Work, work, work.

Hi, I've been tied up all week. These are images from last Sunday. The first is an adder, bet you knew that. then a coal tit, two blue tits and a great tit. Seen more birds than Hugh Hefner this week. And then it's a common lizard.
So what have I been doing? Well mixing paint, thats my main hobby pastime. I have been out in the community helping the lazy, basically doing their work for them. I had "The brilliant idea" (It's a secret). I spent a lot of quality time with my puppies, they do require a lot of quality time. And I started to set up a new web site. You can view it...here

Season of plenty.

"I hear a bird I don't recognise." That was the first thing I said to Sue as we entered the wood. It's not as if I can identify every bird by it's song but this was unfamiliar. Difficult to describe, sort of a squawk and a chirp and a mew all mixed up. It didn't take long to realise it was the squirrels and I've never heard them making so much noise. They were having a great time chasing each other about, high above us. They kept the fun going all afternoon. Teasing me but too high and too fast for my camera.
What was it all about? The first little breeze of wind brought acorns down around us like hailstones. The season of plenty was upon them.

And with the season comes the colours.



There is no great demand for bird feeders at this time of year. I have put mine out now to let the birds get used to them and don't expect to see results right away. So I am very pleased with what I am getting. Especially pleased to see this little scrapper.



Great tit- Parus major

Next up is a common lizard. I am pretty sure that's what it is. There are only two native lizards and the sand lizard is rare and confined to heathland. I haven't seen one this colour before. He kept ducking back into the heather and he wouldn't pose for me but he did want to be out on this leaf catching some rays. Click on the photo to get closer.



Common lizard- Zootoca vivipara

Cool, I said there were only two lizards, that is such a stupid thing to say. Here is the third and my favourite, taken on the wayleave, some weeks ago.



Slow worm- Anguis fragilis

Women just can't help tidying up the place. Just leave the men to get on with the hard work of taking photo's and appreciating nature's bounty.



Here is a small quadruped, missing his big fluffy Maxie. Aw.



And finally....






This is the best pic.



Nuthatch-Sitta europaea

. . . _ _ _ . . . Comma

The butterffly is a Comma-Polygonia c-album


See the little white comma mark on the underside of his wing More





And the S.O.S? I think that was my Dendrocopus major, getting himself into trouble. The cavalry are coming and they ain't happy.

August

In August it rained. I am afraid that's about it for August, looks like commitments will keep me away from the wood next weekend, oh well, roll on September.
Despite the rain August was pretty good. Max and I got to spend some real quality time together. I am really pleased with the success of my bird hide and have put out two more feeders. We have discovered grass growing in the clearing and are pretty excited, you'll see why later, maybe next year. Buoyed on by the success of my bird hide (wait and see, I know about these things, it's gonna be great) I have a new project... a boar hide. I am becoming more and more convinced of the presence of these animals, from anecdotal evidence as I meet my neighbours and the very strange behaviour that I have seen from Max. Something in the wood is scaring him and Max doesn't do scared. Couple of times he has started growling and refused to move forward, even laying down to resist being pulled. He has even let me leave him and go on alone. On Sunday night he woke us about three am, growling and barking. I got up and went out to investigate and he stayed in the tent, very strange. He appeared to be hiding behind Sue. "You go, I'll protect the women". Yeah OK mate.

More on this project later, It will take a bit of time. Problems to resolve...


Little acorns.

The next is a picture of our clearing, taken by my neighbour Mike, last march. It is a pretty desolate sight. You could go through our clearing on a horse with no name.

Photo courtesy of Mike Pepler

All that is going to change. Eat your hearts out Cheech and Chong, we've got grass. Why is that important? Sue knows, she has started gardening it.



Remember last month, when I set out to do some seduction, well call me Cassanova.


Great spotted woodpecker-Dendrocopus major Red underpants?



You can see that I am having some problems getting good sharp pictures of my pecker. I think this is mostly because the hide is too far from the feeder (30 foot away) and the light in the wood is very poor. I am going to move the hide closer and pick all the leaves off the trees to allow more light in and just see if that helps.


This is "Shooters path" so called because it winds from the shooting chair to the campsite, passing some good old oaks and various interesting dead wood and it will be the access path to the boar hide. It is not finished yet.


And this is the third of my feeders, it's about halfway along "Shooters". The other feeder is on the edge of our campsite. It only went up on Saturday and by Sunday was being used by at least one nuthatch.

Let sleeping dogs lie
"Come a little closer. We only want to be friends. We really are asleep"
Sorry




And finally... If you are gonna camp in the rain, well what do you expect?

This beautiful little creature is a leopard slug-Limax maximus How much do you wanna know?


I like it.



There is one more thing I need to tell you about Limax maximus Don't eat them!

Under the stars

NEW FEATURE.
COOKING TIPS..with Max The Puppy

Perfect Sirloin Steak

1. Protect the cook from bears and wolves until dinner time.


2. Stand back and let her do her stuff...Oh yeah!

Next week... Polar Bears and Spare Ribs.



CAMP FIRE TALES; THE DUSK CHORUS.
The noise out there, as the sun goes down, can be extraordinary. Tawny owls kick it off. there are all sorts of unidentified shrieks and howls and then the foxes make a kill. Later the same foxes will join in the cacophony with a fantastic vocal repertoire of unearthly sound. It's quite something to lie back and listen to.
This particular night (Friday) Sue came hurriedly back to the camp, convinced that she had heard a pig squeal and although I laughed, I heard it a few minutes later and it sure did sound like a pig to me.
She woke me in the small hours to listen to the howling banshees and later confessed that she was quite worried until she realised that Max was sleeping by the door.
Max is no angel.Ha! Ha! Well, he's in charge of security. He's a dog, sometimes it's good to know he's around.
He reacts very differently to something he regards as prey and to something he regards as a threat. Prey gets chased, silently, no warning. A threat gets met with growling and barking. Anyway twice in the night he warned of a threat and once he got away from me and took off into the darkness. It could only have been a man or another dog, I've never seen him react that way to anything else. Whatever it was, it got away from him, so it wasn't a man and I didn't hear any yelping so it wasn't a dog.

MORNING.
I set out alone, hoping to find the cause of all the disturbances. There was nothing out there, a few little ginger dogs, no banshees.



It struck me again, how beautiful everything was.



And then we had a nice cup of tea.



This is Wild Arum or Cuckoos Pint (not what Sue's drinking, the next pic). Very common and quite poisonous, a drop of the juice would burn your mouth for hours and it can kill a child. Just as well to know these things.



Wild arum- Arum maculatum
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These are more of my Razorstrops. Birch polypore- Piptoporus betulinus. Pure as snow.

Trouble at the hide:

A masked bandit has been making free with our nuts. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to hide them in the trees.


Nuthatch- Sitta europaea
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And this is Bess. She is sixteen years old, she has an inner ear problem that causes her to stagger around, quite lopsided. And she has lost her marbles. None of this misfortune bothers her and she trots around the woodland paths, tail wagging away, oblivious to the search parties. Happy as Larry.


Tilly, chillin' (masterminding her takeover of the human race)

Friends and Not Friends

The rain knocked our hide down but that was ok, we rebuilt it a bit better this time.


We worked on our paths. This only really means sweeping leaves and dead wood out of the way. It is easily reversible and non invasive. The paths serve two purposes: They stop me from getting lost so often and they enable us to walk quietly from A to B, something the animals can't do.


Max found a little friend and got in touch with his gentle side.


We weren't able to get a positive id but it may be a Black cap. I'll try again.


Max singularly failed to get gentle with several rabbits. Two things I have found out about wild rabbits: They seldom survive for more than a year and don't stray more than 200 yards from thier burrow.


So Watership Down was made up then? More about rabbits


This buttefly is a common sight along the wayleave but no less valued.


Meadow brown-Maniola jurtina More

And finally, I am advised by experts that this is tatty and worthless. Fortunately I dont have expert eyes, I have the eyes of a colour matcher. You will see more of my Razorstrops.


Birch polypore-Piptoporous betulinus
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