Surprisingly I haven't managed to spend as much time in the wood over the last couple of months as I would have liked. So, when the missus said she would join me down there for the weekend I jumped at the chance.
A tawny owl had decided to use the tree-bog (composting toilet) as its daytime roost and made an almighty mess in there. A fair bit of time was spent emptying it (we use it to store various bits of kit over winter), washing all the mess down, cleaning all the gear and putting up some wire mesh over the window. All clean and tidy again now
Saturday evening was beautiful down there. Late sunshine, plenty of birdsong, a nice meal and a bottle of wine (and good company of course). We bivvied (?) and drifted off to sleep to the sound of tawny owls and rustlings in the undergrowth
Sunday morning was actually quite chilly so it took a couple of cups of coffee to get ourselves going. In the early morning sun a hare lopped down the field just outside the wood. A nest of great spotted woodpecker chicks was making an almighty racket begging to be fed and a blue tit's nest in an old ash tree just next to our camp was a non-stop blur of parent birds going in and out feeding. Other nests down there include a redstart, pied flycatchers, wrens, robins and blackbirds - I'm sure there are more; the whole wood seems to be a constant movement of birds collecting food.
We're still clearing after all the coppicing and thinning in winter but I wasn't going to start burning any more brash in the current dry state of the countryside. There is still plenty to do however. I hadn't put up the parachute over the permanent camp yet; probably a good job considering the gales we had a week or so back. So, I tidied up around the camp, recovered the pulley that had was stuck in the tree, re rigged the parachute and spent the rest of the day trying to peg it out tidily. It's all ready now for when lock-down is relaxed an people can come and enjoy it with us
A few photos:
The mess and pellets the tawny owl had left in the loo -
The evening view west from the camp
This part of Wales is well known for woodland vampire hords so plenty of stakes are required
And finally the parachute is up and the firepit installed ready for the next camp
A tawny owl had decided to use the tree-bog (composting toilet) as its daytime roost and made an almighty mess in there. A fair bit of time was spent emptying it (we use it to store various bits of kit over winter), washing all the mess down, cleaning all the gear and putting up some wire mesh over the window. All clean and tidy again now
Saturday evening was beautiful down there. Late sunshine, plenty of birdsong, a nice meal and a bottle of wine (and good company of course). We bivvied (?) and drifted off to sleep to the sound of tawny owls and rustlings in the undergrowth
Sunday morning was actually quite chilly so it took a couple of cups of coffee to get ourselves going. In the early morning sun a hare lopped down the field just outside the wood. A nest of great spotted woodpecker chicks was making an almighty racket begging to be fed and a blue tit's nest in an old ash tree just next to our camp was a non-stop blur of parent birds going in and out feeding. Other nests down there include a redstart, pied flycatchers, wrens, robins and blackbirds - I'm sure there are more; the whole wood seems to be a constant movement of birds collecting food.
We're still clearing after all the coppicing and thinning in winter but I wasn't going to start burning any more brash in the current dry state of the countryside. There is still plenty to do however. I hadn't put up the parachute over the permanent camp yet; probably a good job considering the gales we had a week or so back. So, I tidied up around the camp, recovered the pulley that had was stuck in the tree, re rigged the parachute and spent the rest of the day trying to peg it out tidily. It's all ready now for when lock-down is relaxed an people can come and enjoy it with us
A few photos:
The mess and pellets the tawny owl had left in the loo -
The evening view west from the camp
This part of Wales is well known for woodland vampire hords so plenty of stakes are required
And finally the parachute is up and the firepit installed ready for the next camp
