The Tawny Owls.......

The Reds....Crow Wood is a mix of both Sweet Chestnut plantation dating we think from around 1850 and Pine trees planted in the 1950s as a cash crop. In amongst the chestnuts are a few mature oaks and lots of Silver Birch trees. The most spectacular tree in our wood is the one we call Big Red. Big Red is a Coast Cedar (Sequoia sempervirens to give it its Latin name) and a native of the forests of the American North West. We do not know its history or why it was planted but it is in the region of 100 feet high and probably over 100 years old. The species were brought back to England as seedlings in the 19th Century, when they became very popular as specimen trees. 
This variety of Sequoia is very hardy and seems to like the UK climate - it certainly likes our wood. Unusually amongst evergreens, the species will grow again if coppiced and its thick spongy bark means it can survive forest fires, indeed the Latin name sempervirens means "ever living".

Big Red close up in late afternoon light showing its red spongy bark

Big Red has survived many a storm including the 1987 hurricane

Redwood trees hold both pollen and cones, these are the  pollen "flowers"

A young Redwood, now about 8 years old and growing rapidly - it has got a lot of growing to do still to beat the world's biggest Coast Cedar, which has reached 379 feet in California's Redwood National Park

Over the years we have planted a few more Redwoods as we like them so much and now we have a least ten growing in various stages of development. We have planted another three close to Big Red itself, so in many years time there will be a grove of them, soaring skyward......that will be quite a sight and quite a legacy.

And this is Little Red, planted in 2005 and already 25' high, it forms part of the grove around Big Red.