Actually, they were Fallow deer...

Last week I posted a video of some deer. We weren't sure what species they were, but thought they might be Roe. We know better now, thanks to people on the Wild About Britain forums - they are Fallow deer. Here's the video again in case you missed it:

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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Bird photos: Great tit, Blue tit, Coal tit and Long-tailed tit

On Sunday we went to a workshop on grey squirrel control, and I was quite distracted during some of it by the birds on a feeder nearby. Once lunchtime arrived I quickly got the long lens back onto the camera to get some shots.

First, a swarm of Coal tits (black head with white at the back of it) and Long-tailed tits (longer tail, head not quite as black, and white stripe running down the front of its head):
Then a Great tit and Blue tit proving that they can get along and share the food (Great tits have a reputation for being aggressive).
and finally, a blue tit watching while a couple of Long-tailed tits are eating:
Mike

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Last weekday coppicing...

Today was the last day I have off work for coppicing - any other odds and ends we want to do will have to be done at weekends now, or possibly late afternoon as the days get longer. For now, the days are still short and cold, but sunny.
While we were working today we spent much of the time surrounded by a flock of Great Tits, and later on a Robin was following me around, just a couple of metres away, waiting for me to disturb the ground and wood to reveal his dinner. Here's a few photos of the Great Tits:

I was particularly fortunate in getting that last one - the bird took off just as I took the picture. Wish I'd had it on a faster shutter to avoid the motion blur...

Anyway, we were coppicing by the pond today, and very nearly finished it. The lower section is all done, here's a before and after picture (the difference in colour is because the first one was taken in a morning and the second in the later afternoon):
You'll see in the above photo that we've left one larger chestnut tree. This is hopefully to grow on to be a standard, and maybe yield some nuts one day...

Looking down from above the pond you can see a few stems on the left that still need cutting, and one stool on the right. Once these are done we think there'll be a lot more light coming down to the pond this summer, hopefully bringing even more life into this little area.
Just opposite the pond is an old ride leading into Sweep Wood (which my parents own). Now we've cut the coppice along the edge it's a bit more apparent:
Tomorrow we have some people visiting at the woods, and it looks like it's going to be a another sunny day for it.

Mike

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More birds

I got plenty of photos of birds in the past couple of days, all taken in the cant that we cut last winter. Some of them I've posted here before, but I've got better pictures now, so here they are.

First up, one of the robins (there's at least two that we see around our camp):
Here he is looking cold in the snow:
and here he is picking at one of the bits of food we've left out for him:
Next is a wren. Today one came about a metre from me, but sadly I didn't have my camera with me at the time, so this is still the best picture so far (taken at a greater distance and cropped):
A few days ago I posted some pictures of a juvenile Goldcrest. Well, here's the adult
There was actually a small flock of them hopping around in the leaves - they seem to like the boundary between the cant we cut and the trees that are still standing next to it - more evidence of the "edge effect" I guess.

Here's one I was pleased to capture properly for the first time - a Nuthatch:
He was prowling around an oak, examining the bark to see if there were any bugs to eat:
And finally, a mystery bird - I was only able to get a photo of it in the distance, and have tried to clean it up a bit. It was about the size of a Wood Pigeon, perhaps a little larger. But the colours aren't those of a pigeon I think. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment.
Mike

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Ice, birds and coppicing

This morning it was cold. It's been cold for a few days. All the water we'd left at the wood was frozen. But, this is great for coppicing - the ground is firm, there's good light, it's not raining and it's not too hot. The cant we cut last winter doesn't get much sunlight at this time of year, and the frost has been accumulating:The ground was easily hard enough to drive all the way in and collect a load of logs to deliver at the end of the day, a rare treat for winter:
and the pond had partially frozen (the fact it has a spring probably keeps it a bit warmer):
We headed over to the path between the junction and the pond, where we're working at present:
As we entered the new clearing there, we realised we were surrounded by small birds that seemed to have moved in overnight. The birds we saw or heard included blue tits, great tits, goldcrests and nuthatches. Best of all, the tits were jumping around inside the dead hedge, just as we'd hoped. It's hard to see, but there's a great tit in the middle of this picture (inside the dead hedge), behind the twigs:
I got some other pictures too, but not of great quality (should have had spot-metering on, but didn't...). Here they are anyway though. First, a blue tit in an oak (it flew up there from the dead hedge to watch us when we arrived):
and then several of a juvenile goldcrest (they get their proper colours when they mature)
Anyway, we eventually got to coppicingLoads of people walked along the path today, which, although it stopped us working, was nice as we enjoyed chatting with them all as they passed through. We also had John, the retired local forester, come to visit - I've got some copies of old forestry photos he brought, I'll post them later. We're hoping to have him visit again soon and show us some of the techniques he used years ago, which we expect will be very useful for us.

The work's progressing nicely, there's not too much left to do between the junction and the pond now:
Some days it feels like we're making slow progress, but we have to remind ourselves that we're converting some of the wood to final products as we go along, and also stacking firewood logs ready for cutting in the summer.

There's a lot of light coming in now:
Can't wait to see what it'll be like when the sun gets higher in the sky...

Mike

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