Great black backed gull

I have so many pictures from the weekend I'm going to have to split them into several posts... So, first of all here's the only one that's *not* about the wood.

We have a lot of gulls around here. Herring gulls are common over the winter, and the Black headed gulls have come back now the weather is warmer. But a new arrival, on the roofs of our house and our neighbours, is the Great black backed gull, which is larger than the herring gull. Enough of the talk, here's the pictures:As you can see, they're darker than the Herring gull. They're also pretty aggressive, driving off other gulls form the roof - perhaps because they're building a nest there!

Mike

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Clearing up from the weekend

We had a very busy weekend, with all kinds of visitors to the wood. Although I've done a few posts, there's still some odds and ends I'd like to mention. I'll start with yet another bluebells photo though, this time form the top end of our wood, where I'd not been since the bluebells came out:OK, on to other stuff. I already mentioned the SWOG butterfly ID day, but what I hadn't mentioned was that our friends Rich and Penny camped in the wood the night before, as they live a fair distance away. I was very impressed that they didn't use a normal tent, they used a mosquito net tent, and rigged a tarpaulin over that - and a good job too, as it rained! Rich proved to be a natural with the air rifle:
and Penny hit the target first time too, but I'm not allowed to post the photo of her as she's pulling a funny face! :-)

As you probably already know, Tracy found a WW2 bullet casing in the woods, but there was plenty of digging for other stuff with our friends Dave & Anna and Greg & Amy, who came for the day on Monday:Nothing yet in this hole - it's a strong signal, but must be deep, so it could be something big. Hope it's not a live WW2 bomb!

While we were walking round we saw this pheasant's egg, I assume a chick hatched from it:
and also saw another that someone had left on top of this stump. Looks like something attacked it, and it's not going to hatch now...
The pond is looking very green again
and I was pleased to see this hawthorn growing nicely. The spray of fresh shoots are coming out where I damaged a branch during felling in the winter. I'd cut the branch of cleanly after this, so I'm pleased to see that this has worked:
The same happened to a young oak last winter, and I was very annoyed, having missed it with at least ten trees and then hit it with the last one. Anyway, I'd pollarded it, hoping that it would regrow and that the shoots would be out of reach of the rabbits:
so I was delighted to see this on the side of it:
It's much slower growing than the chestnut or birch, but we're going to keep cutting them along the sides of the path every few years, so this oak should get enough light to keep growing. Who knows, as a pollard it may grow to be an interestingly shaped tree one day? I'll keep an eye on it.

Mike

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Weird fog in Camber

Last week it was bright and sunny in Camber, and then suddenly the weather turned like this. The wind was blowing in from the sea, and brought this fog rolling in.
Here's a video of it:

Mike

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Metal detecting

Many of you have already been bored to death with my new hobby! I recently bought an Garret Ace 250 metal detector. It is a fabulous machine, I am finding loads, easy to use and light to carry. (although after an hour I do get a sore arm!) Anyway, I found this bullet casing in the wood. It says '1943, K2, 20mm' on it.

I have been informed that:

"It's a British 20mm cannon shell casing. These type of 'bullets' had a large explosive tip which, when they struck an object, made a VERY large hole. Any plane hit by two or three of these things was usually enough to cause major damage. The punch mark on the centre of the base shows it has been fired and it has most likely been fired by a plane flying overhead. However, you may have stumbled across an old firing range or even old barracks in your wood and the case has been dropped by an airman/soldier for some reason.

These type of shell were not used by the Americans in their aircraft so it is almost certainly from an RAF plane."

Thanks to the folks at the War Relics forum for this! I am very pleased with the find!

Tracy

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Bluebells and a mystery flower

The bluebells are looking fantastic right now, here's some pictures from our own wood and also from my parents' wood (Sweep Wood):
There's also a mystery flower growing in the coupe we coppiced just over a year ago. I think it's a cinquefoil of some sort, but I don't know which. Any suggestions?Mike

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