Coal Tits at the bird feeder

I was in the wood on my own yesterday, as Tracy had a cold. I spent a few hours felling some smaller trees in Sweep Wood (didn't want to try anything complicated while working alone), but also found time to go and top up the bird feeder back in Chestnut Coppice. A good job too - it was nearly empty! I filled it and settled in about 15m away to see who came to eat - and was rewarded by several Coal Tits within two minutes! It was overcast, so there wasn't enough light for great pictures, but here's what I got:
Walking back I found this weird fungi growing on some dead wood. Not sure what it is, but it was jelly-like:
And finally, back at home, here's what happens when it rains, seeing as the drains are blocked up by sand:
That's all for now, we're back in the woods most days in the coming week though...

Mike

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Browse photos of our woodland and other places

I've finally completed the mammoth task of organising all the photos I've uploaded to Flickr over the past couple of years (3,078 so far!). Going forward it will be easier, as I can file the photos as they go in.

So, now you can browse the photos by category here:
www.flickr.com/photos/mikepepler/sets

or just view the latest uploads here:
www.flickr.com/photos/mikepepler

Over time I'll probably improve the organisation and mark my favourites, so don't forget to check back.

Mike

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Sunsets on the beach

Just a few pictures from this evening, all taken just over the dune from our house. I've put these at a even higher resolution than I've been using recently, so make your web browser full screen!

Mike

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The beach and the wood

I had my friend Jon visiting over this weekend. We went up to the wood, of course, but also cycled to Dungeness to enjoy the scenery and a pint at The Britannia. There was also time for a bit of kite flying down on the beach near our house:
Up in the woods there were lots of butterflies around (sorry, no pictures), including the Brimstone patrolling the cant we cut a year ago. The Wood Anemone are now flowering in large numbers, the bluebells won't be far behind...
Other than just sitting around cooking lunch, making coffee and shooting at a tin can with the air rifle, we did actually have a little job to do. Tracy and one of our neighbours want to build a raised bed for growing veg in our communal garden, so we measured up some logs and made some stakes to bring back. As it was just me and Jon, rather than a big group, I took some spare protective gear and Jon did some of the work.
We ended up with 12 logs and 8 stakes - the idea is to stack the logs between the stakes to make walls, perhaps using an existing fence on two sides, though I'm concerned it will rot the wood, so we might do log walls on all four sides.

I heard a pheasant rustling through the leaves, and is usual it pretended it hadn't seen me, leaving me time to change the lens on the camera and follow it for a while.Anyway, that's all for now, though I might post some sunset pictures from the beach later if I have time...

Mike

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New birds and a mole

We're in the middle of moving house, but we found time to go up and sit in the wood for an hour and light the kelly kettle for a coffee. We saw several new birds today. First was a Jay - we knew they were in the wood as we'd found a feather in the past, but this was the first time we'd seen one, although only fleetingly.
Next up was a Chaffinch (I think - feel free to correct me) - a common bird, but not one I've noticed in the wood before. He was fluttering from branch to branch in the oaks, looking for insects I assume:The old favourites were around too, such as the Great Tit:and the Robin, feeding at the freshly filled bird feeder:
OK, trying to feed...
We also found a mole had been digging a tunnel under one of our rides! It links up to the one we found a week ago.
Things are changing fast at this time of year. Here's a picture of willow buds we took a week ago:
and here's one from today:
I expect leaves to be appearing soon....

Mike

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Feeding the birds, and problems with squirrels

This post is mostly about birds in our wood:
but first let me digress onto squirrel damage...

Here's a young holly tree that's been gnawed, which we saw as we walked between Sweep and Grist wood:
This was too high off the ground to be a rabbit, so it was deer or squirrel I guess.

The following was certainly from squirrels though:
So much for squirrel proof! I guess they didn't know the squirrels would be able to unscrew the hook from the top of the bird feeder so it falls to the ground and lets them in...

And here's some more evidence - squirrel droppings:
So, we set about putting the feeders back up in places where it might be harder for the squirrels to get to them. We want the birds to be able to get some food during the current cold weather.
We'll see how we go. If the squirrels get them again, I'll be back with the air rifle next time and we'll be having squirrel for dinner (I'm not joking).

Anyway, the birds in our wood are either fearless or very hungry, because no sooner had we got the food out than they came down to eat it, even while we were still bustling around. Here's a Coal Tit scavenging for seeds dropped on the ground:
A Robin came straight to the usual place he hangs out on a dead wood pile, where we'd put some fat:
and a Great Tit found the seeds we'd put under a piece of wood leaning against a tree (we knew they liked going into this gap already). By the way, the rest of the photos are ones Tracy took.
Some Blue Tits also came, and found the hanging fat rings to their liking:
Within just a few minutes the birds were back at one of the feeders, so they must have been using it before the squirrels got to it:
Then a new arrival turned up - a Nuthatch. As if to prove his tree climbing abilities he came in via the rope:
He did get to eat, but before long a bossy Great Tit flew in, and so he had to fly out:
Last of all, the Coal Tit decided to come to the feeder as well:
and once the Great Tit had got out of the way, he was able to come down and feed:
Here's the Coal Tit making his escape - we did well with in-flight photos today!
And finally, the next couple of pictures aren't great, but I wanted to include them as it's a bird we've not seen in the wood before - a Treecreeper, creeping around on a tree, as you might expect:
That's all for now. I'm travelling around the UK for work for the next week, so I hope the snow doesn't cause any more chaos...

Mike

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