Woodlife

It was a very blustery day today; the sort of day where you keep to the outskirts of the woods, which is exactly what I did.

I walked around the outside of Park Wood, my nearest wood. I guessed that the recent rains would provide some tracks. This little wood doesn;t have a great deal of mammal activity but there was bound to be something.

As suspected I picked up rabbit prints…

… and two lots of muntjac. The second set of tracks was considerably smaller and I managed to track it slipping about on the mud for about 20 meters before I lost it. The only mammal activity I actually saw was a squirrel.

A kestrel was making the most of the strong northerly wind but needed to come down often to rest.

The woodland edges provides for many plants. Water mint, great willowherb, rosebay willowherb, teasel…

…scarlet pimpernel, burdock, silverweed and thistle…

… and the associated butterflies like gatekeepers, speckled woods and cabbage whites.

My best sighting of the day was this wonderful brown hawker (A. grandis). I thought it was a bit odd seeing this at the woodland edge where there’s little water, but apparently they like to hunt here as opposed to rivers and ponds.

I’m off to the Wilderness Gathering on Thursday. I’ll send updates via Twitter (on the left). Let’s hope the weather stays fine.

Thanks for the visit.