14:00 – 17:00 (with Forestry England)
Overcast and dull. Occasional light drizzle but warm 23*C
The first day of rainfall in six weeks
As I walk in today from the Upper Quarter having left my bike in Asda nearby, I am shocked by the litter in this road-facing part of the Wood. I never came by this way before, but there has been a lot of fly-tipping recently. With Ranger’s help half an hour later we have put some of it into bags, but he will make a formal report to the council.
Waiting for him, up by the gate, I feel like a stranger. Four weeks is just about the longest absence I have experienced here in the last four years. There is a brief but uncomfortable disconnect.
The season is shifting – very few flowers now except for the Knapweed which has exploded splendidly everywhere, and Ragwort. The chestnuts and beeches are still magnificent, and several oaks are thick with formative acorns, but the Yews look week, ragged and desperate for water. Similar all the grasses – the recent long drought has taken its toll. But the colour palette is rich and diverse – gold, bronze yellow and purple, where the Ling heather is taking hold. Bracken is fading, changing. Autumn will come early, and the Rowan trees this year re the first to detect her approach, berries wrinkled and (mostly) gone over. Blackberries will struggle too, but they don’t realise it yet. Maybe the arrival of rain at last is just in time for them to ripen?
The pond has not dried up completely, and had we managed to meet last week when the weather was warm and sunny we have have seen more flying insects. In the drizzling rain this afternoon there is nothing around. We have only a single Speckled Wood on our entire circuit.
SH is keen to check the bracken spraying. The application of Asulox earlier in the season has proved remarkably effective and now large patches of the wayleave are clear, allowing grasses to come through. It looks good for next season – similarly in the West Wood and Chilworth pines, alongside manual rhododendron clearance.
But the chemical herbicide will be banned soon and has already become prohibitively expensive.
Great-Spotted Woodpecker. Coat Tit. Long-tailed Tits, Wrens and a single brief Spotted Flycatcher.
We are looking also for Nightjar nests. Contractors and staff have reported four: two in the large west restock; one in the east, and a fourth surprisingly, in Q1 just in from Butterfly Corner. He suggests this might be anomalous and a mistake in data entry regarding co-ordinates. We spend 20 minutes looking in a 10 sq metre patch, but it seems entirely unsuitable.
We didn’t manage to find that on the East clearfell either, and decided against searching on the larger west side because the rain was gently increasing and we we both soaked.
Throughout most of the afternoon, our wanderings are accompanied by screaming, yaffling and yapping Hobbies. They are alert, active and anxious so tracking down their precise whereabouts is difficult and we are hesitant to upset them unduly. Staking out various vantage points looking into The Middle Of The Wood from Larpers Lane, I manage to spot the female, perched up on the very top of larch calling.
She appears to have a damaged tail – missing one or two central feathers.
Back up at the entrance and the pond, we are afforded superb views of both bird’s aerial acrobatics from a more comfortable distance. Which prevents us searching for Nightjars. C’est la vie.
Hut Wood 