Hawthorn lining one of the tees


The greenkeeping staff


I would say ‘Golf’s Gift to Nature’ is an appropriate one for Druids Heath, and Jim Lake and his team should get some kind of award for their efforts


berries in the original, retained farmland hedgerows but on the invertebrates of the turf. Each year, a pair of mistle thrushes nest in the wood and rear their brood, mainly on earthworms. Little owl and tawny owl also depend on earthworms to supplement their meat diet. Then there are moles, which burrow out from the wood and smaller planted copses into the fairways in their relentless quest for worms, so that their hills become a problem on the turf and they have to be trapped to keep the customers happy. The resident tawny owls take moles, but not in large enough numbers to keep them in check. For a short while, the club hired a


professional mole catcher, until Jim soon realised he could save money by buying some traps and setting up one of his lads to study the mole’s mind, an initiative that should surely have pleased the club’s treasurer. There’s no end to the value of those species of earthworm that come to the surface at night to pair up, for it is these that are taken by foxes. I have seen a pile of several hundred earthworms that had


been regurgitated by an ‘eyes bigger than her stomach’ vixen collecting food for her newly weaned cubs. In February 2007, golfers on the 6th


were surprised to encounter three red deer stags sheltering among the trees. The adventurous animals had probably come from a herd on a nearby common, itself not a great distance from Cannock Chase. They spent several days grazing on the course, and didn’t cause the damage that rogue horses sometimes inflict when they break through the fencing of their adjacent paddocks. Evidence of former deer visits can be seen on the antler-scored and resined bark of pines, showing where the animals have rubbed the velvet off their antlers. What do the golfers think of all this effort to increase so-called biodiversity? I really don’t know, because I am not a golfer. However, I do know two golfers who really appreciate it, and one of them carries his binoculars with him. I will let Laurence Gale have the last word: “We all appreciate the subliminal or conscious feeling of well being that comes from a course sat within beautiful


surroundings.”


That says it all for Druids Heath. Surfing the internet, I came across a golf course in Ireland also called Druids Heath, and one of the testimonials read: ‘Nature’s Gift to Golf ’. I would say ‘Golf ’s Gift to Nature’ is an appropriate one for Druids Heath in Aldridge, and Jim Lake and his team should get some kind of award for their efforts.


Two young kestrels take a rest on the edge of a bunker


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