Repairing a culvert, butterfly spotting and a slow worm

The culvert we built 5 years ago in Sweep Wood has been in need of some maintenance... The downstream end had silted up, and the wooden 'kerb' had shifted:

The upstream end was a bit clogged up with debris too:

First step was to dig out all that debris, so I could get to the pipe to clear silt out of it:

Same again at the downstream end, which took a while due to the quantity of silt:

With that done I cut a new log to use as a 'kerb', and also made some stakes, all produced from wood we cut last winter just a short walk from the culvert:

I drove the stakes in with a post driver, cut them off, then re-pointed what was left over to make a extra stakes to drive in, Hopefully this will hold the new kerb in place for some years:

Here's the finished result, which will be much easier for people to walk over, and for me to drive over when the time next comes:

Just along the path from there is the area we coppiced last winter, which is growing back nicely now:

What's really striking is how many butterflies are there, when there would have been none a year ago. Here's a ragged looking Meadow Brown:

A couple of shots of a Comma:

And a Speckled Wood. In addition to these I also saw a Red Admiral, a Peacock and a Large White, but they didn't sit still for photos.

Back at the camp in Chestnut Coppice I was surprised to see a slow worm in the wood store when I went in there to get some logs after dark, but nice to know we've provided a dry home for it. I've also disturbed a wren sleeping in there at night as well!

That's all for now...

Mike

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Springtime in the woods - flowers and butterflies

We took advantage of the sunshine yesterday to go for lunch in the woods with my parents, who were visiting for the day. Although I saw solitary Bluebells a couple of weeks ago, there's a liberal scattering now visible!

The Wood Anemones are also looking good, now at the height of their flowering:

Between them and the Bluebells, the woodland is completely green now!

In the wayleave there are also Violets in flower, to the delight of various insects:

There's a good number of Primroses too - these were near the roadside:

Also scattered amongst the Wood Anemones over in Sweep Wood are Lesser Celandine and an occasional Daffodil:

The butterflies are also out in force now, here's a Small Tortoiseshell:

a Comma:

and a Peacock:

The birds are busy too - we saw some scouting out nesting sites, and the pheasants are strutting around making a lot of noise as usual for the time of year:

The trees all come into leaf at different times - Oak is still some way off, but Hornbeam is coming out now:

Hawthorn is well on the way:

Hazel is just starting:

and in the warmer spots in Sweep Wood there are even some Sweet Chestnut leaves appearing, but in most parts of the woods they are not started yet:

Here's a view of an area we coppiced in 2010/11, with ground cover growing like crazy:

And here's the area we cut in autumn 2013 - we spotted a few butterflies making the best of the new sunlight in this area already!

Finally, Tracy had her class visit the woods this week, so their dens/shelters are now in a better state of repair:

One group even got as far as making some miniature clay pots for the den's 'kitchen'!

We're looking forward to some more sunny days so we can spend time in the woods, now the wet weather has passed...

Mike

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Easter butterflies

Well at least one day of the Easter weekend was sunny - and here's some butterflies to prove it. First, the always familiar Peacock:

There were also a few Commas around:

And this one, which had me puzzled until I realised it was a moth - it's an Orange Underwing:

Plenty of other wildlife around as well, like pesky rabbits:

and a nice little Robin:

While we were up there we had friends drop in for a freshly made bacon sandwich lunch, and then headed off to to some finishing touches to the EWB bridge that was built recently - just fastening down some chicken wire so the deck doesn't get slippery in the rain:

Weather looks a bit cloudy or wet for the rest of the weekend, so glad we made the most of it today!

Mike

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Robin and the butterflies

Yesterday I went to the wood to meet a brother of a friend at 11am to answer some questions he had about buying woodland and producing fuel. We had an interesting chat, but they had to leave at 12, leaving me there in the heat of the day with my camera - so I got lots of pictures of butterflies. After locking the gate I immediately saw a Red Admiral basking on the hot stone of the track in the wayleave:
Not far from that was a dragon fly as well:
Going back into the wood, the first thing I saw was this juvenile robin, just beginning to grow its red feathers:
Carrying on through into the wildlife corridor, I saw at least four White Admiral butterflies, but they weren't landing, at least not anywhere low down, so I didn't get a photo. I did get lots of other butterflies though. This one's a male Meadow Brown:
And here's a female for comparison:With their wings closed they look like this, though you can't always see the black spot, if the wings are folded in more tightly:
There was a Comma sunning itself:
It's very well camouflaged once its wings are closed, especially among leaves:
Last but not least is a Speckled Wood, of which there were several enjoying the dappled sunlight at the edges of the corridor:
One of the reasons there are more butterflies in there is that the honeysuckle is now flowering, so there's nectar to be had. This is also the key food plant for the White Admiral's caterpillars.
That's all for now. We're going to go swimming in the sea this afternoon, and maybe metal detecting early evening, to see how much loose change the tourists have dropped!

Mike

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