Spring work party at Old Copse

As usual we had quite a long list for the Spring work party of  Old Copse deerstalkers. We stayed overnight to be there for their arrival. It was a treat to wake up to a wood full of early morning birdsong and sunlight through the trees.

The day's work list included:

Putting up a temporary deer fencing enclosure around the new tree nursery raised beds.

The Scots Pine are perfect for wrapping and  attaching  the fencing

Banging in sturdy stakes along the roadside verge to help deter motorists who like to pull in to throw out their litter.

Sturdy stakes - now with added reflectors

Protecting a row of young hedging plants that were nibbled by deer with a chicken wire fence and an inner line of tape. Apparently deer are reluctant to jump over what appears to be a double fence. We shall have to wait and see if this is the case. It doesn't look very attractive now but once the plants grow up it'll be hidden.

Next winter's firewood logged and stacked.

It was a glorious  sunny day to be working in the wood, and a good day's work was done. Many thanks to Mark and his crew. They are doing a great job managing the fallow deer population . This can be seen  in the explosion of new plant growth  this Spring. It is only 3 weeks into the closed season  which lasts until August 1st, so there is still plenty of time for the deer to do their damage, but  there is so much growing  it's difficult to see how they can eat the lot. We've started to see the occasional deer in the wood again, mostly young ones, but not,so far, the large groups of them that we used to see.