Yesterday we hosted a butterfly ID day in our wood, run by Steve Wheatley from Butterfly Conservation and attended by about 10 SWOG (Small Woodland Owners Group) members.
We started with Steve giving us a talk about butterflies, and why identifying them and keeping centralised records is important. He needs lots of people like us to note down what we see and send records to him periodically, so that they can keep track of species numbers and use the information in scientific research and also in planning permission issues and other stuff like that. He also gave us some tips on how to ID butterflies, including the differences between the various white species, and using knowledge on which months the butterflies can be seen to help narrow down the choices.
We took a walk along the wayleave and also along our wildlife corridor, stopping at various points to talk about what we were seeing.
There was patchy cloud, so it wasn't a perfect day for butterfly spotting, but we still saw quite a few. Here's the ones I got pictures of. A Peacock, looking a bit ragged:
A Speckled Yellow - actually a day-flying moth rather than a butterfly:
A Brimstone - this is the first time I have ever seen one of these land so I could take a picture! A shame it wouldn't spread its wings out, but at least I now know a potential spot to go and try again.
We also saw some other interesting things as we went around, such as this bird nest up a pylon. Any ideas what it might be?
and in the wildlife corridor, where we were felling just a few months ago, as well as several butterflies we found an adder, which had probably been basking in the sun:
It didn't like the attention, and slithered off to a hole in a coppice stump - it certainly seemed to know exactly where to go and hide!
Mike
Monday, 4 May 2009
SWOG Butterfly ID day
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
SWOG meeting near Ashford
As Tracy mentioned, we went to a Small Woodland Owners Group (SWOG) meeting at a wood near Ashford last Saturday. Tracy had of course done all the organising, though fortunately she had a team of helpers on the day. The wood itself was 176 acres, and very diverse.
The morning was a little damp, but that wasn't too bad as we were indoors (yes, this wood has an "indoors"!) having a talk from Peter Buckley on different woodland soil types and the species of tree that grow well in them.
After this we split up into groups and dispersed into the wood, each group with one or two forestry experts to answer questions.
By lunchtime the weather had brightened up considerably, and the afternoon was actually quite sunny.
There were various things to see during lunch, include the boar's skull we'd brought, and a display of different dormouse and other nests.
This is a dormouse nesting box - if you see one, DON'T look in it, as that's illegal unless you're a registered dormouse handler.
WoodlandsTV were there filming too, and David Rossney (who Tracy and I trained with) deliberately hung up a tree and demonstrated how to bring it down safely. (Here's my own post with similar info, which I learned from David)
All in all it was a good day, and everyone seemed to have fun and learn a lot. The next SWOG event is a butterfly ID day in May, being held in our own wood. Keep an eye on the SWOG Forum for news on it.
Mike
Friday, 6 February 2009
Restoring old pollards
Many ancient woodlands have old pollards - that need to be taken care of, so that they don't die.
Toby Allen has written an article for SWOG (Small woodland owners group) on how to deal with them, well worth a read!
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Ashburnham Place
We've just got back from a church weekend away, and I thought people might like to see some pictures of where it was, as the grounds were beautiful, even in winter. Its Ashburnham Place, if you want to look it up. The photos are just from a mobile phone, so sorry if the quality's not what it normally is on our blog.
First, a few pics of the grounds in general, which include two lakes:
Below the lower lake is a stream with an old weir in it:
and alongside it are the rusting remains of an old ram pump, which I assume used to supply water to the house:
You can see the pipe the pump used to feed behind the remains of the old waterwheel:
Apparently there's some ideas about restoring some of this old machinery - I'd like to see it again if they do...
OK, now on to the woods! Here's a sweet chestnut way older than the ones we have in our own wood:
We've singled a few of the coppice stools we cut this winter, to let them grow on as standards, but it'll be decades before they're anything close to this one! Next, a giant redwood:
OK, I know it's only a baby one...
An oak with epicormic growth:
and a variety of trees (mostly oak) that are dead or dying, resulting in a diverse habitat:
That's all for now, I've got a busy week ahead with a few trips to London for work, and Tracy wil be busy with SWOG, which is expanding into Wales now.
Mike
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Now that Mike has helped me sort out my 'I forgot my password' problem, I can post again!
Just to remind those who read our blog and who might be interested...
I co ordinate the Small Woodland Owners Group - SWOG that is sponsored by www.woodlands.co.uk
It is free to join, take a look at our site
www.woodlands.co.uk/swog
Tracy
Monday, 27 October 2008
Small Woodland Owners Group
The small woodland owners group are meeting again!
The event is free of charge and open to any interested people.
For more information see the swog website...
www.woodlands.co.uk/swog
8th November 2008, at the Woodland Enterprise Centre, Flimwell, East Sussex.
Including:
David and Sheila from Batbox:
Bat types and habitat
Echo location
Foreign bats
Legislation
Leaflets and further info about bats
Info about Bat Boxes
And real live bats to look at too!
Patrick Roper on
‘To coppice or not to coppice: some conservation controversies’
Patrick has worked as a consultant ecologist since 1993 and works closely with the
Woodland Trust on management plans. Patrick manages the Rare Species Inventory for
the Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre in a professional capacity and has appeared on
wildlife programmes on radio and television on many occasions including the national
2007 and 2008 Springwatch on BBC television.
His most amazing feat is that he has studied the Wild Service tree, Sorbus torminalis, for
over 30 years!!
Fiona Tooth will chat with us about
‘Bang to Rights’: Rights and responsibilities of owning woodland and Q & A
Monday, 15 September 2008
Bentley Wood Fair 2008
Tracy spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Bentley Wood Fair, as she was working on the stalls for SWOG and Woodnet. I went along for the Friday and Saturday as well to help out, and also have a look around (and buy some tools).
There were the usual displays of machinery, such as people sawmilling:
Plumpton college demonstrating various things, including a large log splitter
A Unimog
and outside the woodland area, stacks of shiny new kit:
I think my favourite bit is in the woods though:
There was a heavy horse team there again
and the Surrey Sussex Coppice Group had their usual collection of stalls in the far corner
There were some round wood structures:
and various ancient settlements: 
one of which had a clay-built bread oven:
This hut had a central fire, which was obvious by the smoke seeping through the roof. Can't have been a very pleasant place to live...
Out in the large field there was a lot of art and craft stuff. Particularly impressive were these remains of tree stumps that had been cleaned and carved entirely by hand. Apparently this one had taken three years of work:
However, one of the highlights for us was a bench made from the chestnut poles from our own wood, produced by J Martin Rustic Garden Furniture:
Mike
