Despite a couple of quite sunny days, the temperature dropped and the wind turned a little chilly. I could just feel a slight coolness on my fingers as the wind turned to blow from the north. Some say Autumn has started but I still say it’s late summer. (Ever the optimist.)

I went out to Poor Park Woods yesterday and unsuccessfully tracked the Fallow deer around the woods for a few hours. They led me on a hilarious merry dance which I’ll talk about another time. I ended up exhausted and, after a rest, decided to gather the last of the blackberries for my special Christmas brew. I had to be selective as many had passed their sell by date.

The landscape looked decidedly weary. Fields have been ploughed and the foliage looks decidedly tired and droopy. An occasional yellow leaf fluttered gently earthward on the breeze. No. It won’t be long, but it’s not here yet.

To prove a point I went to Broaks Wood today. It was actually warmer and the wind was again coming from the south west . 

I concentrated my efforts on the ponds and the dragonflies. I’ve not taken many photos of dragonflies this year and there wouldn’t be too many chances left.

The bright morning sunshine brought out the larger ones first. An Emperor was hawking the main pond. Despite the 45 degree angled stick trick, he wouldn’t land for love nor money.

The male Common darter didn’t disappoint when I tried to get it on my finger.

The female’s were a little more shy and tended to stay in the higher branches.

The Southern hawker preferred to “hang” on the gorse waiting until a little later for his flight.

This Forest bug clung to my trousers as if to hide from the aerial battles although with all that armour, I’m sure he would be fine.

This unidentified spider spun it’s web quickly in the hopes of catching one of the dragonflies.

You find strange things in Broaks Wood ponds (after a design by Fenlander – cheers mate) much to the delight of the young naturalists in the area, who didn’t see me put it in the pond!

Yes, it will soon be Autumn by my calculations. This weekend was definitely the Last of the Summer Wine.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

The weekend’s weather couldn’t have been more perfect. I arrived at about 1.30pm at Mark’s wood in Reading. The mile walk in was really pleasant and I stopped off to admire the still lake, which was on the way. I was pleased to reach the cool of the woods after a sweaty hike across the field leading from the lake.

There’s just too much going on at the moment. It’s difficult to keep up with it all. I spent hours in Broaks wood just wandering along slowly trying to take everything in.

Greater Stitchwort.

Speckled wood butterfly. I also saw small cabbage whites, brimstones and orange tips.

The ponds are busy as well.

I think this is a recently hatched small red damselfly

I haven’t seen yellow archangel for a long time.

The show of bluebells never disappoint

They are iconic British woodland flowers

Why not show them off?

Wood avens or Herb Bennet, Wild strawberry, Bugle, Gorse, Herb Robert were all there as well.

Bird life was a little more difficult to see although I did catch a glimpse at a Nuthatch and I even saw a Swallow fly over.

My super-hearing detected a sound of movement in the leaf litter as I was watching the newts in a pond and I just managed to see a dark brown shape of a vole.

I also caught a glimpse of a Muntjac.

I followed the tracks and crotties for a while but lost them in amongst the undergrowth. There were some tiny tracks amongst them undoubtedy this years fawns but I didn’t see any.

Rain is forecast all next week. Who cares when the weekend is like this?

Thanks for the visit.

I’m not long back from 3 days in East Sussex. This is an invite only event  run by a group of people all over the country who get together every two months.

It’s a nice area but despite careful management the rhododendron bushes are getting out of control. They might look nice at this time of year but they spread rapidly and strangle everything else. The wood is useless and gives off toxic fumes when burnt.

I gave my ankle a good work out by walking in to the site (it’s not far but it is quite undulating) and doing quite a bit of walking over the 3 days.

It was great to see some the folks again. Dave (who’s just joined the group – but I’ve known him for a while) brought some rabbits that he’d shot for us to prep and they ended up in the pot last night. A muntjac leg was also roasted over the fire.

The weather was faultless with clear blue skies and temperatures in the 20′s C. I discovered an elusive adder warming up on a path. Unfortunately, I must have miss clicked the video camera and only got the tail end (literally) of it skimming away into the undergrowth.

I had to content myself capturing some footage of early damselfly appearances around the pond.

It was a nice chilled out weekend with a few drinks with pals around the fire.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

The temperature went up into the low twenties centigrade this weekend in the East of England with bright sunshine. There was an air of expectancy as I made my way into Poor Park woods on Saturday.

Watching wildlife is like playing golf – not that I play myself, but I hear it all the time from my old man. You can employ all the tricks you know and you can even be a good player, but when you have a bad day, you certainly have a bad day. All your shots seems to land in the bunker.

I came up with a big fat zero as far as photographing anything interesting and eventually had to content myself with photographing snails and bugs.

After a while I started to get fascinated with the macro world, but inexperience showed as most of the photos came out blurred.

Sunday, and I was up with the larks and heading off to Broaks wood. I wanted to get some more video footage of the dragonflies.

I saw the usual suspects; Four-spotted chasers, Small reds, Azures, and Broad-bodied chasers. I also saw a one of the hawkers (difficult to ID on the wing) and a Banded-demoiselle although I couldn’t get any footage of the last two. They were just too quick for me and wouldn’t settle.

I realised that the idea of this next big High Definition production with dragonflies as the subject isn’t going to be as easy as I thought. In fact, I think it’s going to take me a good couple of  months to capture what I really want to show and make it worthwhile.

I was contemplating this in a state of melancholy sitting on a log before heading back to the car. I had spent the best part 2-days and all I had to show was blurred bugs and dodgy dragonflies. Then I looked up…

A Muntjac doe about 20 yards away. Hole in one!!

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

I went to Lowt’s wood for the first time in eight months. I haven’t been there before now because it’s quite a walk in and most of the wood is accessible only by climbing a steep slope. Having said that, it’s one of my favourite woods. It’s very quiet and despite being unmanaged, it looks nice.

I crept into the wood in case there was some Fallow deer about, but on this occasion there wasn’t. I meandered my way along the lower level and then climbed the steep slope to the higher parts of the wood. I stopped on the west side for a bit of lunch.

It was quiet with only a few birds and the distant mewing of a Buzzard. My lunch was bacon and eggs with beans cooked in the primus frying pan on my Optimus crux stove amongst the seeding heads of the spent Bluebells.

I took the opportunity to sort out my utility bag. I’m now carrying it in a drop bag so I can just put it any one of my rucksacks I take out with me.

After a bit of lunch I went to the south side of the wood and out into the field. The sun had come out and I was immediately attracted to the hedgerow where numerous insects had settled in the blazing heat.

Despite wanting to do a small carving project, I was kept fascinated by the comings and goings of the various insects, dragonfly and butterflies.

I spotted this Painted-lady speeding it’s way across the field and eventually it settled on the hedgerow. These come all the way from Africa. Apparently, they arrived in their thousands in May.

The dragonflies were represented by a single Common blue.

I spotted two types of caterpillar, the peacock butterfly (above) and large white butterfly.

The day ended with the usual snooze amongst the leaf litter back on the lower part of the wood before I headed home.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

At the kind invite of Les, I went to Prior’s Wood in Essex this weekend. I met my old mate John Scrivy and Les and Brett who are all instructors for Les’s Bushcraft and Survival School, Wildcrafts.

There was only one student this weekend, Trevor. The course was a general and gentle introduction to Bushcraft and included knife safety and use, fire lighting, water purification, natural shelter construction, wild food walk amongst others.

After setting up, Les showed me around the wood, which was a nice open and airy coppice woodland, with a newly constructed fishing lake on the outside of the wood. Judging by the tracks, there was a lot of activity in the woods with fallow and muntjac. There was also a lot of badger activity with a large latrine area. The lake attracted a number of visitors including this Grey heron seen on Sunday.

When Scrivy arrived it wasn’t long before the air rifles came out and we were happily pinging .22 pellets at a beer can target. You might think this was boy’s and their toys, but earlier I was introduced to a number of airsoft weapons (Les and Brett are airsoft champions) including a home made mortar. Now that was a big boy’s toy!! What a laugh!

The abundance of birch and the dry conditions made fire lighting easy and we soon had a fire on the go for a bit of food and the social. Plenty of mead, port, cider, and beer went round. The pic above shows something you don’t find too often. In fact we think it’s a pretty rare occurrence. It’s Crampball growing on birch.

Everyone went to to their bivis and hammocks with a smile although in the morning, the smile might not be so prominent as sore heads would inevitably kick in.

The next day, after a good breakfast, Les took Trevor through some knife safety, knife skill and sharpening and fire lighting…

… while Scrivy and I wandered over to the lake and dragged out some crayfish traps that Les and Brett had placed earlier. It was a terrific haul of crayfish, which would be cooked up for lunch. These are signal crayfish, a very aggressive and invasive species. Once caught it is illegal to put them back. What a shame. They have to be eaten!

After lunch Les, armed with his air rifle, and I went to try and find the Grey squirrel I had bumped into earlier. The squirrel (and his mate) certainly knew what we were about and gave us the runaround high in the tree canopy. Nobody could get a clear sight for a shot so we came back empty handed.

Pretty soon it was time to gather around the fire again. Trevor stayed in his well built debris shelter. We had been joined by Mark, also an old friend. The mead went round and round and some delicious pork chops and lamb steaks were covered in honey, barbequed on green sticks and devoured hungrily. Another great evening and I was kindly welcomed to the Wildcrafts fold.

Orthetrum cancellatum – Black-tailed Skimmer seen on the lake

After breakfast on Sunday we swapped out the airguns for an older form of weapon; the bow and arrow. I tried to set up what I thought was a clever shot with the video camera and Scrivy with equal cleverness nearly killed it with a well-placed shot no less than 8 inches below the camera itself! A lucky escape for the camera.

It wasn’t long before it was time to pack up. The weekend seemed to have flown by as there was so much going on. Even though I wasn’t a student I watched some of Les’s instruction with a professional eye and admired the easy way he imparted his vast knowledge of traditional bushcraft especially knowledge on wild flowers and fungi. I would recommend this short course to anyone wanting to experience a bit of bushcraft for the weekend.

Thanks for a great weekend, guys.

Pablo

After a hectic few weeks, it’s inevitable that there would be a little downturn in excitement and activity.

In a way this is a good thing and enables me catch my breath somewhat.

The dragonfly shoot is still proving difficult, although I was pleased to see Common darters and some hawkers making an appearance.

I also managed to photograph an Emerald damselfly. Most damselflies fold their wings close to their bodies, which distinguishes them from the broad group of dragonflies, but the emeralds leave their wings open about 45 degrees.

The Fallow deer in Poor Park were keeping well out of range as well.

Judging by the shiny pellets, they weren’t too far away. I’m dying to get a good shot of one of the fawns that I know are with the herd, but it wasn’t to be this week.

Brock had also been along the track the previous evening. Of course, he was nowhere to be seen today.

I had to fall back on some wildflower pictures, which I haven’t bothered with too much this season.

Teasels are coming out…

Great willowherb…

Rosebay willowherb…

Purple loosestrife.

If you follow this link to my YouTube channel, you’ll be able to see a video review of the latest DDhammock, the DD Frontline hammock.

Thursday will be a review of a piece of Maxpedition kit.

Cheers for now,

Pablo.

I’ve got a few busy weekends coming up so this was quite a quiet one for me.

On Saturday, I embossed and made up 110 Woodlife keyfobs to take to the Wilderness Gathering. I’ve managed to get a stand at the Gathering and I’ll be showing folks the Woodlife Network and trying to get some donations to buy some much needed storage space. The Network is getting more and more popular by the month.

Mrs P and I tried out the gazebo I’ll also be taking. That was another £29-99 but hopefully all this outlay will be worth it. I pulled short of getting a pvc Woodlife banner made up. It was just too expensive. Maybe next year.

The idea is to get people to sign up in exchange for a small donation. They will also get a key fob. I’ll also be taking a few bits and pieces to show people what other people on the Network can do like Chris Grant of the Woodlife Whetstone. If there’s anyone who can re-profile a knife, it’s Chris. But that’s for another time.

I managed a couple of hours in Broaks wood. It was a hot, fine day but there were too many people about. I watched the dragonflies at the pond and spotted this exuvia on a water mint plant. All this reminded me to get cracking with the video.

I managed to do a trailer this afternoon.

The best place around here for watching dragonflies and damselflies is the Forestry Commission’s Broaks Wood. I go there once a month to check what’s about.

I was examining some gorse when I heard a familiar voice.

“There’s one on your left.”

It was the Dragonfly Man. Until recently, I’ve not known his real name. He doesn’t say hello or goodbye; he just talks dragonflies so I have dubbed him the Dragonfly Man.

I strained to look into the gorse but there was no dragonfly in sight.

“There!”

I jumped as the voice came from about 3 inches away from my ear. I followed an outstretched arm and an old, gnarled, pointing finger, and, sure enough, there was a tiny red damselfly.

“How did you see that from way back there?” I asked.

There was no answer as he had already wandered off to look into the main pond.

“You know the trick about putting in a stick at 45 degrees at the edge of the pond?” he said.

Yes, I thought. You’ve told me every year for the past sixteen years.

“Look. There’s a big blue one. It’s going to land on the stick!”

He doesn’t appear to know the names of the dragonflies, which is quite endearing. He just watches them, photographs them and tells people where they are and how to get closer to them. He showed me how to get a Common darter on my finger. In fact, he’s responsible for me starting this fascination with these prehistoric creatures.

“If you come early, they won’t be flying. It’s got to be a certain temperature before they fly. You’ll see them hanging about on the gorse bushes. Some go really high up in the trees. When the sun comes out they start their hunting and their battles.”

You can’t help but get carried along on the waves of his enthusiasm.

Even though you might have heard him say the same thing a hundred times before, there will inevitably be something you have missed; so it’s worth following him around for a while.

“I got a great picture of the big brown one yesterday,” he said in his sing-song Suffolk accent. I looked at the screen on his camera to see a blurry picture of a four-spotted chaser. Should I tell him he really ought to go to the opticians? It hardly seems appropriate. He just gets so much enjoyment from his study.

His attention was diverted by a young couple looking at the pond.

“There’s one there!” He shouted to them. I smiled as he wandered up to them and pointed with an outstretched arm.

This video is dedicated you, The Dragonfly Man, for the many years of sharing your endless knowledge and enthusiasm.