Butterflies at last!

The wet summer has not been great for the UK's butterflies, so it was pleasing to see so many this afternoon, especially as we had friends who'd been helped in coppicing in Sweep Wood visiting to see the wildlife benefits of their work! Some of them lived nearby, others were from Rother Guardians.

Here's one of the old favourites, a Peacock:

The Buddleja it's settled on has self-seeded at the top of Sweep Wood - we have quite a few garden escapees up there, and while I wouldn't have planted this one in a woodland, as it's arrived by itself I'm quite happy to leave it - and the butterflies are delighted I'm sure!

Just as a reminder, Sweep Wood used to look like this:

Then we got busy coppicing and it looked like this:

And just a year or two later it looks like this:

The hill in Sweep wood had lots of other butterflies present, especially Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers:

There were also various White butterflies, but I didn't get photos of them. Lots of dragonflies too - remember none of these insects were to be seen here before we did the coppicing:

Heading further into the woods we saw several Speckled Wood butterflies:

White Admirals:

and a beetle too...

In the wayleave were Comma butterflies and more dragonflies; I got a rare opportunity to photograph two together:

We also saw this wasp feeding on Common Figwort - apparently they're a good pollinator for them:

Great to see all of these creatures around again!

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

Wasps, trees and flowers

This weekend we discovered a wasp nest in the wood, built under the oil drum we use for making charcoal:

I admit I did provoke them slightly to get those pictures, by gently throwing a small stick against the oil drum - but from a good distance, and then using a zoom lens to take the photos! I got some nice ones of wasps in flight:

There were plenty of other insects around too, lots of butterflies and I also disturbed a moth, no idea what it is though:

Dragonflies are also in abundance:

Underneath our new firewood shelter are loads of Harvestmen. I'd always assumed these were spiders, but they're not. Apparently they are Arachnids, but their order is Opiliones, and they're more closely related to scorpions than spiders!

I did some bracken removal with a scythe near our camp, and uncovered some fairly healthy oak saplings. I'm wondering about putting a bit of wire mesh round them to protect them from rabbits this winter...

There were also some oaks growing up in one of our fruit tree enclosures - I weeded round them to give them more of a chance, but we'll have to relocate them away from the fruit tree in the winter.

In Grist Wood, which borders ours, we saw some Ash seedlings growing in an area which was coppiced last winter. Lots of them in fact, and I've checked with Roy and he's happy for us to take a few of them to plant in other parts of our wood:

Sweep Wood is growing happily - the following photos are all taken in the area we've coppiced over the past two winters.

The Ash coppice there has really taken off!

And the Alder I pollarded last winter is doing well too:

Here's a mystery one, more like a shrub than a tree at the moment, and with berries on it. Any ideas?

A bit higher off the ground, Honeysuckle is flowering nicely:

and lower down we saw some Deadly Nightshade, or Belladonna:

Obviously this is very poisonous, which makes it all the more strange that it is closely related to potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants and chilli peppers!

There's several varieties of thistle present in this area now - this one's new this year:

There's Ragwort there too (not a problem, as there's no horses), and it seems to be popular with insects:

Finally, another new one is Rosebay Willowherb, or Fireweed. This is a common pioneer species, so not surprising to see it growing in a freshly coppiced area:

That's all for now...

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

A walk in the woods

With rain threatened for this afternoon, we popped into the woods this morning to see what new things are growing there since we last had a proper look round. Everything's very green now, and the paths are beautiful to walk along:
We came in through Sweep Wood, where we were coppicing last winter. The ground at the top is transformed, with the sunlight coming in and much of the ivy gone. The result is large patches of nettles and Dog's Mercury coming up:
along with some more exotic-looking plants, like Lords and Ladies:
The mystery fruit tree has some fruit on it. This time we're determined to keep an eye on it and find out what it is, and also try the fruit! Any suggestions so far?
The trees we coppiced are sprouting their shoots now:
and even the chestnut stakes we made to hold log piles in place are having a go:
As you go deeper into the wood, there are still lots of bluebells (they're winding down in the sunnier spots now, having started earlier there):
There are a few white bluebells around as well:
and also some that are white with a hint of blue:
Ferns are unfurling. These are different to Bracken, which grows better in the sunnier spots.
We also spotted a primrose, which must have been there before but we'd never noticed it...
Carrying on from there, the path between Sweep Wood and Grist Wood is getting darker now the leaves are coming out:
Making our way to Chestnut Coppice, we passed the pond. After drying out and then being re-dug last summer, it's stayed full and is now back to the "green stage":
I expect it to develop more variety over the summer, as in previous years. Near the pond is some chestnut that has grown remarkably straight since coppicing:
the reason why is apparent when you look up - it has a restricted view of the sky, directly overhead:
This is of course why coppices are meant to be densely planted, so that each tree helps its neighbours to grow up straight by blocking light from the sides.

Entering into our "wildlife corridor", there's a profusion of plants appearing at the sides of the path:
There's a huge variety here, compared to the shaded woodland a bit further from the path.
Near the junction between our main ride and the footpath, there's some Holly which looks like it might have berries this winter:
Arriving in our own wood, we went to check on the fruit trees, which are doing pretty well:

It's amazing how fast they're growing once the blossoms have finished:
We're picking off the blossoms once they've finished (after the insects have made use of them). This is so that this year the trees don't put any resources into growing fruit, and increase in size and strength instead.

Much of the area near our camp is carpeted with green now:
and the coppice is growing taller and denser:
But amongst it, there are still new plants arriving, like this Bluebell and Honeysuckle:
We had a quick look in the wayleave for butterflies, but it wasn't really sunny enough. We did see the Broom is coming into flower though:
Last of all, what's this insect? I thought it was probably a wasp of some sort, do tell me if you know!
Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.