Winter in the woods

At last! The ground is frozen rock hard, and I can drive in and out with the trailer full of logs without making everything muddy... It also looks great, and we've got the bird feeder filled up again, so lots of photo opportunities:

In the wayleave, the sun doesn't reach much of the ground during December and January, so the frost builds up during cold spells:

Some nice views looking in through our entrance from the wayleave too:

Anyway, back to the bird photos. We keep a bird feeder topped up during the cold weather. I don't know how much difference it really makes in the long run, but it's nice to see which birds are around and get a few pictures. Interestingly, there have only been two types of birds coming to the feeder so far: Robins and Marsh Tits. The Robins tend to pick up seeds from the ground rather than using the feeder itself:

Though this of course means they need to keep an eye out for danger, which I guess is why this one is trying to make itself as tall as it can:

The Marsh Tits are easier to photograph than the Robins, as they sit in the young coppice nearby for a bit before coming to the feeder:

I managed to get a few of them in flight too, though this required sitting still a short distance away for quite a while, and I got pretty cold!

What's odd is that there are no Blue Tits or Great Tits so far this winter, I'm not sure why...

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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Spring 2012 is here!

The wild plum tree at the top of Sweep Wood is flowering, so Spring is definitely here!

Just next to it, Dog's Mercury is carpeting the ground:

Elder is also coming into leaf:

As is the Honeysuckle that's winding its way up the coppice regrowth:

Looks like we're in line for some more Foxgloves in the same area again this summer too:

Deeper inside the wood, Lords and Ladies plants are well advanced:

and Bluebells are making progress, though the flowers are some weeks away yet...

There are some flowers out already though, like this Primrose:

and the first few Wood Anemones are opening:

It's going to be interesting to see what happens to the bare patches where we had logs stored until last summer amongst the regrowth - they're going to be a year behind the rest of the area:

Likewise there's different stuff growing where we'd had small fires to burn up brash, thus sterilising small patches of ground. Moss has been the first to move in:

The trees are busy too, though no leaves yet. There's buds opening on the Willow in the Wayleave:

and the Hazel trees are covered with Catkins:

We found the remains of an egg (possibly from a Pigeon?), but I suspect it must be from months ago by the look of it.

Plenty of other bird activity though, with several Robins:

a Song Thrush, which is rare in our woods, though where we saw it was near gardens in Sweep Wood. They're actually on the RSPB Red List at the moment...

Best of all, we saw a Great Tit making a nest in a hollow in an old Cherry tree on a field boundary - we knew to look there, as one nested there last year too:

And finally, here's a nice video Tracy got near home in Rye, of a Little Egret:

That's all for now...

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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