Coppicing between the storms

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...

Mike

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New Year sunset 2013

After the seemingly endless rain of 2012, it was great for the first day of 2013 to be wall-to-wall sunshine! We went for a walk down to Rye Harbour Nature Reserve at sunset and got a few pics on the walk to the sea...

We also made it to the wood briefly, just one photo from there, but an important one: a Blue Tit. We've not seen them in the woods at the feeder this winter, and were wondering why, but this one was over in Sweep Wood. Not sure if there are fewer of them, or if they are just in different parts of the wood for some reason...

Happy New Year!

Mike

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Buds, birds and flowers in the woods

It's warming up a lot now (in the daytime at least), and this weekend we took advantage of the sunshine for a walk in the woods. There's loads of Spring flowers out now, like the Wood Anemone (all the following flower pics are from Sweep Wood):

the Lesser Celandine:

and of course the Primrose:

There's Daffodils too - I thought these were probably garden escapees, at the top of Sweep Wood, but there's one further down the hill too, which is odd:

What's particularly noticeable is how the strip in Sweep Wood that we coppiced this winter and last is really green as it gets so much light:

Compare this to a patch near our camp in Chestnut Coppice, which won't get much sunlight for a few weeks yet:

Not to be outdone by the flowers, some of the trees are in bloom too, like this Plum at the top of Sweep Wood:

Our own fruit trees are budding, like this pear:

and the wild Apple:

Some are a bit further behind, like this Sycamore:

While others already have leaves, like Elder:

and Hawthorn:

Meanwhile the willow has its catkins on:

With all these flowers coming out, it's not surprising to see bees around:

and also butterflies, like this Comma:

There was even a Ladybird sunning itself:

The birds are very busy right now, singing to mark out their territory. Here's a Robin, a Blackbird, a Blue Tit and a Pigeon:

Oops, I guess someone ate the Pigeon!

Last but not least, we found a huge bone. I assume someone's dog dropped it, unless we have cows in the wood...

Mike

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