Silent Winter woods

[Darryl of Sussex]

It’s a lean time for many woodland animals and today, while looking for fatwood and chaga (didn’t find any and the Sun was setting) in Abbott’s Wood,Sussex, I noticed only a Woodpecker and female blackbird. The emergence of Spring will inevitably change that.

So do you have any favourite animals which really make your woodland walks complete? Do you move as stealthily as you can, looking for signs of life? Sometimes it’s enjoyable to be there to observe it, at least I think so but almost every Bushcraft video i’ve seen, shows fires being lit and axes splitting logs, whereas I get more from not doing that.

Just some thoughts.

Best wishes,

Darryl

 

[Robson Valley]

When I lived in the city, I would harvest Rowan trees and put a few shopping bags of the fruit in my freezer.
At this time of year, I'd decorate bare tree & shrub limbs as a treat for the birds. Then the Shrikes and hawks would take notice as well.
It was almost exactly 20 yards from the back door to the back fence.
Outside the fence are grouse, foxes, coyotes, deer, moose and bears.
Nice view from the kitchen window.

I have made brush piles of conifer branches out along forest edges. Say, 6' across and 24" high.
Then we wait for lots of snow fall. 12" - 24" will do nicely. Time for an inspection.
Walk up to the brush piles and lean over to look at the top. There's often a "steam chimney" lined with ice feathers.
Somebody has taken shelter under the piles for the winter. I like to believe that the piles enhance survivorship.
I might get a look at them in 6 months.
My yard is fenced here in the village. So far, I have not found any of the deer to have jumped it.
Certainly tracks across the open front and they bed down near the outer row of grape vines.

 

[saxonaxe]

I don't have any particular favourites, all appeal to me, although I do like trying to spot the Buzzards that wheel in the sky high above the wood making that 'mewing' call. Quite hard to spot, even with no leaf canopy.
I tend to mostly just sit and watch in the wood. Once the initial disturbance of arrival and getting a brew on, even if done quietly, is over, the wildlife tends to reappear.
Although today was cold in the bare wood, a chill breeze and the sun lacks any warmth yet. One Tree Creeper was the score, apart from the usual Black Birds tossing fallen leaves about in their food hunting forays.

Pale sun and a chill wind.


Never mind, the brew is on..


King Alfred's Cakes a plenty..


An old once Coppiced Hornbeam, long neglected and now collapsed three ways.


The wood is holding it's breath, Spring is a few weeks away still.

 

[MrEd]

I enjoy getting as close as I can to deer. I also enjoy walking in a wood silently (as silently as I can) and not hearing bird alarm calls

I am successful maybe 30% of the time.

Slow, steady and watchful is the key to seeing wildlife

 

[Darryl of Sussex]

I’ve just today recieved my stove and pot and once I sort out a day kit, i’ll be doing the same. Still finding it hard to get away from dog walkers etc, so finding new appropriate woods is a matter of urgency. Abbotts wood has a max pay n display of just 3 hrs! Must look into annual permits.

 

[Robson Valley]

Elegant inexcusable tasty treat foods are normal. Make jerky in your kitchen.
My new Coleman 533 (naptha, 1-burner) runs like a jet engine as expected.

 

[Toddy]

We belong in the woods too you know. If you're just being yourself and quietly aware, it's amazing just how much life there is out there.

Saxon Axe? if you whistle long, long, long on a slow almost steady note, then those buzzards might gyre round to come and see what's calling If the wind is in the right direction four or five whistles usually catches their attention.

There's a lot of life among the leaf litter at this time of year, and not just insect life either. The sycamores are trying to sprout here, and the celandines are coming up among the first leaves of the pignuts. You can see the tracks through the woods too, not so much the human ones, but the ones that the fox, the deer, the badgers, even the occasional wandering cat, take.
Those little 'alleys' are their highways, and if you get your eye in for them, it can be an interesting ramble. Follow them and you can see where they dug up the worms (that make up a huge part of the diet of foxes and badgers, especially at this time of year) you might find where an owl sits and coughs up pellets, or find where the squirrel has been taking apart pinecones to get to the seeds....and that's when you spy the small movements that give away that there's more than you in the woods. If you stir up the leaf litter a bit you might find a robin coming for a nosey, and the blackbird too, but in a mature deep pine wood there's not all that much moving around anyway. Sterile 'crops' like those are fine if you're after moths, and fungi in season, resin and the like, but they're kind of deserts in some ways. Best woodlands are active ones with gaps where new life is competing for the space, where the woodland floor plants can get enough light in season to come on, grow bulbs and seeds. The woodland edges are always more varied too.
If you come across ivy, it's amazing how many birds and insects use it for shelter, and for finding food too.

I live next to an overgrown old mineral railway line that originally had hedges along it. Now those hedges are trees 60 and 70' high, where they've blown down, or been coppiced, new younger trees and shrubs are coming up. It runs parallel to a burn, and it's all in all a kind of wildlife corridor.
It's quiet at this time of year, but it's not dead. Squirrels, dozens of different birds, deer, badgers, foxes, etc., all use it.
Soon, it'll look like this again,

My husband has an uncanny knack of seeming to be almost invisible to the wildlife. He regularly meets foxes, hares, deer, etc., when he's out for a walk, and they come within a couple of metres of him before they realise he's there He's just a naturally quiet walker.
There are seals in the river, that come out on the bank just now, and otters, but he's not managed it with them yet He keeps hoping though.

 

[saxonaxe]

" Saxon Axe? if you whistle long, long, long on a slow almost steady note"

Thanks for that Toddy, I'll give that a go. Buzzard numbers here have increased greatly in the past few years, so thankfully they are not an uncommon sight/sound now.
It's nice to witness the cycle of life in the wood. A couple of years ago I was camped in the wood about Yule time and listened to the screams of the vixen on her mating forays. I knew where her Den was and later in the year while camped in the wood I got a visit one evening from her cubs...Curious, like all youngsters...




Sitting by the fire with the camera handy, I just caught them being nosey as the daylight faded...

 

[MrEd]

" Saxon Axe? if you whistle long, long, long on a slow almost steady note"

Thanks for that Toddy, I'll give that a go. Buzzard numbers here have increased greatly in the past few years, so thankfully they are not an uncommon sight/sound now.
It's nice to witness the cycle of life in the wood. A couple of years ago I was camped in the wood about Yule time and listened to the screams of the vixen on her mating forays. I knew where her Den was and later in the year while camped in the wood I got a visit one evening from her cubs...Curious, like all youngsters...




Sitting by the fire with the camera handy, I just caught them being nosey as the daylight faded...

That’s special, I love when stuff like that happens

Going over and over to te same place is worthwhile as you learn what’s there and during wht season.

 

[Darryl of Sussex]

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy all seasons for what they are and our garden bird feeders are teaming with life, so i’m in no hurry to see the end of one and beginning of another. I also enjoy being able to see further and hear more in the woods, as the branches are still bare, even though that also means that I can also be seen and heard more easily. I think what i’m really looking for, are places where i’m not trying so hard to not encounter other humans and their dogs; difficult in S.E UK and more so where pay and display parking exists.
Today i’m heading over to Houghton Forest (Sussex) with my shiny new stove, some water and a few tea bags, just for the fun of it.

 

[MrEd]

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy all seasons for what they are and our garden bird feeders are teaming with life, so i’m in no hurry to see the end of one and beginning of another. I also enjoy being able to see further and hear more in the woods, as the branches are still bare, even though that also means that I can also be seen and heard more easily. I think what i’m really looking for, are places where i’m not trying so hard to not encounter other humans and their dogs; difficult in S.E UK and more so where pay and display parking exists.
Today i’m heading over to Houghton Forest (Sussex) with my shiny new stove, some water and a few tea bags, just for the fun of it.

You just need to explore more. Pick a wood that’s off the beaten track, has a footpath, or bridleway through it, that doesn’t have p+p parking nearby and that’s out of town.

Places I go I often end up parking in a lay-by on a country lane, and then walking in. I deliberately avoid the ‘overly public wooded areas (tilgate park, places like that etc) with convenient parking in favour of the random woods outsider villages etc. Get a 1:25000 OS map and have a look, loads of places on the downs.

That’s how you avoid dog walkers etc.
Also aim to get to a sussex bushcraft club meet, near arundel

 

[Darryl of Sussex]

You’re right. I do tend to visit the same places, as they're easy and I enjoy seeing them through the seasons but the sooner I find new places where I can enjoy being there with permission to carve logs into splinters instead of spoons and flint into heaps of even more flint, the better

 

[Toddy]

ehm, on that note. Don't flake flint and leave the shards lying around, especially not in woodlands where others share the space.
They are razor sharp, they will cut your boots just as easily as they will a dog's pads. Fieldwalking and finding flint shards we're still careful picking them up thousands of years after they were flaked.

M

 

[Darryl of Sussex]

ehm, on that note. Don't flake flint and leave the shards lying around, especially not in woodlands where others share the space.
They are razor sharp, they will cut your boots just as easily as they will a dog's pads. Fieldwalking and finding flint shards we're still careful picking them up thousands of years after they were flaked.

M

Quite right. Fear not for i’m a careful and considerate chap, but I appreciate you mentioning it all the same.

 

[MrEd]

ehm, on that note. Don't flake flint and leave the shards lying around, especially not in woodlands where others share the space.
They are razor sharp, they will cut your boots just as easily as they will a dog's pads. Fieldwalking and finding flint shards we're still careful picking them up thousands of years after they were flaked.

M

Yes excellent point. Well said

 

[Nice65]

What stove did you get Darryl?

Good day for something warm to drink in the woods today, we didn’t lose the frost until late morning. I’m missing not being able to walk far more and more, sooner I get this hip rebuilt the better.

I had a lovely experience at Houghton a few years ago, down along the river where I suggested to you. The old quarries there team with wildlife. I woke early one morning and clambered up the steep path to the top to watch the sun come up. A gorgeous Spring morning, I just sat still and let the rays warm me. I caught movement in the corner of my eye and kept very still as Mrs Weasel checked for predators. Once she was sure, she scurried back into the bushes and brought out her 3 baby weasels for a play. So much fun to watch, a rare treat as they tumbled and rolled about having weaselly fun.

 

[MrEd]

What stove did you get Darryl?

Good day for something warm to drink in the woods today, we didn’t lose the frost until late morning. I’m missing not being able to walk far more and more, sooner I get this hip rebuilt the better.

I had a lovely experience at Houghton a few years ago, down along the river where I suggested to you. The old quarries there team with wildlife. I woke early one morning and clambered up the steep path to the top to watch the sun come up. A gorgeous Spring morning, I just sat still and let the rays warm me. I caught movement in the corner of my eye and kept very still as Mrs Weasel checked for predators. Once she was sure, she scurried back into the bushes and brought out her 3 baby weasels for a play. So much fun to watch, a rare treat as they tumbled and rolled about having weaselly fun.

Hats a lovely part of the county, all along that area is lovely, you can be high up on the ridge and feel miles from anywhere

 

[Darryl of Sussex]

What stove did you get Darryl?

Good day for something warm to drink in the woods today, we didn’t lose the frost until late morning. I’m missing not being able to walk far more and more, sooner I get this hip rebuilt the better.

I had a lovely experience at Houghton a few years ago, down along the river where I suggested to you. The old quarries there team with wildlife. I woke early one morning and clambered up the steep path to the top to watch the sun come up. A gorgeous Spring morning, I just sat still and let the rays warm me. I caught movement in the corner of my eye and kept very still as Mrs Weasel checked for predators. Once she was sure, she scurried back into the bushes and brought out her 3 baby weasels for a play. So much fun to watch, a rare treat as they tumbled and rolled about having weaselly fun.

I turn 50 this year, so among other things, I have been treated to a Solostove Titan...

If you need me to pick you up to go for a very gentle stroll, please ask, as I work odd hours and can often plan to make time for shenanigans. It doesn’t have to be a mission

Houghton is home to a multitude of ‘wildlife’ and has never let me down.

 

[Robson Valley]

Learn to sit still. Nice65 found out how well it works. Rare treat is right.
Become familiar with a few places. I see more as a result, I like to think that I know where to look.

Our logging roads end in the forest. They never loop around to come out somewhere else.
We drive to places and stop. Find a place to sit. Don't move. Watch down the trails 50-100 yards.
Maybe rearrange a whole bunch of deadfalls to make a hide, a blind.
Bring burlap/hessian coffee bean bags to make it opaque (then you can wiggle!)
Watch a pair of wolves pronking on mice and voles. They never knew I was there.

 

[Nice65]

Very kind of you chap. Nice stove too.

I’m ok with the driving, though I’d like an automatic really. Couple of trekking poles and walking isn’t too bad for a bit of a mooch around with the dogs. It’s the silly things, getting up from sitting, over-reaching the bad side if I slip etc. My doc wanted me to put the op off as long as I could so it lasts into later life, but I’ve done that and enough’s enough.