Footprints in the snow

The view out the window this morning was:
We drove to the wood and parked at the bottom of the wayleave, which had a thin covering of snow:As we walked up we were keeping an eye out for animal tracks - I've tried to identify them, but feel free to correct me, as I'm not an expert tracker! The first one we saw was a fox, which had padded its way down the track:
I stopped for a quick photo along the footpath where we've been cutting:
Next up was a bird, possibly a blackbird from the size of the prints, and the fact that they were in pairs (from hopping?), but I'm not really sure:
and after that a pheasant, clearly walking rather than hopping like the smaller birds do:
Then we reached the wood
The first tracks here were human and dog:
It was interesting as we wandered round the wood looking at the footprints to see how many people had walked their dogs through our wood this morning, and where they'd come from.

Inside the wood we could see where a squirrel had been:
including up on the log piles:
and our of our outdoor "tables":
Before we did any work we walked around the wood - it's not often we get to see it in the snow.
Although today it did keep snowing for a while in the morning:That's all for now - I'll do another post tomorrow with some pictures of a robin, a goldcrest and wren.

Mike

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Team effort

And today's team was... Paul, Penny, Emily and Charlotte! They all came up for a day of coppicing, sitting round the fire and to be outside on a sunny winter's day.

But first, you need to see how cold it was. This was the view down the wayleave:
The sun was just coming up over the trees as we approached the wood:
and was making the frost sparkle in the trees:
As we walked in a wren was hopping from one pile of wood to another again, and this time I managed to actually get a photo. Not a very good one, but it's a start, and with patience I may get a better one.
I had a little walk around to try and get better pictures of the wren, but it was camera shy - always close, but hiding in the wood piles. I did see our neighbour Colin though, and had chance to chat with him briefly. He'd stayed the night, without getting hypothermia thankfully, but hadn't seen the boar, which is what he was really after.

Walking over to the area we're working in at present, Tracy noticed these tracks:
Any ideas? My guess is that they're hoof prints, but that as the ground was partly frozen only the edges left any impression.

Before long our coppicing team turned up, and after a hot drink they got to work in the area we're calling "dead oak corner", after the dead oak that's near it.
We'd been saving this area specially as it had a lot of trees that could be dealt with using a bowsaw and loppers, although Paul brought his chainsaw to use on the larger ones.

Not only did they come to help us coppice, but they also brought lunch!
We'll have to get them to visit again... :-)

Harvey and Rosy came too, but they didn't do any coppicing.
Even at lunchtime you had to be careful where you sat, as some of the benches were still thick with frost:
After lunch a fire was lit to burn up some of the brash - this area isn't near where we've been building the dead hedge, and there was also plenty of space for a fire.
By the end of the day the team had created a good clearing at the corner in the ride, and it's almost joined up to the cant we cut last winter now.
All in all, a good day, and many thanks to Paul, Penny Emily and Charlotte for their work!

We're up again tomorrow, hoping to to have a local retired forester visit, and also deliver some logs at the end of the day (taking advantage of the rock-hard ground to drive in to the wood we hope).

Mike

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Wet day in the woods

We were in the woods yesterday, despite the rain. We cycled up on the electric bikes, as we like to avoid driving up and down the track, if possible, when it's muddy. Of course, there are times that we have to drive up and, and the same applies to other owners in the wood, but every time we go on bike that's one less trip and a bit less damage.

While I was waiting for a friend to arrive I had a look at a stream in one of the other patches in the woods, that a friend of mine has just finished purchasing. With the rain in the past couple of days it was in full flow:

and further upstream it had spread to leave a wider wet area:
I'm somewhat envious - it would be nice to have a stream this big in our wood too!

On the wayleave it's easy to see the animal tracks now that the leaves have died back and the ground is wet. Here's one that's used by deer and boar:
When Ian arrived we had a walk around the wood, talking about the different things we're doing. He's just getting into forestry work, so we had a lot to chat about. We felled a few trees, giving Ian a chance to see some new techniques - though I took pains to remind him that I'm not a qualified instructor and he still needs to go on a training course! Here we are looking at how to remove a small tree that I'd deliberately hung up:
By the way, I wrote a post yesterday on dealing with hung up trees.

Before we went home Tracy built a small fire to dry one of her shoes, which had managed to collect rain despite being under the shelter!
Her shoe ended up smelling of smoke, but it probably made the bike ride home a little more comfortable.

We're up there again tomorrow, partly to work, but also because we have a class of five-year-olds visiting from a local school!

Mike

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