Earlier this week I dropped Tracy's car off for it's MOT in Rye Harbour, and walked back home. As it was sunny and -6C, I thought I'd take the route along the edge of the nature reserve to get some photos of the sunrise. So here they are...
The coppicing is now finished for this winter. Here's how it looked from one end back in October:
The same view now is:
It's a good feeling to have all that wood stacked up and seasoning:
Here's a few more views of the finished work:
What's a bit odd is that Bluebell shoots have been showing for a couple of weeks now:
Presumably this is due to the mild December, hopefully they won't be too badly affected now that the weather has turned more normal for winter. Looking back at past photos, it seems the shoots are about 4 weeks ahead of normal.
Still, I expect the birds have benefited from the mild weather, I saw this Nuthatch discovering food on a dead oak tree recently:
The tame pheasants are of course spoilt by easy access to seed falling from our bird feeder - here's the male, strutting around a few days ago:
Once the tame female realised there was food on offer, she sprinted over to join him:
I've posted photos of the tame pheasants in our woodland before:
But recently I also made a video of them so you can see how they behave - I took this using my mobile phone, so that gives you an idea of how close they are, no zoom lens involved:
The coppicing is generally proceeding according to plan, at least on the few days with nice weather! Here's a couple of shots of the progress so far:
As we've progressed through this area, we've discovered a new wallow the wild boar are using:
I gather from people who've lived here longer than us that there has been a spring here for some time, so it seems the boar have located it and turned it into bathing facilities!
Meanwhile, on a day when it was too windy to fell trees safely, I decided it was finally time to repair the roof of a shelter we built back in 2008. Although it's not used to actually store anything, and only has a roof, not walls, it's still useful on camping trips and when Tracy has her class up there, to shelter stuff from the rain or the sun. The sticks I'd nailed on to make a roof in 2008 had started to rot, so the first step was to get all of them off:
The new roof was going to be made using sweet chestnut offcuts from Rich's sawmill:
First though, I peeled the bark off them to improve durability, and used a chainsaw to cut them to length and taper the ends a bit where necessary:
Then it was a case of drilling holes and nailing the offcuts onto the frame to form a new roof:
I think you'll agree that this finished product:
looks a lot better than the original one did in 2008:
The final step was to reinstall the tarp to keep the rain out:
Now it's ready to serve campers and schoolchildren alike next summer!
The weather has been a bit stormy recently, with wind and rain making working in the woods at best unattractive and at worst risky, but there have been a few glimpses of the sun in between.
I've been making reasonable progress on the coppicing, considering how little time I've actually been up there cutting:
There was even a bit of frost one morning!
Back over near our camp, we've started filling the bird feeder regularly again. The birds empty it over the course of 48 hours, so when they notice me arrive they usually turn up and wait for me to fill it:
Then as soon as I'm done they get in there as fast as they can...
The visitors included Coal tits...
Great tits...
Blue tits...
and sometimes several of them at once!
Of course, the small birds spill some of the seeds, which provides food for the Pheasants. A male and female turned up, and given how tame they were I suspect they may have been around last winter as well.
Finally, over near where I was coppicing, Tracy and I spotted a Buzzard down in a field, possibly finishing off a meal:
It was quite a long way off, and I tried getting closer for a better shot...
but sadly was noticed...
Anyway, I'm hoping to get some more Buzzard photos, as they've been around the woods a lot more over the past few months, and I've seen a pair of them soaring overhead.
Hoping for some drier weather in the coming weeks to get back up there to do some more work and photography...
