Summer camping in the woods

Well, the British Summer has been wetter than usual, but this week we managed to get a couple of days off to coincide with some sunshine, and went to camp in the woods for a night...

This was the first time we'd both been camping there since I got a new phone, so we took advantage of it to set up a solar-powered woodland wifi hotspot, so Tracy could use her ipod and keep up to date on facebook!

We had a great dinner, cooked mostly on the BBQ:

Using our own charcoal of course

Here's the end result, including sweetcorn, chicken kebabs and halloumi cheese!

Of course, for taking photos of food I should really be using a new iPhone 5... :-)

After dinner we settled down around the fire for the evening...

As usual on a first night sleeping in the woods, we woke up early. As it was sunny, I wandered around getting some photos of the sun coming up...

Later in the morning we went to watch the wildlife. There were several flocks of a variety of small birds moving through the wood, though it's hard to get photos of them at this time of year, due to the leaves on the trees. I managed to catch this Robin briefly:

and then got several of a Treecreeper preening:

I also got these pictures, which at first I had thought were of the treecreeper too, but on closer examination I think they might be something else, though I'm not sure what...

Lots of insects around too, like this Red Admiral butterfly:

A Small White:

A Silver Y moth (thanks to Heather for the ID)

Loads of dragonflies:

and lots of bumble bees too:

When we were packing up the tent, we also rescued this cricket(?) from getting squashed:

and I found this weird insect, which looks like a bit of algae off a tree, trying to eat me:

And finally, insects are of course food for spiders...

Mike

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Springtime flowers and wildlife

At last, the wood anemones are in full bloom!
That picture's from our friend's wood on the other side of the wayleave. Here's one from ours, near the pond, where we coppiced just over a year ago - there's new flowers arrived - dandelions:
There's other promising developments too, like lots of thistles, seeded from the single thistle we had last year I assume.
And a mystery plant we haven't identified yet. We'll probably have to wait for it to flower, unless anyone knows it straight away?
The area we coppiced in 2007/8 is beginning to look green again:
although there were still plenty of dead leaves from the autumn to camouflage this Purple Thorn moth while it rested:
Butterflies were busy in the same part of our wood too, including several Peacocks:
There's other insects out as well now:
and with the insects come the birds that eat them, such as this Treecreeper:
and this Great Tit
A surprise in the wayleave was to see some Sparrows hiding in the brambles, as they're normally living nearer to people.
Back to insect-eaters, we saw this lizard near our camp as well. You'll see it's in the process of shedding its skin:

And finally, how are the trees getting on? Here's some Hazel:
Some Willow:
and some Birch:
Just inside our entrance we found a few self-seeded Birch that have been growing since we coppiced there. Very please to see this natural regeneration going on:
That's all for now. Hopefully we'll visit again this weekend as things are changing so fast in the wood right now!

Mike

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More signs of Spring

I'm in Cornwall right now, for work, but I happen to have an internet connection and some pictures I took at the woods on Sunday of the new evidence of Spring coming in the woods...

The first picture isn't about Spring though, it's about repairing the track. We've done a bit of repair over the past few months, but we were pleased to turn up on Sunday and find that one of the other owners has joined in as well, bringing up some crushed hardcore to fill the holes in:
Anyway, once we got up to the woods we had lunch, during which we heard a noisy bird up in the top of an oak tree. It was hard to get a picture but I managed a tolerable one - a Greater Spotted Woodpecker:
We knew these guys were around, but it's great to see one and improve our skills at ID'ing their call and how they look while flying.

There were lots of other birds around too, such as the usual collection of Blue, Great and Coal tits:The Coal Tit didn't hang around for long:
But the Blue Tits were very busy in the birch trees - it looks like they're eating the buds:
Someone's also eating buds up in the oak trees - we didn't see who, but the evidence was there:
The other interesting bird we saw was a Treecreeper - only the second time I've got a photo of one:OK, on to vegetation...

The birch we coppiced at the sides of the path back in November are now "weeping" as the sap starts to rise:I guess there'll be epicormic growth starting soon on these. There's buds already opening on young sycamore in Sweep Wood:and the willow in the wayleave looks like it's covered in cotton wool:Also in Sweep Wood is hawthorn:Lords and Ladies:Nettles:
and the whole woodland floor is looking pretty green:
Two last things to mention. A mole track (well, the evidence of its tunnel):
and coppicing where Grist Wood meets the road - I think this was done by the electricity company in preparation for a new cable being put in:
That's all for now. We *hope* to get to the wood at the weekend, but there's moving house to do as well...

Mike

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