Woodpeckers and butterflies

When we arrived at the wood yesterday, I saw a black and white bird take off from near our camp. At first I thought it was a Magpie, as we do get them there occasionally, but when it landed in a nearby oak I realised it was a Greater Spotted Woodpecker! Sadly the light wasn't that great, but I still got some of my best photos yet of this bird, and it was great to see one down in the coppiced area by our camp - a first since we bought the wood.

Later on the sun came out, and with it the butterflies. I was pleased to get my first photo of a Red Admiral this Spring, and also this was the first time we've been able to take a photo of one at the bottom of the hill in Sweep Wood, as the coppicing has let the light in:

They're not the only things flying around though - there's swarms of St Marks Flies up the hill in Sweep Wood (thanks to Patrick Roper for help with the ID):

The dangling bits are just their legs:

Here's a male one landed:

Their name comes from the fact that they're often seen around St Mark's day - 25th April.

Also in Sweep Wood are lots of flowers, including some new ones since the coppicing. The Bluebell flowers are fading now, and the seed pods are swelling:

But they are being replaced by some white flowers:

Not sure on the ID for these, any comments welcome!

The Foxgloves are preparing to flower, though I expect we still have a few weeks to wait:

There's also this new one, which I think is a Stitchwort, but not sure about that:

The Buttercup is another new arrival, though I guess it will only last until the trees close canopy in a couple of years:

The plum tree at the top of the hill finished flowering a while ago, and a strange thing has happened - not only has it been growing fruit, it's also grown some strange pods, which are now going a bit mouldy. Any comments on what's going on here would be appreciated! Here's a pod next to a fruit:

Some fruits and a pod on their own:

and here's the inside of them:

Back in our camp, the pears on one of the fruit trees are looking more conventional:

The trees in the part of Sweep Wood we coppiced in 2009/10 are doing really well now. The trees we singled to grow on as possible future standards have a lot of side-growth, now there's more light. Here's a Sweet Chestnut and an Ash:

and even the Hazel that got chewed by rabbits last year is having another go at growing:

The whole area is really looking amazing now, a bit of a low-level jungle!

Mike

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Photos from the High Weald Landscape Trail

This post is pretty much all photos, in the order I took them walking along the High Weald Landscape Trail last weekend, starting on the Rye side of the river Rother and finishing near Tenterden - about 8.5 miles. There's some nice ones of a Buzzard soaring near the middle, and some pretty woodland at the end.

My Dad took this one:

Mike

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Building a culvert in the woods

Today I put in a culvert in the wood with my Dad's help. It's in the track to Sweep Wood, at a spot where a seasonal stream flows across the path, which in the past has made it difficult to get past there on foot sometimes, and doesn't help when we need to drive in there to collect logs either.

We started by digging a trench for the pipe I'd bought:

Then where it crosses the tyre tracks, we dug out a pit on either side:

In each pit we put some bricks stacked up, with other rubble round them:

then laid reinforced concrete slabs over the top:

At each side is a small retaining structure made of bricks:

and on top of the bricks we put some heavy Alder logs to hold the soil back:

On the upstream side there's also a sump, to collect silt:

Here it is all covered over, and ready to walk and drive over:

While we were there, we also cut a drainage channel through the bank at the side, next to where a lot of water collected in the winter:

and used the soil from that to raise the level of the lowest part of the ride a little bit:

Hopefully these two changes will make the path easier for us to use, and for all the walkers using the footpath as well.

We did one other little job while we were there - cutting some slices out of one the the Sycamores we felled in January:

My Dad's going to take them and hopefully make small tables from them...

Mike

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