I thought of Ladysmith Black Mambazos’ song – Rain Rain Beautiful Rain as I drove down to the woods yesterday. Except it hasn’t been beautiful for us! The photo above is a residential road in the town where I live during storm Ciara. It’s next to a river which has flooded twice in the last two weeks. I have lived here most of my life and this only used to occur maybe once in five or ten years. It’s an indication of what the experts keep telling us about climate change. We have had two named storms – Ciara and Dennis plus an almost equally strong unnamed storm this weekend and all in the space of two weeks. I’ve been getting cabin fever and woodland withdrawal symptoms. So although the forecast wasn’t great for yesterday, I needed to get down to the woods to check for any storm damage and some nature therapy.

I arrived early and met one of my woodland neighbours at the gate. He had a car full of bird boxes to put up and we chatted for a while. I had made a rustic box designed for Tree Creepers from the slices of wood I cleaved from his logs from the last visit. I had hoped it would work out well but it was very difficult to make and probably the last one I’ll attempt. These tiny birds normally nest under a piece of loose bark or a crevice somewhere’ so the design is very different to normal bird boxes. It’s wedge shaped and the entrance hole is right at the top and near the back of the box. I think it looks great now it’s fixed and blends in nicely.

I had a long list of small jobs I wanted to do – fix the bird box, drop the hung up tree from last time, take some firewood home, dig up a few plants to edge ponds with, stake up some saplings that had blown over. I managed to achieve all of it which was very satisfying. Before Spring comes I would like to have thinned out more sycamore trees but the windy weather makes that impossible. I think I’ve taken about fifteen down this winter which sounds a lot but has hardly scratched the surface with what needs doing. You can see from this photo there are plenty to go at still and plenty of work to clear up afterwards.

The good news is that no trees have been damaged during the storms and the hung up tree left from felling at the last visit, was relatively easy to bring down safely. I am building a small pond at home now and want some suitable plants to edge it with. There are clumps of Wood Sedge growing all over my woods. It’s looks like a clump of grass on steroids. I dug up a few small clumps to take home and also put a few more around my woodland pond. There’s no sign of life in that one yet but it’s still early. I shall order some oxygenating plants soon for both ponds which should improve their chances. Spring is starting to peep through now. I spotted the first brave shoots of Wood Anemones. and these Wild Garlic leaves.

The morning had started out calm but by mid morning, the wind had started gusting strongly. The tops of the lanky sycamore will crash and clatter together in an alarming way. The danger is not so much of trees blowing over but of dead branches detaching from the crown. So when it gusts hard, it’s time to pause from what you are doing and watch the trees above you. These dead branches are known as widow makers for good reason!

The sun came out frequently and lit up the woodland colours beautifully. After a busy day I took time for a slow walk and some photos. It’s always a joy just to take in the visual beauty and photography acts like a catalyst for me. Looking for potential photos slows your walk down and encourages you to really look. I’ll leave you with a few.

Primroses pushing through.

Storm Ciara was on it’s way and due to peak in the early hours of this morning but the forecast for yesterday was giving warnings of strong winds too. I really wanted to get down to the woods again, so many jobs to get done before Spring, so I decided to chance it. Most likely not as bad as predicted but probably too windy for felling but I took the chainsaw to cut up some of the ones still lying on the ground. I arrived nice and early to a calm woodland. Lots of bird calls and the sun just up. I savour this moment – a full day of woodland therapy and a feeling of contentment washes over me.

I decided to get stuck in with the chainsaw whilst it was calm and take a few small sycamore down. You think the small ones are going to be a doddle but that’s not the case. True to form the first one got badly hung up and despite undercutting it and lots of pulling sideways with a rope, it wouldn’t budge. It wasn’t too far from the ride so I backed the car in as close as I could, took the rope around another tree so that I was at right angles to the one that needed to come down, then tied it to the tow bar and inched forward. It worked brilliantly.

The next tree got hung up even worse, a forked branch lodged between another fork of a nearby tree. No way I could bounce it out so undercutting was on the cards. I don’t like this technique. Basically the tree is at an angle, so you cut from underneath about 3-4 feet from the base (which will be embedded in the soil now that you have attempted to fell it). When you cut through, the main part of the tree will fall down and toward the tree it is stuck in and the weight of it will drop it down by the amount you cut off. Sometimes that is enough to pull it out but this one had a lot of length still where it was jammed. A second undercut was still not enough. The more times you undercut it, the more upright and therefor dangerous to release. The tree is now almost straight up but embedded in the soil. No amount of pulling on the rope would budge it and it was too far away to get the car to it. I think the only way now is to winch it out. I have one at home so for now I have simply roped it off to warn others about it. The ride is rarely used and it’s so well stuck it’s not likely to come down unless of course (fingers crossed (storm Ciara lends a hand).

The tree in the middle is the hung up one. It looks small but it’s bigger and heavier than you think.

It was time for a brew. I brought my vintage Soviet made camping stove. Haven’t used it for about a year and I remembered how much I liked it. It’s just a cool looking piece of kit and does the job really well and perfect for my dinky little kettle. I love the little coffee filter too, can’t beat real coffee.

I took two more small trees down o.k. then after lunch headed to my pal’s woodland plot. We had been talking about making bird boxes and I have plans for a Tree Creeper nest box made from slices of bark covered logs. Steve has just felled some big Ash trees and kindly allowed me to have a go at cleaving some to have a go at the boxes. Ash splits beautifully and I loaded my wheelbarrow with potential pieces. I’ll have a go at making one this week.

I finished the afternoon shifting big logs, taking down deer netting from the coppiced hazel and heading home exhausted but highly satisfied. Good useful day.

Yesterday’s visit was busy and satisfying but also revealed a sad discovery. It was one that touched my heart deeper than expected and raised a question about how I feel about Nature. The main tasks of the day were to take my quarterly fixed point photos for the Woodland Trust and to clear out and check the bird nest boxes. Out of the fifteen boxes, only a couple had not been used. I remove the old nesting material, mainly moss and this is what I found in one of them. How would you describe it – gruesome? For me it was heart breaking. What appears to be an adult bluetit that has died on the nest while sitting on an egg. I wondered what had caused it to die and my woodland neighbour friend gave me a possible answer. Probably it was a second brood. He explained that the work of raising the first brood totally exhausts these tiny birds and trying to start a second brood is just too much for them.

Above photo -bluetit feeding

Why should I feel so sad? Am I just a complete softie? Yes, but there’s more to it than that. It made me ponder over my feelings for Nature and wildlife. Many people can say they have a love of Nature but that is similar to saying they have a love of chocolate or fast cars or sunny days. It just means they like it very much. You can say you love dogs but when you say “I love my dog” then that is totally different. It’s more than just liking something, it’s a feeling in your heart that is hard to describe. I’m sure we all know how that feels though. So what’s the difference? I reckon it’s through familiarity first, then a growing connection with the object that you love, be it a parent, child, dog etc. It doesn’t happen with chocolate or fast cars, it only seems to be with living things. We make a connection on a deeper level that somehow gives us these feelings we call love. Sometimes it manifests as joy, a warm and uplifting emotion and sometimes when we see our loved ones hurt or pass away, then it really hurts and saddens us too.

Above photo – Nuthatch feeding.

When I saw the little carcass of the bird and the unhatched egg, it made me realise how much I actually love these little creatures and that seems to be something that has turned from a love of Nature to a love for Nature. Since having my woodland, I have formed that connection with it and all the things that live there. It’s like a part of my family now. I guess that’s the difference and taking the dog analogy, you might be a dog lover but it’s only when you have formed a bond with a particular dog, that the true feeling of love arises.

To think about that tiny bird working itself to exhaustion just raises my admiration and love for it. It spends days foraging and building a nest, lays perhaps ten or more eggs, then constant trips back and forth foraging for food to feed them for the next three weeks. If that’s not enough, then they will often attempt a second brood. Burnt out with the effort, it passed away. If that doesn’t tug on your heart strings, then I don’t know what will. Sorry for such a long ramble about a dead bird but it had to come out!

The day was dry but very windy. At one point a fierce gust blew up causing these tall lanky sycamore trees to clap together loudly as the tops gyrated randomly, hitting each other. It was alarming to see that the heftier, older trees were moving significantly too. It’s easy to see how the weight and stress on them can cause them to topple or at least break large branches. This was Nature in a violent mood and one that deserves respect in a different way. You need to lift your eyes to the top of the trees to stay safe.

Lords and Ladies (Arum Maculatum)

Plants are starting to push through and some buds on trees are opening already, though it still looks very wintry. I’ll leave you with a few more photos.

Honeysuckle

Large old hazel – some nice walking stick material!