Footprints in the snow

The view out the window this morning was:
We drove to the wood and parked at the bottom of the wayleave, which had a thin covering of snow:As we walked up we were keeping an eye out for animal tracks - I've tried to identify them, but feel free to correct me, as I'm not an expert tracker! The first one we saw was a fox, which had padded its way down the track:
I stopped for a quick photo along the footpath where we've been cutting:
Next up was a bird, possibly a blackbird from the size of the prints, and the fact that they were in pairs (from hopping?), but I'm not really sure:
and after that a pheasant, clearly walking rather than hopping like the smaller birds do:
Then we reached the wood
The first tracks here were human and dog:
It was interesting as we wandered round the wood looking at the footprints to see how many people had walked their dogs through our wood this morning, and where they'd come from.

Inside the wood we could see where a squirrel had been:
including up on the log piles:
and our of our outdoor "tables":
Before we did any work we walked around the wood - it's not often we get to see it in the snow.
Although today it did keep snowing for a while in the morning:That's all for now - I'll do another post tomorrow with some pictures of a robin, a goldcrest and wren.

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

Team effort

And today's team was... Paul, Penny, Emily and Charlotte! They all came up for a day of coppicing, sitting round the fire and to be outside on a sunny winter's day.

But first, you need to see how cold it was. This was the view down the wayleave:
The sun was just coming up over the trees as we approached the wood:
and was making the frost sparkle in the trees:
As we walked in a wren was hopping from one pile of wood to another again, and this time I managed to actually get a photo. Not a very good one, but it's a start, and with patience I may get a better one.
I had a little walk around to try and get better pictures of the wren, but it was camera shy - always close, but hiding in the wood piles. I did see our neighbour Colin though, and had chance to chat with him briefly. He'd stayed the night, without getting hypothermia thankfully, but hadn't seen the boar, which is what he was really after.

Walking over to the area we're working in at present, Tracy noticed these tracks:
Any ideas? My guess is that they're hoof prints, but that as the ground was partly frozen only the edges left any impression.

Before long our coppicing team turned up, and after a hot drink they got to work in the area we're calling "dead oak corner", after the dead oak that's near it.
We'd been saving this area specially as it had a lot of trees that could be dealt with using a bowsaw and loppers, although Paul brought his chainsaw to use on the larger ones.

Not only did they come to help us coppice, but they also brought lunch!
We'll have to get them to visit again... :-)

Harvey and Rosy came too, but they didn't do any coppicing.
Even at lunchtime you had to be careful where you sat, as some of the benches were still thick with frost:
After lunch a fire was lit to burn up some of the brash - this area isn't near where we've been building the dead hedge, and there was also plenty of space for a fire.
By the end of the day the team had created a good clearing at the corner in the ride, and it's almost joined up to the cant we cut last winter now.
All in all, a good day, and many thanks to Paul, Penny Emily and Charlotte for their work!

We're up again tomorrow, hoping to to have a local retired forester visit, and also deliver some logs at the end of the day (taking advantage of the rock-hard ground to drive in to the wood we hope).

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

Spring coming early?

We saw all kinds of life in the wood yesterday. As soon as we'd parked inside the gate, and got out the car, we heard a rather strange noise coming from the among the grass and brambles. As we peered into them we got a glimpse:
As we edged closer we got a better view:
And realised it was two male pheasants fighting:
Then they decided that humans were a greater risk than stopping the fight, and did a runner:
Just a short distance up the wayleave, we found a huge number of prints, which we think were from deer, but feel free to correct us if we're wrong!

There'd been similar activity at our pond, which was trampled:
The prints looked like deer again:
although there was also evidence of boar activity in the last few days just a few metres away, in the wood the side of the footpath:
There's also a lot of plant life springing up, including new growth on patches of moss, especially in the area we've coppiced so far:
There's also what we think are bluebells sprouting all over the place, including in the middle of the rides:
And of course, the honeysuckle is getting an early start in, before the leaves are on the trees:
We're pulling bits of honeysuckle whenever we can be bothered though - a certain amount of it in the wood is OK, and even good for wildlife, but it can also smother young trees, so you need to keep an eye on where it's growing. For example, check out this picture from an earlier post where it was smothering a young oak, right at the start of our coppicing:

OK, time for some update pictures on our progress. Just for a remainder, here's how
it looked at the start:
And here's how it looks now:
The last one of those three is looking back towards the entrance from the edge of where we've coppiced to so far. Before we started you could see through this bit, it was so dense!

Oh, and here's what happens if you misjudge how a twisted log will roll and flex while you're cutting it:
It's something you try and avoid, but it inevitably happens occasionally. The solution is to lift the log in such a way that the cut opens up and frees the saw. A lot easier with two people than on your own!

I though it would be interesting to make a few videos of different tree felling techniques. So, for starters, here's me making a standard felling cut, then using a felling lever to give the tree a push at the end. It takes about 45 seconds from starting the saw to the tree falling:


Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.