Amazing swarm of tens of thousands of Starlings

I found this video lurking on my computer, taken a few years ago at Otmoor nature reserve, near Oxford, and thought it was worth posting.

It's a swarm of an estimated 50,000 starlings, who roost in the reed beds there over the winter. Some of what seems to be background noise in the video is actually the noise of the starlings flying over. There's also a little rain of droppings as they pass - we had umbrellas with us!

Note: it's worth switching the video to the best quality - after starting it playing, click where it says "360p" at the bottom right of the player, and change it to "480p".

Mike

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Spring is on the way...

It really is! Look, bluebells coming up where we've just finished coppicing:

and Lords and Ladies (or Wild Arum or Cuckoo Pint, depending on what you call it) too:

Dog's Mercury as well:

and also Honeysuckle:

with even the most dead-looking vines are coming to life:

Now the coppicing is all done, I've turned the photos I took most days we were there into a short time-lapse video of the coppicing. It's weird to watch, as the wood has changed so much as we cut the trees down. If I can remember to take enough, maybe I'll make another time lapse video of it all growing back...

Mike

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Clearing up the brash after felling the Sycamore

Now we're both back at our 'desk jobs', we're making slow progress finishing up this last job in the woods... Fortunately, we had help last Sunday - Lee, a carpenter, came to see where his raw material comes from, and was a big help clearing up the brash and logs from the Sycamore.

It's a slow job...

But we're getting there... Here's Lee having a go at splitting logs using a maul and then wedges:

We're not far off done now, there's three big butts on the ground now:

This weekend should finish the job for now, weather permitting...

Mike

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Felling three large Sycamore - video

This really is the last job this winter... These trees were bigger than I've trained to fell, and as they were also near our neighbour's barn we paid our friend Tim to come and fell them.

We had a bit of a mix up on who was bringing what kit, so a bit of improvisation was required, but Tim's great at that kind of thing. We used our Tirfor 516 winch on one of the trees, in conjunction with wedges and a sledgehammer. The others came down more easily, just with chainsaw and the wedges.

Here's the video of it all. You'll see I had to make a fairly sharp exit after operating the winch, although once the tree was down I saw I could have remained where I was, but it's not the kind of risk you take!

Here's a few still pictures to go with it:

As you can see, they were pretty big trees, and we need to go back later to finish clearing them up. They had rotten parts at their centres, so it was definitely good to get them down, given the proximity to the barn. We'll probably get several cubic metres of logs out of them, so they'll be put to good use.

Mike

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Working in a different woodland

This weekend I went over to visit our friends Rich and Penny and work in their woodland. We're actually doing a swap - Rich will be coming to help me put some solar PV panels on our roof in a couple of months - but it was also fun to go and see their wood and work in a different setting.

Part of their wood is a bit hillier than ours, and has more of a stream in it, enough to warrant a foot bridge (under construction):

and a bridge to drive over too:

It was along the side of the stream we were working, using a tirfor winch to pull some large chestnut away from the stream as they were felled.

We had a nice spot for lunch each day, and it didn't even rain on us!

Under another tarp, I saw a nice shave horse Rich had made, and a lovely Hazel chair Penny had done as well:

We should be back in our own wood just for a day in the next week or two, to deal with those two big Sycamore near the neighbouring barn. We've actually just started burning the Sycamore from a year ago, having exhausted our 2-year seasoned supply. Next year I think we'll get right through the winter on 2-year old wood though.

Mike

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