Owls return to Savages Wood

Report from Sara Messenger, Member of the Three Brooks Nature Conservation Committee (from July/August edition)

Well maybe just the one owl.  But as owls go she is a mighty fine one!

Our reserve already boasts some benches carved by the engaging and very talented chainsaw artist Andy O’Neil, including the half apple at the community orchard (photo far right) and the snail at the bottom of the tump path, all carved from single pieces of sweet chestnut.  I have also long been an admirer of his other works that can be found dotted around the nearby Stoke Park amongst other places. So when, thanks to Covid, the group found themselves with an underspend of our Bradley Stoke Town Council grant, a plan was hatched. Very cheekily Andy was contacted and I said “I appreciate that you don’t usually work this way but what could you do for £660.20p?”  I feel possibly it was the 20p that swayed him and Andy agreed to see what he could do!  We already had an oak in Savages Wood that had died and SGC had made ‘safe’.  It was an uninspiring sight and, as it turned out, not that safe as the roots were all rotted and it was top heavy making it liable to come down. Andy came up with a plan to lower the height and suggested an owl on top, he also generously agreed to repair the apple bench, all within our budget.

Fast forward to 6th June 2023 and I was privileged to meet Andy on site to watch the transformation begin. Starting with the largest of his 4 chainsaws (well you can never have too many can you?) and having borrowed his granddaughter’s rope swing to secure the tree, he very quickly reduced its height, with the remaining trunk being left in the hope he can at some point carve this into a bench. He then swiftly removed the outer levels of the tree to get to the hard wood at its centre, this was followed by a few wax crayon lines and a few minutes of standing back to decide on which direction she should face. After a quick consultation with locals Neil & Barrie, we all agreed that she should actually face the opposite direction to our original plan, as this way as you came up the path and turned the corner, there she is, beautifully framed between the trees and gazing down at you.

Andy quickly ‘blocked’ the wood and got back to work as I watched while nonchalantly leaning on a tree, although I did feel as though I should have had a Gauloises in my hand.  For what seemed like a long time the wood stubbornly remained as ‘blocks’, you had an idea of what it was to become but it remained just that, an idea, an outline and then he cleared off just a couple of inches on the right of her head and suddenly she was no longer an idea but she was an owl, still a little rough around the edges but now she existed. It was like watching the reflection on a still pond become an entity in its own right and take flight and I feel very privileged to have been there at the moment her soul emerged.

Although I had to leave shortly after, I did find the time to give some off cuts to young children for them to draw on their own owls, along with the suggestion that they don’t make noises like a mouse or the owl may nibble them up! 

My name at Brownies is Eagle Owl although it’s often pronounced as ‘Evil Owl’ and I’m beginning to understand why, although I wasn’t the one who gave the owl her distinctive colouring with a blow torch!

She has as yet no name, although she does have the number 617 down by her foot. This isn’t the number of carvings Andy has done but the number of species found on the reserve during the 36 hour BioBlitz we hosted back in 2014. Should you wish to visit her yourself she can be found approximately 30 meters in from the gate behind the leisure centre.

Andy is a local chap who used to be a graphic designer and then a tree surgeon but who has now been carving for 15 years. Although he can turn his hand, or saw, to most things his favourite subject is British wildlife, something that he has been passionate about since he was a boy. When pressed for his favourite carvings he said the ones at Riverside in Nailsea, the old cedar tree at Stoke Lodge and the king at the entrance at Yate, pictures of which I believe you can find on his Instagram account. 

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