Pablo’s Woodlife

I’ve been waiting for a while but at last it’s here! Probably the first major upgrade to my kit that I’ve made. I’ve been keeping my eyes out for a new rucksack to replace my cheapy Eurohike 55 litre. I found that during the bushmoot in August, I had a bit of a struggle getting all my kit in. Now that winter is just around the corner, I could envisage that I would need even more room, so I’ve been keeping an eye out for another bag.

I nearly went for one of the Highlander sacks. They are pretty cheap but there’s only a 66 or 88 litre. I’ve always wanted a Karrimor either a 75 or 60-100 but the prices have been prohibitive (£130-£150 for a Sabre 75). Keeping an eye out on ebay, I saw my chance for a Karrimor Sabre 75. This one also had the 2 x 15 litre side pouches thrown in as well. These retail at about £36 on their own. I put my bids in in the vain hope that I might win. Imagine my surprise when I did win it and at only £89!

It was going to come from France, and again I was a bit dubious, but the lady selling it kept up great communication and emailed me when it was on the way. When it arrived, I was astonished that it had obviously rarely been used and even smelt new!

So here it is. I decided to put on the side pouches immediately and will probably leave them in. This potentially puts the capacity to over 100 litres if needed. The side compression straps keep the pouches in check and if they’re not being used, you can compress the bag to a very narrow size, in fact narrower than the Eurohike.

Opening up the side pouches and loosening the compression straps makes main area of the sack like a cavern! The carrying straps and hip belt are all padded as you would expect, and there’s a nice lumber pad. There’s no back length adjuster, but by playing with the various tension straps, you can get the bag to sit very comfortably on hips and shoulders. The lid has a large capacity as well and Karrimor obviously know that users would want to access this quickly. There’s ample room for first aid kit, waterproofs, fleece hat, face towel and a few emergency provisions.

The whole thing is very robust and should last a good while. It looks good with a double ‘chain’ running down the front of the sack and a few extra hanging loops. And…what’s this? A hidden zip pocket running all the way down the front of the rucksack. What will go in there? It’s very narrow…aha! The Granfors SFA fits in there a treat. This bag is just made for bushcraft and as you can probably tell, I’m extremely happy so far.

The test is in the loading and first of all, I checked whether the Vaude Ferret tent fitted in the main compartment. No problem there. Next I did a full load out for a week to ten day trip. There was still room for some more kit; however, I did sling the sleeping bag on the lower hanging straps. The bag was, of course, pretty heavy but it felt comfortable and well balanced.

Off to the woods then even though it looked like a downpour was imminent. On the way I came across a couple of Lapwings making use of the puddles on the ground. I set up the tarp and hammock and only just had time to play with another new toy (more about that later) before the heavens opened. Nothing to do now other than sit the rain out and have some soup. Unfortunately, the rain didn’t stop and didn’t look like it was going to, so I packed up and headed home. , I noticed as when I was at the bushmoot that the bottom of the hammock was wet. I traced this down to the hammock lines. I have heard that this happens in torrential rain and must think of a couple of ways to keep the hammock dry. Metal drip rings spring to mind. I will have to look at this at a later date.

The main purpose of the excursion was to test out the rucksack. So far a resounding success. Would I have paid out the full price for one? Having tried one out, I think I would have. What I didn’t realise was that far from being a major expedition rucksack, it compresses down small enough to be used as a weekend rucksack.

I’ll post again in a couple of days time. More kit?! You bet! Thanks for reading.

After a few days of downpour during the week, the weekend once again saw a bright sky with slight south westerly winds. The temperature was 6 degrees C . Again, just enough to make the fingers tingle if you weren’t moving about. I went to my normal woods with a couple of minor projects in mind. The first was to rig up the tarp again and think about whether it was big enough or not for hammocking needs.

During the recent bushmoot, I noticed that a lot of people had tarps about 3m x 3m. What I liked about them was that the tarp just reached the ground and still left quite a bit of head room, which was ideal for windy and rainy conditions. There seemed to be stacks of space for kit underneath the tarp. At the moment my tarp, which is a 2.5m x 1.70 Katmandhu is just long enough to cover the hammock, but the width wouldn’t really be suitable for really adverse weather conditions.

After rigging up the tarp and hammock, I weighed up the pros and cons of upgrading the tarp. What was in my mind was obviously more expense and the number of times I would use the tarp in adverse conditions. I had survived the summer downpours with no trouble. Even a 5-day expedition saw all of my kit under the tarp without getting drenched. I decided to defer the decision and prioritise the upgrade after looking at what else I needed in the new year. The project did get me wondering about drip rings, as I was sure that the wicking from the hammock rope had caused the dampness under my Thermarest and reindeer skin. I tried a couple of karabiners and they looked ok. In theory, this should work but of course I will only know for certain if I have some rain. But not today thanks!

The other mini project was to carry out the ongoing test with the Bark River PSK. I’m nearly ready to do a full review on this, which I’ll post in the New Year. I can say that I am getting quite fond of this little knife, and it now resides around my neck with the trusty Clipper.

I know some people who read this will baulk at this next item, enjoying traditionalist primitive methods. Conversely, there are some who like the more modern approach to bushcraft. I’ve often said that I probably fall into the latter camp with aspirations to become more traditionalist as skills improve but only up to where reasonable comfort allows. I purchased the Primus lighter in the photo on a whim not with actual fire starting in mind, but to light my trusty pipe. It turned out to be a bit more than just a pipe lighter when I thought of the possibilities of this item in emergencies (and of course when I was too lazy to light a fire or trangia stove with a firesteel.)

The blue flame burns at 1300C and is windproof. The butane fuel reservoir lasts for 30 minutes (plus) burn time and there’s a lock to keep the flame going without pressure from finger or thumb. It’s bit heavy perhaps, but at least you know it’s there. I’ve always used throwaway lighters, but this is a nice (non-essential) item is handy to have around.

A couple of interesting wildlife experiences this weekend. When plodding through the woods (not attempting to be particularly quiet) I flushed out what I thought was a pheasant, until I saw the flight pattern which continued low and winding through the trees. I’m still not 100% sure (as I’m sure I saw a curved beak) but it was most probably a woodcock. These birds have migrated (literally) from wading areas to the woods and make homes in brush and leaf litter. The other sighting was a silent, but slow and low fly-by of a sparrow hawk. I stood amazed as it approached from behind me at head height (I was standing) and glided effortlessly between a couple of trees at no more than three arms lengths away. A couple of wing flaps and suddenly it had accelerated to the top of a tree 50 yards away. I didn’t have time to get the binos out before it left the tree and headed out of the woods to the east.

As you can imagine, after a week indoors with a chest infection, I couldn’t wait to go back out to the woods. So far, I’ve not missed a weekend throughout the winter, which was something I didn’t expect when I first started Bushcraft. I think I described myself then as a fine weather Bushcrafter, but I’ve been out in the rain, shine, snow and frost and enjoyed every minute.

I started the weekend by doing a bit of Archery practice. I decided to set up a target as opposed to going into the woods itself. I wanted to really hone my point of aim. After a couple of hours, I was quite pleased with the grouping. I made a mental note to come out a practice more on the target just to ensure the point of aim is consistent.

It felt good to be back in the woods, even though I didn’t really have a specific project. I took the 3×3 tarp just to practice a couple of different configurations. I actually found it more difficult to do this than the smaller tarp and concluded that I would probably just use the larger tarp in the most simple configuration, extending the sides to the ground if the weather got bad. I do like to look out from under the tarp and the raised front type configuration is still my favourite. The large tarp is pretty good for this.

The weather was quite mild (10 degrees C) and the wildlife seemed to appreciate the reprieve from the latest cold snap. I managed to get close to a herd of 35 fallow deer in a nearby field (photo above). I also spotted what I think is arum lilly (poisonous) shooting through the leaf litter. A sighting of a dog fox, red legged partridges and mosquito larvae in a slow moving stream finished off a good weekend for wildlife spotting.

S’Albufera National Park in Mallorca was originally a lagoon separated from the sea by a chain of sand dunes. Over the centuries, this has filled up with sediment to create an extensive floodplain and wetland area of Spanish national importance, harbouring a wide variety of wildlife.

The variety of the vegetation is dependent on the wetland area which in the main remains flooded most of the year. A large part of the water comes from rainfall reaching the area by seasonal streams and springs from subterranean aquifers known locally as ‘ullals’. Although the proximity of the sea water entering the area is relatively small, there is an impact of this on the flora and fauna alike.

The main vegetation is the reed and saw-sedge which grows to huge proportions. Amongst the smaller canals and ‘llisers’ (small lagoons) the fennel pondweed and hornwort grow while in the more brackish areas the rush and glasswort can be found. Amongst the dryer areas and woodland the white poplar, elm and tamarisk provide a haven for larger tree nesting birds. In the sandy areas the sea daffodil, and extremely rare ‘peu de mila’ and prickly juniper are found.

As for fauna, the fish and amphibian species do well with the eel, the Iberian frog and the European pond turtle in abundance. Small rodents can be found as well as 8 different bat species including the rare barbestelle bat. 300 moth species have been discovered as well as dragonflies, spiders and beetles.

The differing ecosystems are highly productive offering an abundance of bird life. To date some 271 species have been sighted with 61 species breeding in the area. It’s a popular wintering ground with large flocks of shovelers, teals, pochards and wigeon. Different species of heron and are among them. Other migrant species also visit such as swallows and sandpipers. The last group are ‘wanderers’ who make random visits such as cranes and the green ibis.

I started my ramble through the woods on the opposite side of the road and managed to enter through the ‘back door’ of the park. I was grateful of this, as I missed the noisy tourist entrance. I immediately started snapping away with the camera. By entering at the opposite side of the reserve it unfortunately meant that I missed obtaining the bird list at the visitor centre (until the end of the walk) and not having a Mediterranean Wildlife Guide book with me, I hadn’t a clue what I was photographing. I was however, able to sit and move on at peaceful leisure watching the antics of the wildlife on offer. It wasn’t long before I noticed a great white egret gracefully lifting from amongst the reeds closely followed by a purple heron. A later disturbance in far trees with a high branch almost bending in two could only have been a large raptor.

Speaking to one of the Rangers later, he said that it could easily have been a Marsh Harrier or even the escapee Golden Eagle that had been spotted recently. Unfortunately, despite watching for over half and hour and not managing to get closer because of one of the lagoons, I didn’t get another sight of what-ever-it-was.

I could go on and on about what I saw (at least what I thought I saw) but I wouldn’t be 100% definite on the sightings. What I would say is that this provided one of the highpoints of the holiday and I returned to base after walking about 11 kms around the reserve tired but satisfied. If like me, you find yourself on the on the island slightly perturbed by the prospect of overpriced tourist shops, beetroot-red North European visitors, and lack of significant Bushcraft time, I could only advise you to take time out to visit this wonderful area.

Pablo

Sunrise 04:39 (BST) Sunset 21:14 (BST) sunny intervals 23°C 16°C Northerly Wind (6 mph) 1018 Humidity 72

The woods were quiet. Exceptionally so and I wondered why. Of course, the Rooks chicks had fledged. Ah…peace! I did some filming and had a light lunch. The vegetation is now so high that it’s quite impossible to see anything of the wildlife in the wood. So, I decided to wander around the edges of the wood and into the surrounding fields.

I was delighted to find some wild Iris on the waste ground. I explored a nearby ditch and found some newts popping up to the surface for air. It looked as though they were Common newts, but this area does have some of the rarer Great crested variety. It was difficult to tell as the water was a little murky.

Sitting for some time by the ditch, I also noticed my first sightings of this years Damsel and Dragonflies. I remember seeing the same species of Broad bodied chaser with the males bright blue body. The damselfly was the Common blue (I think).

Moving further into the meadowland I was delighted to see some Bee orchids. I’d identified the leaves earlier in the spring and was pleased to see that I wasn’t too far out location wise. I counted about a hundred different plants. Although not rare, they are quite localised and it might be years before they flower in exactly the same location. The flower is a mimic of a female bee. The male bee tries to mate with the flower and therefore takes the pollen away and tries again with another bee orchid, thus pollinating that flower.

The wind dropped and the sun came out as evening approached. I clambered back into the van and was heading toward the badger sett. It was getting dusk when I was suddenly overtaken by a Barn owl flying low and only a few feet away. Didn’t he know there was a speed limit along this road? I noticed he was carrying a small rodent. Guessing that he must be returning to the nest with a meal I desperately tried to follow. Knowing there was some disused buildings up ahead, I guessed that this was where he was heading. It must have been an interesting sight. Van alba follows Tyto alba!

I came to halt by the disused buildings only to see, to my disappointment, the owl veer off toward another field. Just as I was about to carry on, he made a sudden right turn and started the final approach path directly toward the building I’d parked in front of. A soft landing at the top of the building, a dart inside to drop off the meal, a quick turnaround and he was off again, this time alighting on top of a building about 40 yards away.

By this time I was out of the van with the camera but it was too far for a decent shot. Although he appeared to be staring at me, he must have considered me no threat as he took off, flying away from me to carry on hunting for his hungry brood. I quickly moved in closer and a few minutes later he returned, perched on a nearby post complete with new catch and after a short pause (and what looked like a quick nibble as well) he flew into the nest once again.

The nest is only a few minutes away down the road, so I think this will be a regular visiting spot for me.

I finished the evening with some badger watching. I was a little late due to the Barn owl sighting and placed myself this time at the front of the sett. After about an hour I … fell asleep. The badgers could have been having a party and I wouldn’t have known about it. At midnight I went home.

Despite the lack of badger sightings (yet again) it was a great day for wildlife.

I probably won’t be doing a mid week post next week as I’ll be migrating data to my new laptop. Gone will be the burning sensations and indentations of a hot and weighty Pentium 4 laptop on my legs and the noise of the laptop fan!

See you next weekend.

Thanks for the visit,

Pablo.

We had our first ground frost in this area last Thursday night. This made way for a fine day on Friday and in the afternoon I wandered around my local woods. Seeking a bit of warmth in the rapidly decreasing sunlight, I found myself a new sit spot at the top of a small rise. It was in fact an over grown rubbish mound full of scrap metal and old bricks and concrete.

I found a square piece of concrete, put down my folding sit mat, opened my flask of tea and sat watching the wildlife. The view to the north gave me a good view of a convergence of two tracks where I had spotted the Mutjac tracks. If I waited long enough I might be lucky and see one or two.

After two hours the only thing I saw were the usual rabbits, a Jay, Blacksbirds and a Wren that came within arms length as I sat there motionless getting colder and colder. I packed up and walked around the edge of the wood to view a fine sunset through the woods to the west with the moon rising in the southern sky.

On Saturday, I went to the secret clearing and set up the tarp and hammock. I took a few shots with a view to making a new vid about camp set ups. I had lunch (an apetising tin of all day breakfast) made with the Bushbuddy. To be honest, I was a little bored so I packed up, returned to the Land Rover and took a ride along the edges of the fields and tracks sorounding the woods.

I was just about to head home when I noticed an unusualy coloured bird hopping along the edge of the track. I always carry my best binoculars in the glove compartment and I was pretty certain of my identification even though I didn’t have a bird book with me. I was 95% sure it was a Snow bunting. Even though I managed to get a snap of the bird, it was too far away for a decent shot. Looking back through the more powerful bino’s I took in every detail, making a mental note of all the features before it flew off.

At home, my field guide confirmed the features I’d noted. They are usual seen around the coast in this area, so I think I’m quite lucky to have seen one being well inland. I’ve still yet to check with the birder experts of the wildlife group to see if their presence here is a regular occurance at this time of year. Personally, it was a first ever sighting of a Snow bunting and will be entered on my tick-list database of unique wildlife sightings.

A great finish to an otherwise uneventful weekend.

Pablo.

The temperature didn’t creep above 5 degrees C this weekend, which wasn’t enough to fully melt shaded ponds and ditches but just enough to make the ground slightly soggy. Each day was bright and sunny; the sort of days where it was impossible to stay in.

On both days I went out for about 4 hours each, just wandering around the local woods. I had a look for tracks but in the local woods there was little to be seen. A few Muntjac tracks and a fading fox track. I was a little luckier in Outfield wood today (Sunday) where I followed the usual trail of fresh Fallow tracks to the west edge of the wood. I looked out of the wood to see a herd of about 15 Fallow deer. They were about 200m away browsing in the middle of a field. I didn’t get a chance to get any closer as they spooked away to the south.

I also tried out my new fingerless gloves made by Thinsulate (3 pairs for a fiver at the local market). A great bit of kit and something I should have got some time ago. The trouble is they keep snagging on any thorns or undergrowth I tend to walk through, so an outer pair of gloves is essential.

I finished the day by watching a Kestrel hunting in the local meadow. The country term for these great hunters is Windhover (for obvious reasons.) I’m pretty sure I’m right by saying this is the only hawk that actually hovers absolutely stationary regardless of wind condition. I noticed when it dived on its prey it didn’t actually swoop completely on to it but stopped just short and then sort of pounced on it. A wonderful bird.

Sometimes you have a good weekend and sometimes they’re not so good. This weekend started as the latter. On Saturday, all geared up, I jumped into Doris the Land Rover Discovery and… nothing. Dead. Demised. Deceased. No more. The battery was dead as a proverbial Dodo. That was the end of that trip.

Luckily, the sunny weather held until today. It was much colder than last week and the temperature didn’t get too far above freezing until noon. I took my 15 litre rucksack filled with a flask of tea, a folding sit mat and some food. Doris was raring to go with a brand new battery (which cost the price of 3 Granfors Bruks axes!)

The ponds were frozen over driving the inhabitants like this Moorhen onto the fields. There was little or no wind and the spring-like sound of a woodpecker echoed through Outfield wood when I eventually walked in. Apart from the odd squirrel I didn’t see very much, so after a while I decided to follow one of the trails to the far west of the wood. It wasn’t too long before I spotted some movement on the edge of a small copse about 200 yards from this wood.

I crept forward to the very edge of wood and watched as 30 Fallow deer came into view and wandered to within about 150 yards of me. The pic is from the video hence poor quality. They were a little skittish and were looking my way. Eventually they turned and scooted off to the north out of sight. I savoured the sight as this would probably be my last visit to these woods for a few weeks.

After lounging in the sun for an hour, nibbling on left over chicken (and nodding off in the sun’s warmth) I decided to have a drive around the outer fields.

Lapwings and seagulls were occupying much of the fields but there was something else perched on one of the fence posts. I grabbed the binoculars and realised I was staring straight into the eyes of a Buzzard. I grabbed the camera and managed to snap off a couple of shots before it flew off.

No sooner had I put the binos away than I noticed another slight movement. This time it was a male Munjac. Out came the binos again to confirm his small but prominant antlers. It wasn’t long before he was heading back into a copse. 

This was turning out not such a bad weekend after all. Having said that, I saw nothing else of significance and eventually headed home.

Thanks for the visit.
Pablo.

Last Sunday, the weather wasn’t as bright as forecast and there was still a strong arctic wind from the North East.

I packed my new – well surplus – 30 litre ex-Brit Army patrol pack with a light lunch, brew kit and sit mat and headed out to the local woods. I bought the pack last week. I’ll do a review of it when I’ve tried it out a few more times.

There was some remnants of snow left on the ground in shaded parts. The rabbit track looks like a slow hopping gait and you can see how the rear feet are kept together. I would guess that this one was steadily hopping about with no real sign of hurrying judging by the distance between the hops (which I forgot to measure). The right forepaw on the second set of tracks is pointing to the left slightly. Does this mean it was distracted and looked to the left? Who knows. The good thing about tracks in snow is that you can study gaits easier. Alas, there probably won’t be any more this year.

Talking of tracking, I’ve put up a short video of when I came across some deer a few weeks ago. You can access it on the video channel here. (There’s also a permanent link to the video channel in the sidebar).

On the spur of the moment I decided to light a small fire with only what I could find. The dead wood was very damp and I lit some birch bark with the firesteel. I’ve got to be careful because birch is pretty limited in these woods. I found it difficult to keep the fire alight, even after making some feathersticks. I really should have spent more time initially exposing the drier inner parts of the woods. There was enough heat to make a brew though.

While having lunch and a brew, I watched an interesting spectacle. The pair of buzzards were showing great interest in the rooks’ nests and even though the rooks were busy building they didn’t seem too bothered about the buzzards being there. I would have thought the rooks would have seen them off. One of the buzzard pair even landed in an unoccupied nest. Squatters rights or the neighbours from hell!

I also spotted some frog’s spawn in a puddle. I doubt this will survive the drop in temperature. I had to look up the difference when I got home because I’d forgotten which was frog’s and which was toad’s spawn. Common toad spawn is laid in a long double strand, although Natterjack toads just lay a single strand. Frog’s spawn is laid in a circular clump. The frog will undoubtedly lay more when the weather gets warmer.

I finished off the day by watching 2 pairs of lapwings in the field and a pair of mallards enjoying a feed in a flooded grassy area.

This weekend I’m off to East Sussex with JP and the crew. JP’s got a new bit of kit for me to play with, so I’ll be writing about that next week.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.