Steve gave us lots of useful advice on designing a management plan that will work for parts of the wood and the wood as a whole - we have some work to do now...
One thing that's clear now is our plan for this winter's work - we'll be coppicing a few metres at the edge of the rides and footpaths that run along and through our wood, creating "scalloped" areas at intervals as mini-clearings and to break up any wind-tunnel effect. We'll also be avoiding damage to the occasional interesting trees along the way, such as a few youngish oaks (very pleased to see these!), hornbeam and holly - simply because they're different to everything else growing there, so add to the diversity. We may also find a few chestnut stems we can leave to grow on as standards, maybe increasing their nut production...
After everyone had gone, I wandered off on my own with the camera. The wood is still full of birds and stuff, you just can't see them as easily because of the leaves. I managed to get a couple of shots of a blue tit though:
I saw a coal tit too, plenty of different butterflies and a huge dragonfly, though it wouldn't sit still for a picture! It's amazing how much you see when you stop and stand still for a few minutes...Most exciting though was getting to the style from the wayleave onto the public footpath and seeing a fox! It was nearly 100 metres away and about to disappear round the bend in the path, so I didn't have time to get a good photo as I had the camera set up for the sunny wayleave, not the shady wood, but here's a blurry cropped image of the fox:
We thought they were in the wood, but this is the first one we've seen. Cool!Anyway, got to go, there's a lot to do, as we've just rented a garage out the back of our flats (sharing with a neighbour), so there's stuff to be sorted and moved...
Mike
Wow - that's a great fox shot, blurred, but you got it !!
ReplyDeleteWe've been trying to increase diversity and wildlife too and if you've any tips... :-)
Here's where we are so far, although we don't spend as much time as you seem to do in the woods so this is taking ages:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hardworkinghippy/sets/72157594164870676/
Cool, you've done a lot of work! Sounds like you're already doing the right stuff with ponds/streams. The main thing we've been told is about getting light down to the ground level, through regular coppicing and also coppicing on a relatively short cycle along ride edges.
ReplyDeleteMike