Playtime!

Childrens climbing wall

Natalie testing Mike's hand & foot holds

Surprise from Mike this morning as the day was to be spent in the Pleasure Grounds on local engagement duties. This was part of a Project to setup some child friendly facilities in the Pleasure Grounds which included a climbing wall, stepping stones , Seesaw and swing. Most of the material {larch based} was locally sourced and Mike had begun the work earlier in the week with the help of tractor  and directed by Natalie {manager}.  So in the morning I drove the Ford ranger while Mike drove the tractor down to the play site. Some tree clearance &  heavy tampering to secure the larch posts in the climbing wall, took up most of the morning.

Spent lunch down by Sherborne Brook where I bumped into our resident 'birders' who said they'd had a relatively quiet but wet underfoot observing day. Good news was that recent observations {includes mine!} indicate that some of last years winter visitors are back including Short Eared Owls, Red Kites, Hen Harrier, and Fieldfares. Add to this a Peregrine, Cormorant and Marsh Harrier? all we need now with the excess water are some waders and we have quite a collection.

The afternoon was occupied setting up the Seesaw support posts, surveying sites for swings and shaping the stepping stones and cutting the holds for the climbing wall {latter 2 tasks dominated by Mike on chainsaw}. We were ably assisted by a senior NT manager Natalie the first NT non Ranger I had seen in the countryside in my 18 months volunteering. So although I was not doing what I consider as core countryside work it was good to see manager involvement and also providing a hopefully enjoyable local facility for youngsters.

Close Encounters

Hyde under water!

Where's the path gone

Windrush bridge -above welly level

A little too wet to permit any Ranger work this week but armed with wellies, camera, binos went down to the water meadows [Lake!] on a sunny! friday. I was expecting the water meadows to be a little damp but was still surprised by how much water there actually was even though on the track down the newly formed stream gave a clue.  On reaching the water meadows I decided on taking the path towards the 'hyde' first and carefully paddled down the flooded path. Half way down I disturbed a large   bird which flew right in front of me and was my first sighting of a short eared owl since earlier this year. It flew across the meadows and perched on a convenient post in the middle of the meadow. After a couple of pictures {still too far for my telephoto} I waded on towards the hyde.  No more wildlife sightings so I backtracked towards the windrush. Crossed over to the Barrington estate side and was treated to another close fly by of a red kite this followed by another spot of a short eared owl in a large tree not too far from the field I had seen 4 owls February this year.  On my return journey I spotted a hare basking in the sun, obviously the weasel I spotted last week in this area not quite fast enough to catch this fleet footed prey.

This week marked the end of wildwood and maybe wishful thinking on my part but it did get me thinking about missed opportunities in the NT managed woods. Given the skill of the Rangers {assuming they reach Mike/Martin standards} charcoal, hazel supports for plants, quality wood for furniture all look to be under developed sources of revenue given some decent resource planning. Added to this, given available time from the Rangers, would of course be us volunteers! Sort of connected to this was a really good Mark Avery guest Blog  Dr David Gibbons, which introduced the idea of a conservation impact metric. This gets to the nub of my conservation frustrations which is to get good science better connected to application by practitioners. Agriculture environment schemes are but one aspect of this.

Is there anything u can't do with a tractor!

I am constantly amazed with the variety of tasks a tractor can be used for in the countryside. Of course this requires the extra attachments plus a competent operator. Today was a good example of the tractor's flexibility plus the introduction of the much awaited PALAX wood processing machine from Ebworth, courtesy of Matt.

Wood processing machine loaded by Ebworth tractor

Mike and I with extra big trailer drove over to Ebworth to collect the PALAX.  Ebworth centre always a nice place to visit and especially to collect a very special 'toy'.  Matt loaded up his impressive tractor and duly placed the wood machine onto our trailer.  We have this new toy at Sherborne for the month since Ebworth {its buildings heated using biomass heating system} has already built up an impressive wood store to last much of the winter. It was lunchtime before we got back to Sherborne so the 'test drive' of the PALAX would have to wait until the afternoon.

It was surprisingly warm at lunchtime so I paid a lightening call to the water meadows. Coal tits , green finches and blue tits were out in numbers plus a solitary buzzard. All was quiet down in the water meadows and the water levels were at the highest level I have seen.  The water courses/ditches were in good clean order after stirling work by various volunteer groups over the course of the year. On the way back I saw a large dragonfly late for this time of year and then a rabbit being chased by a hungry weasel. No red kites or short eared owls but you can't have everything. 

Good to go, cord wood loaded this end, split wood out the other

Afternoon began with me! driving the wood machine around to the Sherborne Nursery and Mike with his tractor unloading and then reattaching the PALAX to his tractor's rear. The PALAX huge saw and conveyor belt  is driven via PALAX propshaft connected to the tractor drive. So with me supplying/feeding the cord wood and Mike operating the 'sharp' end the wood started to flow up into the trailer. Not all goes smoothly since the sawn wood blocks sometimes get tipped the wrong way and get stuck on the splitter. However as a first trial it was pretty successful albeit a fair amount of space is required to set the whole thing up. The day ended all too soon and the light at this time of the year disappears very quickly. This left Mike with the challenge of driving the tractor plus PALAX back to the security of Sherborne offices and me to drive the long trailer back in the dark. Good news is we both avoided any collisions !

Its a long term thing - Woodland Management

Some good advice for all!

Difficult to escape the ongoing news on Ash dieback, the Forestry Commission  announces further spread involving 6 more counties. With this fungal disease its difficult to know how it can be contained given the spores can be carried on the wind and can be carried by any 'living' organism coming into fungal contact within infected areas. Is there enough of an 'appetite' in this country to protect our woodlands and especially supporting the long term strategies needed {trees life cycles encompass many years!} something I know is beyond a lot of the mover/shakers. Unfortunately we already import 90% of wood we use which is good quality and competitively priced. So to keep the commercial side of woodland management viable isn't easy and conserving woodland habitat becomes increasingly challenging with limited resources. Interestingly Mike has had to make a quick survey {timescales set were unrealistic with resources  available} on the Sherborne Ash which was additionally difficult given the absence of leaves.  The nursery source of our recent ash saplings doesn't look to be directly connected to infected sources but this may not be the end of the story. As an aside Mike has some new Elm strain to be planted but how this pans out will have to wait a quite a few years!

Additional lone swan on Sherborne Brook

Started the sunny day with a wood delivery in Sherborne village. Although the new wood store has been finished by Mike over the weekend,  the wood processing machine has not yet arrived, so it was back to splitting for the rest of the morning.  Enjoyed a relaxing lunch break by Sherborne Brook where the only newcomer spotted was a lone friendly swan occupying the water above the weir and away from the resident swan family.

The afternoon was spent in the West Belt where the thinning work continues. Worth mentioning that the wooded area worked provided more challenges than previously faced. Firstly the density of trees was greater which meant most of the trees felled refused to fall directly to the ground. So the tree lever, wedges, and a 'wood lever' all were called on before the trees could be grounded. Secondly the distance to the cord piles & rides, from some of the felled trees was longer, which meant more carrying effort for me. Sadly access for either the tractor or if available horse plus 'trailer' was not an option, so just my manual effort the only option. 

Wildwood, part 3 , carries on with more highlights of the need for good and sustained woodland management. Two observations I would highlight are the need for longer term planning { planting for the future} and the impact on wood quality and woodland diversity in the absence of sustained management. Was also pleased to see that on the non disease front public enemy no 1 'the grey squirrel'  for woodland got  a mention although trapping and shooting still looks inadequate against the millions of grey squirrels out there.

Chillier times ahead

Dieback attacks our Ash!

Disturbed to hear of the 'dieback' of Ash and the 90,000+ trees already destroyed in England ! to curb its spread. You would think that the Dutch elm experience plus the devastation in Denmark of 90% of its Ash would have elicited more prompt action from Defra but we should be grateful its now stopped further diseased Ash imports into our nuseries. Mike has yet to check our recently planted Ash,  no easy task since we have a lot all contained within tree protectors and spread across several different woods. In addition determining the nursery which sourced the saplings should indicate if we have a serious problem. What with squirrels attacking especially the Beech, potential Ash 'dieback' and Phytophthora its not easy protecting the already little woodland we have.

Spotted 4 Red Kite on my way in to Sherborne this morning, hopefully they are returning to this area for winter. Started the day with blocking and splitting in Sherborne nursery and maybe because my splitting days are numbered it was more enjoyable than normal even though the first blocks of sycamore, beech and ash were more 'resistant' than usual. Mike joined in on some even gnarlier beech which tested his technique to the limit. We both then enjoyed splitting some good ash and even better lime, like a 'knife through butter!'  Such work kept us pretty warm so we didn't notice the cold wind which gradually increased in strength during the course of the day.

The afternoon was spent back in the West Belt , continuing the thinning work. The cordwood piles are really building up, but according to Mike we are only a quarter way through this area! Rain and increased wind hit us early afternoon and in spite of the hard work we both felt the drop in temperature for the first time.

Wednesday evening watched the next part of Wildwood where I imagine Mike would have cringed a little on the felling & cutting technique applied to the Ash. Interesting to see the use of horse power to remove the Ash from pretty tricky terrain. Mike is at least  able to use his tractor plus me for initial stacking.