Buds, birds and flowers in the woods

It's warming up a lot now (in the daytime at least), and this weekend we took advantage of the sunshine for a walk in the woods. There's loads of Spring flowers out now, like the Wood Anemone (all the following flower pics are from Sweep Wood):

the Lesser Celandine:

and of course the Primrose:

There's Daffodils too - I thought these were probably garden escapees, at the top of Sweep Wood, but there's one further down the hill too, which is odd:

What's particularly noticeable is how the strip in Sweep Wood that we coppiced this winter and last is really green as it gets so much light:

Compare this to a patch near our camp in Chestnut Coppice, which won't get much sunlight for a few weeks yet:

Not to be outdone by the flowers, some of the trees are in bloom too, like this Plum at the top of Sweep Wood:

Our own fruit trees are budding, like this pear:

and the wild Apple:

Some are a bit further behind, like this Sycamore:

While others already have leaves, like Elder:

and Hawthorn:

Meanwhile the willow has its catkins on:

With all these flowers coming out, it's not surprising to see bees around:

and also butterflies, like this Comma:

There was even a Ladybird sunning itself:

The birds are very busy right now, singing to mark out their territory. Here's a Robin, a Blackbird, a Blue Tit and a Pigeon:

Oops, I guess someone ate the Pigeon!

Last but not least, we found a huge bone. I assume someone's dog dropped it, unless we have cows in the wood...

Mike

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An adventure in the woods

Yesterday was a bit of an adventure in the woods, more for our cockatiels Pete and Tom than for us (though we had a problem at the end of the day...). For the first time since we've owned the wood we took our birds up there to see how they coped with it. The goal is to see if we could take them when we camp, as we can't leave them at home on their own for more than one night, unless someone checks on them.
They had to stay in their travel cage of course - at home they're free to fly around. They were pretty calm though, and settled in after a few minutes.
though there was plenty for them to keep an eye on up in the trees...
They chatted a bit with a blackbird who came by:
and we discovered what happens to the hundreds of caterpillars that fall out of the oak trees every day...
There were also plenty of pheasants around, I got a few photos of these two scrapping:
I had a walk around to see how things were growing. The "wildlife corridor" we coppiced in 2008/9 is thickening out nicely at a low level:
You can't see it in those pictures, but the edges are becoming dense with plants and flowers that were not present two years ago, so that's working out well. We expect to come along here and cut the regrowth again in winter 2011/2012, after three years growth.

Out in the wayleave there's loads of blossom on the brambles now:
which is good news for butterflies now, and for us when we eat some of the blackberries in a few months...

I also saw this yellow iris of some sort growing near the bottom of the wayleave:
So what was our bit of the adventure then? Well, when we got ready to come home, the clutch broke in the land rover! Fortunately our friend Jenny gave Tracy and the birds a lift home, and I managed to start the landy with it already in gear and drive down to the road to be rescued:
It's now waiting at the garage to be fixed over the next week....

Mike

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Woodland snow scenes

With all the snow there's been over the past week, there's been some great opportunities to get pictures in the wood, so here they are.

The wayleave:
The footpath, running along the border of Smock and Sail Wood:
Various views in Chestnut Coppice:
And over in Sweep Wood, we got pictures of the sign on Friday and Sunday - look at the difference!
The tracks are deep with snow - up to six inches in places:
We did a lot of bird feeding:
We waited around one of the feeding stations, and were quickly rewarded by ravenous birds - I got pictures of a Great Tit, a female Blackbird and a Nuthatch:
The snow is slowly thawing now, but we'll keep feeding the birds until its gone.

Mike

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