Mud, mud glorious mud

We beat the All Blacks this year, I was there!, (c Colin Elsey)

Seriously muddy in the Nursery, (c Pete Williams)

Not a great end to the year but in keeping with one of the wettest for a long while. Spent the damp morning in the nursery churning out more wood supplies. As may be expected with the conditions the mud becoming increasingly cloying. This provided Mike with quite a challenge as he had to drive the Ford Ranger with loaded trailer out of the mud wallow to make the deliveries. Some pretty impressive driving required without resorting to a tow using the tractor.  Made it to lunchtime albeit a little wet and mud spattered but the rain put paid to the usual walk round this part of the Sherborne estate.  The afternoon was a bit of a gamble since the rain initially eased but gradually got heavier. However two more loads were produced before we finally called it a day without the Ford Ranger getting stuck and Maddie getting her afternoon exercise.

So not a bad year with the weather limiting the extent of countryside conservation I could contribute to but lets hope for better opportunities and weather in 2013. On the negative side are clearly the various fungal diseases attacking our woodlands and a Conservative Government influenced Defra which ought to be performing better ( Mark Avery view more extreme ).  On the plus side has been more reasonable documentaries raising awareness of our neglected countryside and core skills. Perhaps the leaders of our key charities and supporters of nature can inspire real action to get our youth and education centres more involved in nature. If only we could find something akin to the Olympics for involving more people 'in standing up for our countryside' and to act as a springboard for more sustainable actions.

Crank up the volume

Frosty in the Pleasure Grounds

Completed Play area

'cool'  Sherborne Brook 

Plummeting temperatures, -8 centigrade early this morning and not rising above freezing all day, has meant increasing pressure on Mike's 'wood' service. So armed with the wood processing machine and an increasingly 'honed' approach to this way of processing the wood piles {I still prefer the axe approach but bow down to the more productive machine} we were ready to crank up the volume of wood production. Before we started however the xmas tree for the Sherborne House residents needed to be installed in the quadrangle. After a slight delay caused by the low temperatures, with the additional help of Pat & a helpful resident,  the tree now stands proudly in its festive place once more.   

A cold lunchtime was spent firstly in the Pleasure Grounds where I was pleased to see the completed Play area which looked pretty good albeit in the absence of children. No doubt the swing, see saw, climbing wall and two stepping stones features will get plenty of use in the years to come. Just had time to have a quick look down by the Sherborne brook which was swathed in mist first thing this morning but had cleared by lunch. Lots of the usual bird residents still enjoying the habitat here even in these cold temperatures. 

Throughout the day we managed to fit in deliveries to 4 local customers ending up with the Sherborne school and all of them were genuinely pleased to see us and have their wood for the cold weeks to come.

Kestrel, Kites and Cormorant

A good day for flying

'Poplar' spot by Windrush

Bit of a busman's holiday as I visited Sherborne's water meadows while Mike was actually on a break in Prague! Water levels down by about a foot since my last visit but a fine sunny day and pretty quiet. Plenty of Red Kites on show together with a Kestrel being pestered by a Crow and a brief fly by of a single Cormorant. Oddly a juvenile Buzzard joined 3 of the Red Kites over one of the larger Barrington estate fields. Other than that 2 pairs of fallow deer I disturbed in my not so stealthy patrol around the meadows.  No owls or harriers on this visit but still a pleasant way of making the most of a dry sunny day.

Worth mentioning another good guest entry Ralph Underhill, on the Mark Avery Blog. Surprised to see  that NT wasn't one of the participants on the Common Cause for Nature project it looks worthy.

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.