First wander in ages

[Lordyosch]

I've just come back in from my first wander in the woods for what seems like forever!

I'm quite new to bushcraft and I'm still very much getting to grips with tree identification. It was quite fun to try to work out what the naked trees were, looking at the ground was a good help I found.

It was great to be out, about zero celsius and peaceful. I found a good fallen birch and harvested a load of bark and spotted some good potential bivi sites.


On the not so good side I also wombled up a bunch of litter!

I really must get out more often!


Jay

 

[kippers]

i managed to get out yesterday as well, it was below zero, and very quiet. nice just to walk through a local woods in the fog and not see anyone. even got close to a buzzard perched in a tree only about eight feet up, probably not wanting to fly in the fog, until my dog came running back to me! oh well back to work monday

 

[Treemonk]

Sounds a nice day out!

with regard to the tree id, it really pays to get familiar with the bud form, bark form and tree growth pattern (alternate, oppossite, spiral etc.) for winter work. A good guide book is helpful but many aren't that good on bud illustrations - I'll have to have a dig through my library and see if i can find a good one. The common Collins is pretty useless in this respect!
A good thing to do if you have time and motivation is to identify trees in leaf and then follow them through the year. Taking leaf and twig samples and bark photos and/or rubbings and putting it in a scrapbook with a list of key features and uses. I had to do this for my forestry qualifications, and if done well makes a nice little resource.

all the best