The new ride's done

Back in late September we (sort of) completed the development of the new ride. A good start, but it will need to be widened. We  felled  the birch at each side, and a forester was employed  to fell a few pines at the Hawkins Pond end. This has made a great visual difference to the wood, creating a clear view from the ride to the pond, with the large Scots Pine framed against the water.

For more photos- click link
Creating the new ride

July

 We ignored the prolonged bad weather of winter 2010/11 and created a new ride to give views of the pond. It will do for the time being but needs to be widened. Some of the spindly  birch has been cleared around the sallow to create better conditions for this to thrive in the planned ' willow grove'. There's some regeneration along the ride edge and in the birch clearing, though  regrowth might have  been eaten by deer. There's some improvement along the road edge and at the sunnier end of the ride as a result of  our determined bracken control .

 The kingfisher didn't  appear again after the winter, and although a single great crested grebe was seen earlier in the year, there has been no breeding this summer.  No sign of the white admiral butterfly either. It is not clear if this is because they have been absent, or just been missed. Perhaps  rideside clearing has destroyed some  honeysuckle they use as a foodplant, although there is  still plenty of it growing  in shady locations next to the ride edges.

Sightings: A  group  of newly fledged birds including most of the tits,  young nuthatch, (with much duller plumage than their colourful parents) , and a family of treecreepers. Blackcap and chiffchaff were singing in the wood, rather surprising ,   as the wood lacks the shrubby growth they prefer.
A  grass snake on the ride,  sidling away rapidly up the bank . A short distance further on,  the loud  screeching of jays, which continued for some time before  3 emerged from the pines in pursuit of a tawny owl, whom they had disturbed from its roost.  Over the willow grove,  a small bank vole emerged from the scrub to explore nearby  logs  holding  a piece of bread in his paws.  A Roe deer, an unusual sight at Old Copse, and redder and springier than  the Fallow deer we see all the time. 

Birds

This year geese have been flying in and departing several times a day. They use the full length of the Pond to get airborn and clear the trees at the pond's southern end. Usually and often alternately these are either a pair of canada geese or greylag geese. Neither have nested.

For the past two summers great crested grebes have produced a brood on the pond, three in 2010. A pair were present for a brief time early in the spring this year (2011) and a singleton more so, but they disappeared without breeding.

In the winter siskins were feeding in the tops of the birch and alder and on one occasion the siskin search led to redpoll. Neither species have been seen since leaves appeared.

In March ,  first sighting of a grey wagtail  feeding on insects in a wet area - a shallow waterlogged area in the alder grove.

Last year (2010) the only nest discovered had been made by a blackbird in the top of the 'tipi' structure made of long poles on the side of the ride. This had been constructed when there was minimal disturbance during the week. Unfortunately the female blackbird was spooked by nearby timber moving activities at the weekend and the nest was abandoned. Many of the woodland birds have produced young ,  including  fledgling marsh tits, a red listed species.

A  bluetits nest hole was seen high in the alder grove. Around the third week of May a further bluetits nest was found in a deep crevice at the foot of a birch about two feet from the ground along the the Pond path. That same week  loud 'feed me' calls were located coming from a nest hole about twenty feet or so up a willow tree in the alder grove. This was a great spotted woodpeckers nest. The adults appeared to be wary of going to the hole  while we could be seen so we retreated to cover where we could just about see the hole. We waited patiently for some time before discovering the activity was at a second and less obvious hole higher in the same tree. Patience was rewarded with views of the adult perching outside to feed the young birds inside. After the adult departed, often a head would briefly appear from inside the hole. Two days later they were seen again. This time the almost fully fledged young had their bodies half way out of the hole when being fed giving excellent views of their juvenile plumage with red cap.These birds had fully fledged by June and fledgling woodpeckers and tits could be seen and heard.

In June an active corvids nest was discovered at the top of a scots pine within the alder grove. Unfortunately a clear view was not possible. Calls suggested jackdaw but there were carion crows also calling in the locality.On 13th June a heron was spotted landing on a fishing swim by the pond.

In May a very young mallard family with eight ducklings was seen on the pond but they seem to hide in the rushes.

 Since the two prolonged snowfalls and frozen pond of winter 2009/10 the  kingfisher was only seen once in 2010. Since a further period of snow and frozen pond at Christmas 2010 the kingfisher has not been seen so far in 2011. The unresolved mystery is a call  heard several times in April which may have been a rarely seen lesser spotted woodpecker. 

Winter comes early

4th of December and after four days of snow and freezing temperatures, the thaw has come and we are back above freezing. Visits to the wood have been out this week due to icy roads. The snow has now gone but all is raw, damp and dripping.

Over the autumn we have made slow but steady progress, with at least one day's work being done every week. Thinning on the east side of the ride is just about finished, although there will always be more to take out. With the leaves gone,  the results of our work are clear to see. The crowns of the young oaks are free from encroaching birch.  At the other end nearer the gate there are fewer oaks and we have not thinned back so far. The wood here is narrower and we need to leave growth between the ride and the road.

Disposing of the cut timber is now more organised. The cut timber is neatly in the cords awaiting the firewood man. The brash is now off the ride, in loose heaps out of sight and the excess has gone on the bonfire or into the dry hedge. We have enjoyed several bonfires, and are amazed at toughness of the rhododendron which refuses to burn away despite a roaring birch fire on the top of it.
At last we have our permissions and can start work on the rest of the wood. The plan for the winter months is to work on three areas:

• clearing the willow grove of birch 
• creating a new ride down to the pond
• thinning the west side of the ride 

Wet conditions are likely to hamper work in the main body of the wood, so when it is too wet to work on the slope we will thin from the ride - thinning around the trees we want to keep, and then reviewing.

During the autumn we have met several unexpected visitors who were very curious about what we were trying to do. One of the most interesting was an elderly man, out walking three dogs. He had known Old Copse since he was a boy, and remembered it from before it was sold by the timber company, when it was full of magnificent mature beeches. He also remembered the charcoal burners who set up camp in what is now the Forestry Commission  car park. They would stay for months, burning the charcoal in a large metal kiln.

Still working on the ride

Last Sunday we were joined by Milo, a 15 year old doing his Duke of Edinburgh Award, whose father was keen to get him working during the summer holidays. We found his youthful energy and muscle power an  invaluable help, and he and Sarah used the bowsaw to fell 10 trees along the ride nearest the gate, some big ones included. Milo enjoyed the felling process but  importantly was equally enthusiastic in sawing them up into required cord lengths, and even more importantly cheerfully hauled every last scrap of brushwood , which is the tedious hard work part,  to add to the dry fence started earlier in the year. Result, nothing left on the ride to inhibit the flora.  While he and Sarah were busy with this task I shifted 4 huge piles of thin logs left on the ride to the 'firewood' pile near the gate. Now there are just a couple of large brushwood piles and thin log piles up near the top end of the ride  to get rid of.  We plan to continue thinning  from the gate up, disposing of the trees one at a time as we go. I think this will keep us occupied for a while.

During a rest  from labour I spotted a comma butterfly, on a large patch of flat , bright orange fungus on the right of the ride looking north. We also disturbed some fallow deer, a doe and her fawn - I hadn't seen any for months - they seem to have lots to eat elsewhere in the woods. I had my camera with me but as usual forgot to use it ........

Summer

As the summer progresses a variety of wild flowers have begun to appear along the ride. Many of these are yellow to attract pollinating insects and a number are ancient woodland indicator species. These include slender st John's wort, yellow pimpernel, tormentil and tutsan.

A clump of scrub near the entrance to the wood is particularly species rich and attracting huge numbers of butterflies, bees and insects. Bramble is a great crowd puller, but nettle, hedge woundwort, birds foot trefoil, lesser stitchwort, germander speedwell and heather are all currently part of the mix, while lady's smock, bugle, ground ivy and wild strawberry have all been and gone, and now thistles are beginning to appear .


 Foxgloves are replacing  the fading bluebells and figwort has appeared along an old moss covered ditch. Although the flowers appear insignificant, they lure pollinating insects with an unpleasant smell.

It's hoped that more flowers will appear next year in some of the thinned areas. Bracken dominates much of the wood and may be suppressing the growth of other plants and preventing them from producing flowers, so Sarah and I  have started bracken bashing in selected areas.


 Honeysuckle has appeared in the tree tops and along the ride and woodland edges. Although looking scrappy in some places, in others there has been a beautiful display of flowers and there are seedlings in many parts of the wood.   With the right conditions these may scramble up to produce further plants in the future.

The white admiral lays its eggs on honeysuckle and  one  was seen flying along the ride today, although it was too fast and too far away to  photograph.

Much more obliging was the silver washed fritillary  on bramble . Click on the picture to see the silver wash on the underwing from which it gets its name. Also feeding on this thicket were numerous meadow brown, large skipper and an unidentified female blue butterfly. A comma was also seen sunning itself on an oak tree along the ride.

Spring

The primrose is an ancient woodland indicator species in the south of England. There is a clump beyond the gate and a few plants scattered in the grassy area just beyond the entrance.It will be interesting to see if this species returns next year in response to thinning of trees along the woodland ride to allow more light to penetrate.

Wood sorrel is another ancient indicator species associated with damp woods. The  flower has pale lilac striped petals and trefoil leaves. It is present throughout the wood in damp areas, but is most common  along the margins. Other early flowering species are both dog and early dog violet, with  heart shaped leaves, ground ivy, an evergreen member of the mint family with mauve flowers, and coltsfoot, which is situated in the grassy area near the gate. This yellow dandelion like plant is typical of disturbed ground, and a distinctive feature is that the flowers appear before the hoof shaped leaves.

The most common plant is the bluebell, yet another ancient woodland indicator and very typical of weald woodlands. These flowers are just beginning to appear,  by next month they will  spread throughout the wood. Not yet in flower, but beginning to appear are lords and ladies, with arrow shaped leaves, and an unidentified currant. Both are growing near the old embankment along the Grouse Road boundary.

Sightings: This tawny owl was seen roosting in the wood one sunny morning. A further probable sighting occurred on a subsequent visit when a large greyish bird with shortish wings was disturbed near the quarry and flew away towards the road and disappeared.