Last weekday coppicing...

Today was the last day I have off work for coppicing - any other odds and ends we want to do will have to be done at weekends now, or possibly late afternoon as the days get longer. For now, the days are still short and cold, but sunny.
While we were working today we spent much of the time surrounded by a flock of Great Tits, and later on a Robin was following me around, just a couple of metres away, waiting for me to disturb the ground and wood to reveal his dinner. Here's a few photos of the Great Tits:

I was particularly fortunate in getting that last one - the bird took off just as I took the picture. Wish I'd had it on a faster shutter to avoid the motion blur...

Anyway, we were coppicing by the pond today, and very nearly finished it. The lower section is all done, here's a before and after picture (the difference in colour is because the first one was taken in a morning and the second in the later afternoon):
You'll see in the above photo that we've left one larger chestnut tree. This is hopefully to grow on to be a standard, and maybe yield some nuts one day...

Looking down from above the pond you can see a few stems on the left that still need cutting, and one stool on the right. Once these are done we think there'll be a lot more light coming down to the pond this summer, hopefully bringing even more life into this little area.
Just opposite the pond is an old ride leading into Sweep Wood (which my parents own). Now we've cut the coppice along the edge it's a bit more apparent:
Tomorrow we have some people visiting at the woods, and it looks like it's going to be a another sunny day for it.

Mike