Woodlife Trails Something on the woodland floor

Something on the woodland floor

By Pablo | Posted in mammals, tracking, wildflowers, woods

February 3rd, 2008

Despite the wintery storms which have spread across the UK, we have seen very little of it in East Anglia. In fact Saturday was as good as any day you would expect with the sun shining and only an ocassional gust of cold wind.

I was a little astonished when I looked at the woodland floor. A layer of green was spreading in patchy clumps. A slightly weird sight for the beginning of February. I’m not sure what the plant is.

I didn’t have any kind of project this weekend, and wandered around Outfield woods looking in vain for something to track. I did see the Fallow deer at a distance but they were already on the hoof and running away into the field.

I decided to hone my stalking skills on an unsuspecting squirrel. Starting off at about 50 yards, I crept up to about 6 feet which I thought was a pretty good result, but he was quite intent on chewing away at a nice looking piece of bark. Actually, he was completely indifferent to my presence making me feel that my sucess wasn’t as worthy of the high praise as I first gave myself. Only when I childishly shouted “Boo!” did he scarper off. That’ll teach him!

I concentrated my efforts on finding some more evidence of deer after reading about fraying and barking. Apparently fraying is a territorial marking and more often occurs before the rutting season. It’s often accompanied by scrape signs on the ground while barking is stripping away the tree bark for food. I think I found evidence of both, but definately the latter. As you can see from the photo, the marks are nearly vertical strips and are caused by the lower teeth.

Until next time.