It was with some reluctance I set off to the woods yesterday. I needed to go to finish the W.T. photographs but for once there was a certain lack of enthusiasm. We have had another wet week and as I headed off early in the mist, my mood was sombre and unenthusiastic. But that’s just the way it is sometimes. The whole woods felt dank and dreary and hardly a sound as I donned my boots. “What am I doing here on a day like this” ran through my head. Then another thought, “Just enjoy it for what it is. Seeing the woods in another light adds a different dimension, just see what the day brings”. I wasn’t going to be disappointed.

Before long my friendly robin appeared, bringing a tiny ball of fiery life. I was prepared and had some dried mealworms in my pocket which I offered out in my hand. It skirted around me a few times, eyeing me with those tiny coal-black eyes, flying close but not landing. After ten minutes I placed them on a log, but it still didn’t seem interested. Despite what the packet says, I don’t think they particularly like them! At lunch time it soon joined me again and a small crumb of bread tempted it onto my hand. It followed me around the woods all day. Every time I moved and started another activity it was there, curious, running around my feet or landing on a nearby twig. That little bird lifted my spirits no end.

I checked the pond and was pleased to see a small movement on the surface. It was weird. A small, translucent grub with a long tail which seemed to be moving along the underside of the water’s surface, as if it was the ceiling of the pond. I tried to take a closeup but the camera focus failed to lock onto it. Back home, good old Google helped me ID it as the gruesome sounding rat-tailed maggot. Well it gets better because it turns out to be the larval stage of a Drone fly which is a harmless hover fly that looks rather like a bee. The tail is actually a kind of snorkel, allowing it to breathe under water. So I have my first sign of life inhabiting my new pond – exciting!

The day brightened in the afternoon and I headed to the hazel copse to do some work. A flock of long tailed tits flitted about the tops of the taller trees. Somewhere not far away a tawny owl hooted and my spirits lifted another few notches. I spotted a semi-circle of beautiful small fungi which I think are Goblet Funnels pseudoclitocybe cyathiformis

I was surprised to see one hazel tree full of catkins already. These are the male flowers which do apparently form in autumn and winter, stay closed like this until spring when the tiny female flowers form and the males open up to release their pollen. Life in the woods doesn’t rest for long.

There has been lots of flooding this week in some areas of the UK and my woods are not far from the area but there was no problem getting through yesterday. Naturally the woods were very wet and many of the leaves are down but it is still looking pretty in it’s Autumnal colours. The pond was full of leaves so the first job was to scoop as many out as possible with a home made net. Someone gave me a chunk of pondweed, so I threw that in too and hope it will multiply and add some oxygen.

As I made coffee, a robin appeared, just as it had done last time, landing only a few feet away. It was clearly interested in me, so I quickly pulled a few crumbs off my sandwich and held my hand out to it. It came closer toward my hand. It hovered like a hummingbird then unsure, flew back to the branch. Eventually it plucked up courage to land and take a piece – fantastic. It flew to the ground to eat it then back onto a branch. Rather than come back for more, it started to sing loudly. My human brain thought, “How nice, it’s happy and saying thankyou”. I heard another robin respond then a coal tit arrived to check out the scene. Seeing no obvious food it didn’t stay. My theory is that when food appears, some of the small birds announce it to others. It doesn’t quite make sense as you would think they would like to keep it to themselves, avoiding competition. But time and again, as soon as I put food at the feeders, several birds will appear within minutes.

I wonder if any bats have taken up residence in the bat box. Can you spot it?

My main visit was to meet some neighbours and  agree some new locations for the W.T. fixed photography project. Two of the locations I was taking were showing no signs of progress, so I wanted some new ones where active management is being, or will soon be done. That took up the bulk of my time but I did take some time to have a good look around and see what I could find. I came across something that looked quite gruesome, a grey ball containing various small bones and what appeared to be bird claws. It was about an inch in diameter and I recognised it as most likely and owl pellet.

For those of you that don’t know what that is – a brief description. Owls will swallow small animals whole, bones, feathers, fur and all. Their stomachs will digest the meat but all the indigestible bits get rolled up into a pellet which the owl eventually regurgitates and spits out. Examining these pellets will give some clues as to what the bird ate. Looking at this one puzzled me. It appears to be the foot of quite a large bird. The claws are way too big to be a normal woodland species that you might expect it to predate such as robins, blackbirds, bluetits etc. I had to take it apart to see more clearly what it was. It is a whole foot and part of the lower leg. The bobbly white material gave me a clue. It’s the pads on the underside of some sort of predatory bird.

The watch wasn’t in the pellet by the way, ha! Now I would have been worried when camping. That’s just to show it’s size. I thought only owls produced pellets but many others do too including larger predators such as hawks etc. Owls have also been known to eat each other and this appears to be the foot of a Tawny Owl. Maybe it was a vulnerable young one earlier in the year. So who got the meal and why eat the least nutritious part? I’m guessing that whatever ate it, didn’t kill it and was simply eating the remains of a carcass that had mostly been devoured already. Could have been another owl or maybe a buzzard.

Onto more pleasant subjects. The trailcam in it’s new position revealed shots of a fox and a pair of muntjac deer. The same position produced similar results a year ago. Sorry I haven’t got around to doing compilations of the pond clips yet. I’ll leave you with a few photos of my walkabout.

Jelly Ear fungus (used to be known as Jews’ Ear)

Yesterday’s visit was a special one in several ways. I’ve been mooting the idea of doing an out of season overnight camping trip but having never done one before and there are a few issues giving me some concern. One aspect is cooking and spending a whole evening in the dark. Also I am always reluctant to leave late afternoon after a good day in the woods so I decided to try it out. The weather forecast was rain in the morning, then clearing by midday – wrong! The first part was right but the rain and the cooking in the dark provided a very fulfilling and different aspect to my woodland experiences. Stay tuned.

I arrived just after dawn and sat in my car to watch leaves falling like rain. They are at the stage where many are just hanging on by a thread and the slightest breeze or patter of rain sends them fluttering down in showers of brown, gold and yellow. It was like a weird and beautiful striptease act put on by, errrr – trees! I marvelled at how nature wastes nothing, unlike humans who waste most things! The leaves will be consumed by myriads of recyclers – invertebrates, fungi, bacteria who will enrich the soil ready to feed the trees and the new growth next year.

It was drizzling so I decided to spend the wet morning in my shelter. I had a couple of jobs to do and I fancied making a long handled spoon for my cooking pot. A nice filter coffee kick started the morning and I set-to with a small piece of fresh sycamore. First split it in half then debark it. Rough shaping is done with a sharp axe. Then the hollow is cut with a special curved knife and then the rest done with a straight knife. It didn’t need to be highly finished, just useable and took about an hour. The other half I used to make a small teaspoon sized one.

Well the drizzle turned to heavy rain which lasted until mid afternoon. It’s getting dark by 4pm now, so I started preparing a fire at my usual camp area. Just got it nicely going when it started to rain slightly again. How wrong had they got the forecast? Was it going to get heavier? I didn’t want to risk it as I hadn’t provided any shelter there. Decision time – take the easy route, pack up and go home or try to be resourceful? The first option equals failure and lack of resolve, that’s the opposite of what I am trying to achieve. I quickly rebuilt a temporary fireplace where the old one at the permanent shelter is but I didn’t want to have to start a new fire. Brainwave, move the fire that was already established but how? I have an old metal dustbin that I keep the bird food in. I took the biggest embers and put them in the lid and carried it (coughing and with eyes stinging) around to the new site. A bit of blowing on it and it was away again. A friendly robin came to check me out while all this was going on.

My meal was to be a veggie sausage casserole cooked in the dutch oven.  I believe the key to successfully negotiating cooking and moving about the woods in the dark is to be well prepared beforehand and organised in the way you work. Get all the gear you need down to the site before dark. Be aware of where you are putting things down and put things away back  in their bags or whatever you brought them in as soon as you have finished with them. A head torch is invaluable leaving both hands free.The cooking process was fairly easy, I’ve done enough before to be quite confident now but doing it in the dark is harder. The results? Yeah not bad and fitted the mood of Guy Fawkes night, bonfires and surroundsound fireworks.

After clearing up, I took a short walk around some of the woodland rides just for the adventure and possible wildlife sighting. A male Tawny owl hooted nearby and a mouse scuttled into the undergrowth. Fungi stood out in the torchlight and I was probably the only human, alone in this dark and beautiful place. Far from feeling afraid I felt nurtured and protected. As I said at the start, it was a unique day. The rain and the darkness pushed me to another level of appreciation of the amazing place I have the privelege to be part of. There was an intimacy somehow that is not so obvious during nice sunny weather. The woodlands somehow seem to enfold you and at the same time make you more alive. Definitely worth doing and definitely repeat at some point.