provide an important source of shelter and food for wildlife, in the past 50 years nearly half of the native hedgerows in the UK have disappeared. The hedges within the woodland walk give a screen and offer a corridor for animals and insects to thrive.

Our hedges are all native species containing;
Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Holly, Rose, Elder and Buckthorn

This variety of planting gives a great range of food from berries and flowers and provides a nesting site for birds such as The Thrush and Robin.

In 2011 we installed a series of new hedgerows in the woodland walkway with some 3,000 small shrubs and trees planted, staked and protected from rabbits, over the coming years the hedge will flourish and come to provide a strong backdrop for the Woodland walkway. During the time of planting this new hedgerow we also “laid” the older hedgerow located on the Northern Woodland walk, this hedge was nearing 40 years old, this traditional style of hedge creation used previously to aid in agricultural stock control will ensure the hedgerow continues to present a welcoming place for our wildlife

Log Piling

Along the walk we have placed 8 Log habitat piles all created from timber following essential tree maintenance on Birmingham Business Park. Each pile has been created by submerging logs into the ground, and securing them in place with stakes and wire, the piles have also been planted with Ivy, which, in time, will grow over the piles to provide increased provisions for further animals, insects, amphibians and birdlife to inhabit them.

Plenty of wildlife makes it’s home in decaying timber and other animals use it as a source of food, wood falls naturally in the wild, and many species have adapted to use this habitat, obviously leaving wood scattered about presents many issues in a modern and busy environment such as the business park, as such these man made piles have been created to simulate a natural occurrence in the wild. Many species inhabit log piles, below are a few you may see on your walk;
Violet Ground Beetle, Stag Beetle, Common Toad, Harvestman Spider, Earwigs and House Mice.

Trees

As you stroll through the woodland walk, you will be walking beneath the canopies of our Oak tree’s, the trees range between 80-100 years old, and where planted by the original landowner before the idea of Business Parks had even been considered!

As with all things of a certain age and to ensure the trees are kept in good order, we carry out regular maintenance to the trees on the Business Park, the trees are also surveyed on a by-annual basis by a qualified Arbourist, this can lead to the occasional dead limb being removed, or damage from wildlife and high winds calling for repair, due to this level of management the Oak trees within the Woodland walk will last for many more years to come.

We also have a number of Horse Chestnut trees in the Walk, which provide the site occupiers with an abundance of Conkers in the Autumn. The Latin names of the trees are;
Oak – Quercus Robur
Horse Chestnut – Aesculus hippocastanum

Species List

We have a number different species of animals residing in and round the park's lake including but not limited to:
Carp, Golden Orfe, Rudd, Herons, Geese and Moorhens

In addition to this there are a number of plants such as:
Iris, Bulrush, Elodea, Water Lily and Storwort