It's taken me a while to get round to this post, but things have been busy! The day after I finished my fixed-term part-time job as a Ranger at Dungeness, I put in an application for another job, and am now on the point of finishing work at Ashden after over 15 years there! I'll be working at Citizens Advice 1066, leading on energy efficiency and energy advice projects. Part-time though, so I still have time to spend in the woods, of course.
But let's get back to my final days doing the Ranger job. Despite being mid-winter, there were still some nice days in December as the end of my contract neared:
I'll certainly miss spending long days in the unique shingle environment there, which looks barren but is incredibly diverse when it comes to plants, insects and birds.
I did have a special treat in my final week there, with this bin lorry managing to get stuck:
A breakdown truck came to help get it out, and it got stuck too....
Quite spectacularly stuck! People don't seem to realise that the shingle goes down for many metres...
It took a second breakdown truck to pull the first one out, and between them they got the bin lorry out too, several hours after it got stuck!
I can of course go back to Dungeness any time I like, and one of my first trips there after finishing was to try some night-time photography. This is Orion, from the end of the boardwalk at the Point of Dungeness, taken using multiple exposures combined into one image using Deep Sky Stacker:
And then a few shots around Dungeness, showing the lighthouses, power station and some other buildings:
And finally, I popped back in late February to see what Storm Eunice at done to the Dungeness A power station!
Well, things have certainly been busy since July, while I've been working as a Ranger at Dungeness as well as doing my desk job. I've only got a few more weeks to go on the contract at Dungeness now, I'll certainly miss the work and my colleagues when I stop, though I'll appreciate getting some time back in my life. Fortunately there's nothing to stop me still visiting there and staying in touch with people, as it's not far away. There's been some amazing views there over the past few months, e.g. sunset looking from the Point towards Hastings:
Storm clouds over the English Channel:
Expansive skies and acres of shingle:
Views from the 'Boardwalk', one of a range of features to make it easier for visitors to appreciate the site:
There's been some stormy days too, I took these pics just a few days ago:
There's also been any number of stuck vehicles to deal with, from relatively simple ones like this camper van:
To more challenging ones like a bin lorry weighing over 30 tonnes!
The moral of the story is to pay attention to the signs at Dungeness, and only park in the official car parks!
I've not only been at Dungeness in my Ranger role though, I've also worked at a range of other sites that RMCP manages, and on some of these I've been able to put my chainsaw experience to good use, for example felling some large willow trees at Romney Warren:
These were being removed to get more light into a series of ponds, to improve them as a habitat for newts. That does mean all the willow brash has to be burned up, as we don't want it putting down roots and shading the pond again...
I've also done some interesting work in a very boggy woodland the other side of Ashford, felling trees and then winching them over to create new pools. The amazing thing was that while we were still in the process of winching these stumps out of the ground, there were hoverflies laying eggs around the edges of the pools!
I've even been trained in how to check on cattle being used for conservation grazing, not something I'd ever expected to do, as I'm not really keen on being around large mammals!
And in this era of deadly airborne viruses, it's been nice to be able to have team meetings outdoors around a fire at the end of a day's work:
One benefit of doing the Ranger work was that I got a 1-day chainsaw refresher training day, to update my skills on CS32 - felling medium size oak trees. Here's one of my fellow students on the training day, taking down an oak while the rest of us observed:
Back in Rye, everyone was delighted to be able to join in with Rye Fawkes again, after the 2020 event was cancelled due to the area being in lockdown.
Despite the extra working days, I've still managed to get a bit of time in the woods, and used the arbor trolley to get some logs from last winter's coppicing down the hill and into the trailer:
There's been a bit of leisure time too, sitting by the fire in the woods and meeting up with friends.
And just last week I was pleased to be able to get some nice pics of these Coal Tits and Blue Tits arriving and departing the bird feeder:
I've also had the trail camera back up again, and there's a few interesting bird videos as a result, including a Buzzard, a Jay and a Greater Spotted Woodpecker:
That's all for now, we'll be back in the woods over Christmas so there should be some more photos to come after that...
It's been a while since I last updated this blog, and there's been a lot going on - including me starting a new job part-time in addition to my existing work! But first, let's catch up on some photos from the woods over the past few months. Spring brought the usual display of flowers, such as these Wood Anemones, but a little later than some years as it was quite chilly.
The wild apple tree near our camp in the woods had another good display of blossom - I look forward to seeing how many apples develop, not that I'll be eating any of them...
And of course the bluebells were looking as great as ever in May:
Up at the top of the hill, where we coppiced last winter, things are growing back nicely. Here's some Ash and Sweet Chestnut:
The whole area has greened up a lot, and the brash piles are slowly disappearing from view:
I did also get this great video of a Buzzard eating its prey (probably a pigeon), followed by a fox coming to sniff around after it had gone!
Only one camping trip so far this year, but we had great weather for it and plenty of time to sit round the fire.
The big news is I've got a part-time job for 6 months as a Ranger at Dungeness National Nature Reserve. I'm doing this alongside my existing work at Ashden, so I've suddenly become rather busy, and the preceding couple of months were busy too as I tried to 'clear the decks' of any jobs that needed doing at home and in the woods. Dungeness is certainly a nice place to be in the summer!
I get a truck do drive around:
And it's not just about the sea and the shingle, there's also the 'long pits' which you only get to see if you venture away from the usual tourist attractions near the main car park:
One other thing I did manage to squeeze in before starting the Ranger work was a day at the Hands of Hope site in Hawkhurst, where there's a kind of community garden and also a woodland - my friend Rich and I went and volunteered for a day to help fell some dangerous trees.
Finally, closer to home, there was a strange object on the beach at Rye Harbour....
It's actually an art installation called The Beacon, by Joseph Williams, intended to draw attention to the fragility of the area and the growing impacts of climate change. It's a bit odd to look at, but quite amazing once you're inside it:
It's actually modelled on the Yellow Horned Poppy, which grows in the area:
Also at Rye Harbour, we recently visited a bird hide at Castle Water, which we'd not been to before. It really has some excellent views:
I got a number of nice photos of Cormorants there:
Did you know Cormarants nest in trees? They look a bit big to do that, but they really do:
And finally, a nice little family of Greylag Geese on one of the other lakes in the reserve:
