Yesterday morning was a beautiful cold sunny one, ideal for a day in my woods. I’d arranged to meet Robin (apt name) from the Woodland Trust for a review of the work I’ve done and moving forward with my plans. The WT have a project to help small woodland owners to restore their ancient woodland and have given lots of free advice on looking after it and improving it. Robin made a management plan for me shortly after I took ownership and I thought it would be good for a re-visit to see how I am progressing and ask a few questions on future plans. We agreed to meet around 11am so I had a couple of hours to do some jobs, have a brew and a walkabout.

I had several aims. Plant up some wild primroses and wood sorrel I had acquired, erect a new bird nest box I made from a sycamore log and try out my new trail camera. The main task was to clear up the brash I had left lying about after my last thinning session, ready for some new planting very soon. Primroses already grow here and there but in small numbers. I want to increase the variety and quantities of ground cover to make it a more interesting wood. I had about 6 plants so found suitable spots scattered around the wood to place them in. Hopefully they will multiply in future. I have not found any wood sorrel in my wood and would like a patch or two. It is an interesting culinary plant. It contains oxalic acid and when you chew it, it tastes like cooking apples.

I fixed my trailcam on a tree pointing at a bird feeder to leave it while I worked. This was my first time using it and meant as an experiment and learning curve. I brought it home again to review my results. Disappointing. I must have set it to take stills (could have sworn I selected video) and also I had it too close to the subject which is slightly blurred. Mostly the birds chose to use the feeder hole on the other side so are obscured from the camera. So a few lessons learned, will do better next time.

I set to and started clearing the huge piles of brash I left when I ran out of time last visit. I used it to extend the nearby dead-hedge I made a while ago. I have to say these hedges are doing their job for the small birds. There is always a robin or wren bobbing about in them. The job entailed first sawing off the banches into manageable sizes, dragging them across to the hedge and placing them between the line of retaining posts. That alone wouldn’t make a dense hedge, so the technique I have used is then to ram more branches, thick end first, between the gaps in the other ones. It’s surprising how many branches you can cram into a small space as they compress down. It’s also very hard physical work but quite satisfying. This is how it’s looking now, the extended part is on the left. The hedge forms a small barrier around the NE corner between my wood and the track.

There are still a few thin tree trunks lying around that need to be cut up into logs but the whole area is looking quite tidy and ready for some new planting. The log pile has grown considerably too and will need splitting and restacking to dry out and season. That’s a job for spring, which is not far away now.

I made another bird nest box from a sycamore log. It’s an easy method if you can get the log to split where you want it and it fits in with the woodland in a natural looking way. Basically you take a freshy cut log about one foot long and 8 inches diameter. You split it lengthwise four times to create four sides and a square section left over from the middle. You then saw a piece off the bottom of the square about 2 inches thick. If you were successful in getting the side pieces to split think enough, you can then put them back together along with the bottom slice and nail it up, re-creating your log but with a hollow square section inside. Drill an entrance hole in the front and a screw hole in the back for mounting and some drainage holes in the bottom. I cut the top with a slope and made a roof from some exterior plywood and Bob’s your uncle, a nest box. Allow it to dry out a little before putting it up. It might be a bit late in the season now for birds to adopt it but we’ll see.

During my lunch break I sat where the bird feeders are and noticed a lot of activity. Earlier I had seen two buzzards overhead. I was rewarded with a new sighting – a greater spotted woodpecker. I had my binocs so got a good look as it worked it’s way up a tree, pecking at insects. The black and white plummage with a crimson red rump is absolutley stunning to see. Here’s a stock photo of one, I couldn’t get close enough to photograph it myself but who knows, in the future I might catch one with the trail cam. Until then – over and out.