Seems a long time since last visit – it was two weeks, though the last post was about 4 weeks ago. Nothing much to report on the last one. Well on Saturday I arrived early, took my usual walkabout and it was eerily silent, hardly a bird to be heard or seen. In fact I started to feel somewhat lonely. The pandemic has given me a lot of anxiety and fears for the future and often leaves me with a feeling of isolation. Not uncommon among many folks and nothing much we can do about that. Visits to the woods really helps me but I didn’t get the usual feeling of euphoria when I first arrived.
I had decided to do some more improvements on my camping area and sat for a while on the bench. I put some bird food out but no visitors came – they are usually there within minutes. So I left and carried on with my work in other areas, made a coffee and returned to sit while I drank it. At first there were no signs that birds had been to eat any food and I started to feel they had deserted my patch, maybe because I had stopped feeding through the summer. A tiny Coal Tit arrived, took a seed and flew off. Then slowly more birds came – Bluetits, Great Tits, several Nuthatches and Robins. My heart lifted and lightened. A squirrel walked down a small tree just a few metres away with a huge acorn in it’s mouth. It paused, checked me out and carried on it’s way. A flock of Long Tailed tits flew in and out of a nearby Elder tree. A tiny Tree Creeper was, well, creeping up a tree! Suddenly the area was full of life and animal activity. It was like a scene from a Disney cartoon. I no longer felt lonely and I felt blessed to have their company.
I got going with the metal detector and found some odd things. Some small, woody, nut-like objects were registering. Puzzled, I pulled one apart to find a flattened air gun pellet. I’m guessing they hit a log which later rotted away, leaving a coating of the wood around the pellet. Nearby was a tiny feather from a Jay. This has to be one of the most beautiful feathers I have seen (teaspoon just for scale). I wouldn’t have found if I hadn’t been detecting!
The next nearby signal got me excited. As I brushed the top soil away, a large flat metal object appeared which was firmly embedded in the earth. Looked like a container of some kind. Maybe someone had buried it to hide something valuable? My mind was going crazy at the thought. I eagerly dug around and pulled it out it to reveal what looked like a baking pan! All that was in it was soil and a large worm. I put two and two together. It had been fixed on a stump and used as target practice, hence the nearby pellets.
Other finds included some old tree straps with brass buckles, an electrical earthing clamp, a nail, a nut, some shotgun cases and something tiny as yet unidentified. Nothing of any monetary interest but interesting to see what’s lurking below the surface. One day eh?
It’s that time of year when fungi are emerging again. This one is unusual in it’s length of stem, no idea yet what it is. Can’t wait for my next visit now.
