Pablo’s Woodlife

Clear sunny day, but very cold 3 degree C with a cold easterly wind. I went to Airfield wood specifically to track the deer I had briefly glimpsed last week. I started on the west side of West wood to allow for the wind and entered the wood from the track. As soon as I entered the wood I saw a fox cross my path, right in front of me about 20m away.

I froze…it hadn’t noticed me. It was quite small, probably a female and I noticed she was carrying her rear left leg. My camera! It was in my pack, slung on my shoulders (and not as normal on my left shoulder). I dared not move but had to get my camera. Slow movements were the key. I’ve read their eyesight isn’t too good, as long as there’s no movement to attract their attention.

I couldn’t believe it, she sat down looking away from me. I slowly took the pack off my shoulders and reached in to get the camera. She started to move. Unbelievably a second fox came out of the bushes from my left. This must be the male. He was bigger, with a full deep red coat. I know that this time of year is near mating season and they hang around in pairs.

I dropped my bag. Both looked around, but didn’t spot me as I froze again. But this was enough for them to walk away. I quickly managed to get a couple of photos and looked up in time to see the female run after a rabbit. No competition with her injured leg and the rabbit escaped.

While the female chased the rabbit, the male was jumping in and out of the bushes. I didn’t manage to get a picture of them both together. After a while, they both disappeared out of the wood. I followed, but lost sight of them.

This was a great sighting for me, and reinforced my decision to take up watching nature and bushcraft again. I was grinning like an idiot all the way home!!

March already and the start of spring has commenced with sharp frosts and still no rain. We’ll probably get all the rain in the summer when we want to sleep out in the woods.

Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to get out since my last entry despite the glorious sunny days. My wife, Jo has had surgery and I’ve been grounded for a while.

Thoughts of the coming warmer weather and I’ve decided to commit this entry to thinking about bushcraft excursions that involve cooking out and sleeping out. If you’ve read this journal from the start you will know that I’ve previously been interested in bushcraft. I thus have a fair amount of kit (albeit rusty, moldy or smelly) from those days. My old “A” frame Bergen had to go as it had been attacked by an army of mice! My aim is to keep this interest as cost effective as possible therefore drawing up a kit list for excursions will be difficult.

I’ll have to start with something to carry stuff in. I have a small day sack, which is fine for sarnies and the basic day excursion, but would never take sleeping and cooking gear. Looks like first on the list will be a 40-50 litre back pack. I’ve thought of Karrimor Sabre, but I think it’s a bit pricey. A Highlander 44 looks pretty good and weighs in at only £30.

Shelter: Well a tarp looks good. The old army basha at about £30 but wait up! Ray uses an Australian hootchie! Let’s take a closer look. I loathe paying for a name or paying extra for endorsed kit, but this does look quite good with loads of eyelets and anchor points. £50? I’ll have to think about that. Mmmm…need some paracord although I have four bungies in good nick. A hammock also looks great fun and a Hennesey has the additional advantage of having a small tarp cover (or an even larger hexagonal tarp at an extra £45). The Hennesey is about £80 or so. Things are not cheap in this area are they? I already have a basic 2 man dome tent (only 2 season though). I’d love a low profile one but this will have to do for now. I’d only use the tent in poor weather or longer excursions.

Sleep: I have a 1 season bag and a sleep mat. Very cheap but this will do. I will get a bivvi bag though. Again, a cheap one at £18.99 will suit me for now.

Cook: Well it can only be a Trangia. I have a hexy burner, and will give this a go, but a small Trangia is a must. I’ve always wanted one and never got round to buying one. What type? 27 style is the 1-2 man version. A kettle would be a nice touch and the frying pan at least must be non-stick. Not a lot of change from £50 though. I know that a fire and billy’s are the way to go for true bushcrafting, but not all areas allow open fires.

Total so far to kick off with: £230. Maybe the Hammock can wait! An expensive first season. Now where’s that hammer for the piggy bank!

The photo is a view through my back fence at part of the 40 strong herd of fallow deer that regularly graze in the local farmer’s field. Saw some very low soaring buzzards on the way back from Oxford at the weekend. Great sight.

Although the temperature was about 5 C, the easterly wind was very cold…too cold to sit around and enjoy the view or partake in any bushcraft skills. The rest of the country is covered in snow as a cold spell hits the UK, but nothing this far east, apart from a few flurries. At least we’ve had some much needed rain the last couple days.

I’m still experimenting with how much kit to take a what to carry (and what to carry it in). At the moment, I’m using a small daysack (about 15 litres capacity) from Eurohike. I’m carrying a few basic tools in that (axe and folding saw) and some extra cold weather kit. I’m also using a small lightweight camera case containing binos, camera and journal (and a litre of water). I couldn’t resist buying a 55 litre backpack (again by Eurohike) from Millets at a bargain price of £23. I’ll try this out next time after I receive my tarp and Swedish Army Cookset I recently ordered.

I decided to try and find the badger sett. I knew it couldn’t be too far away because of the tracks I found a couple of weeks ago. I walked out of the woods and across the tarmac track and into a fielded area. The area has a few earth banks but apart from that it’s very open. The first thing that drew me to a certain bank was the obvious meandering tracks leading from a path to a certain earth bank. A sure sign of a badger track. All I had to do was notice where the track finished on the base of the bank. Low and behold, a whole load of fresh straw bedding on the side of the earth bank. On further exploration on the side of the bank, I found a good 7 entrances and the normal latrine pits nearby. These contained fresh spoor and confirmed that the sett was still active. The area is quite accessible and I should be able to watch the badgers in April and May.

On the way back I spotted the male fox (pretty sure it was the same one as a couple of weeks ago – very dark coat). He ran off to the east and simply disappeared from view. I found this quite strange as there was a wire fence surrounding the area. I searched the area to see where the hole in the fence was, but couldn’t find it. It was only then I realised that he must have gone to ground. Again, after a couple of minutes searching (must be my lucky day) I found a vertical hole in the ground, large enough for a fox. On closer inspection, I saw a paw print at the bottom of the hole. I set up my camera a few yards away and downwind to see if he would emerge. After 30 mins or so I gave up and started home. There was no sign.

Even though there was no bushcraft today, I was pleased with the sett and fox earth I’d discovered. This should set me up for some good mammal watching in spring.

At last, the late frosts have finally gone it seems and as predicted, a few warmer days, a few rain showers and the ground and trees seems to have sprung into life. Of course the wakening of the woods starts far earlier but it isn’t that obvious on the surface. There is actually growth to see now on the trees and on the floor of the woods.

Today’s walk found me batting away flying insects, coming across two bumblebees and a fritillary butterfly. I also noticed a nuthatch and a willow tit. I even heard the sound of spring. The woodpecker’s hammering echoing through the wood. Before I settled down for a brew, I noticed a movement in the undergrowth and came across a young rabbit trying hard to remain camouflaged in the leaf litter. It remained stock still as I approached and I was able to get very close to take some photos. This moment was spring personified. The sound, the smell, the visions of spring.

With the arrival of spring came the arrival of my hammock from DD hamocks. This was the last piece of kit to make up my basic Bushcraft items. My main project today was to rig the hammock and try it out with the tarp. It was all quite easy and not as complicated as I feared. The tarp went up first (as it had just started to rain) and the hammock was slung underneath. I had researched into various types and makes of hammock. Hennesey Hammocks being the favoured it seems, but I just can’t justify £80. The DD came in at exactly £20. The tape ties are a bit strange as they are like draw strings. Thus there are two ends to tie around the tree. I ended up tying them as one piece and this worked quite well, but this method didn’t allow a great distance between the trees. I will have to check this, but it worked ok for today and at least I didn’t collapse the hammock when I got in it.

The rain provided another situation and that was whether the tarp was long enough to cover the hammock. It wasn’t, therefore for severe weather, I would have to rig the tarp diagonally. The good thing about this hammock though is the double layer. I can slide in extra insulation or (as the photos on the website show) I can use the second layer as a cover. As it happens, there is enough spare material to almost wrap another layer around you anyway.

After rigging the tarp and hammock, I fired up the Swedish Army Trangia, had a brew and warmed through some baked beans. (Ok ok, not quite there with the wild fare yet!) It was so pleasant just to chill out, that my final task of finding some wood to make a couple of cooking utensils went by the board. Before packing away, I tried another few combinations with the tarp including the diagonal configuration. This did cover the hammock completely.

Verdict for the hammock…a resounding success. I think this beats tent and groundsheet my a long way. Why didn’t we use this when I was in the Army? (Probably ‘cos we had to dig and dig and dig!) I still have to put it to the ultimate test though. The sleep out test!

I thought I’d take a light walk in Lowt’s woods today. By light I mean minimal kit. As I’ve got a couple of days off, I’ll be experimenting with kit loads and kit lists and will post these soon. My minimal kit today just my shoulder bag containing folding saw; Frost clipper and firesteel (I don’t wear it on my belt in public places); binoculars; camera; 1 ltr water and nuts/raisons. I had my belt of course with a small possibles pouch. This contains the obligatory tinder; First aid kit (plasters, steri-strips, anticeptic wipes, paracetomol); toilet paper; swiss army knife and quick brew kit (2 tea bags; 2 sachets of sugar).

The object of the short excursion was to recce a suitable area for bushcrafting in this wood. The last time I visited the wood (see November 2005 post), I had just started thinking about bushcraft and I was stomping about like a small elephant! I was a little lighter on my feet this time. In fact so much so that I almost bumped into a Roe deer. It was slightly higher on a hill than me and started barking as soon as it spotted me. Needless to say I wasn’t light enough on my feet to follow it very far as it went further into the wood. My tracking skills aren’t that far advanced yet to follow it too far by that method either.

The deer did lead me into an area of the wood that I had not yet explored. There were some wonderful early bluebells in bloom. Another couple of weeks and the wood will be a mist of light blue.

I found a good bushcraft site, situated at the top of the hill but still well sheltered by some low evergreen bushes. I like to keep out of sight while being able to see as much as I can. A throwback to a previous profession! I also like to have my back to a any hills or small rises and any wind. Needless to say, it takes me a while to find a really good site. Take into account tree space for hammock slinging (my preferred sleep system) and local resources like wood and tinder and usually I’m starting to struggle. I bring my own water, as there’s no flowing streams or other good water resources in the area, so that really isn’t a problem. This does tend to make the carry weight for an overnight stay quite heavy. This site, although not perfect, fitted most of the criteria.

I spent a good half an hour in my new site soaking up the atmosphere and listening to the wood. All too soon it was time to go again. As I walked back to the van I contemplated how good it was to have my light walking boots on after months of wearing rubber boots (wellies) and how absolutely soaking my feet were getting because it was raining!

If I tell you that normally nothing can get in my woods that’s larger than a fox, you will just have to take my word for it. I’ll leave you to work out some hypothesis as to why this is. There are in fact badgers, foxes and mutjac, but they have been there for a considerable number of years. Imagine my surprise when over the holidays I saw these tracks (photo above). Larger than a muntjac, possibly a Roe deer and probably a Fallow deer. Strangely enough, I didn’t think too much about it at the time. I thought that I had just made a mistake. It’s the kind of mind set you get into when you just know that there can’t be any of these animals in these woods. Other local woods, yes. These woods, no. Your mind just won’t accept it. This, I would suggest, is not a good attitude to have when nature is at her most confusing. But the more I thought about it, the more I knew that these weren’t just normal mutjac tracks. Today I was going to find out.

Armed with my tracking stick, day pack, cheese and small flask of tea I set out in the pouring rain to find out exactly whether I had a newcomer in the woods or not. I quickly found the original tracks and measured them. These have got to be Roe or Fallow deer. And there were lots! The tracks were quickly filling up with water from the rain, so I followed the tracks, which were quite easy to spot in the mud. They were in fact so easy to see that I didn’t really need the tracking stick. I left it stuck in an easy to find spot and extracted the camera from my shoulder bag. I had swapped the beige canvass shoulder bag for the more waterproof German army gas mask bag. I’m please I did otherwise the camera would have been ruined.

The tracks led into the wood, but I felt compelled for some reason to follow the mud path along the outskirts of the wood. I had read about browse lines, so I thought I would keep to the outskirts for now. This decision turned out to be a good one. 50 yards ahead and to the right, a head popped out of the small bushes. I froze… it froze, then there was a flurry of movement. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Fallow deer leapt out of the bushes and into the wood. 5 Fallow deer! It all happened so quickly, I couldn’t tell male from female or distinguish any sizes, except for one. Amazingly, she ran back across the track and back to where she came and finally walked back out nonchalantly to face me on the path. I was almost shaking as I slowly brought the camera up to the aim. Gotcha! (albeit a very damp and blurry looking photo). We stared at each other for a good minute until the other 4 came bounding (and I mean prancing) back out of the woods and into the bushes whence they came and out of sight.

It was now my mission to track them. However (and to cut a long story short) despite an hour tracking getting wetter and wetter and colder and colder, I completely lost them. I’m pretty sure they ran completely out of the woods and across the nearest field. I was still elated to have seen them and to have proved my theory that there was indeed something in the woods.

It was time for a bit of lunch. I hadn’t brought the tarp and it was still raining hard. I had brought a poncho, but hadn’t worn it because of the noise it makes while walking. I rigged it up as a quick shelter and sat down to a cup of tea and some cheese. It wasn’t long before I realised I had made a fundamental error. The hood from the poncho hadn’t been tied and I hadn’t angled the poncho to let the rain run off. The result? A full soaking despite the excellent water-resistance of the Tilley T3. Now I was very wet and it wasn’t long before I was getting very cold. The van was just a minutes walk away, but I decided to make this a little test of what I would do if I was really stuck in this situation.

You can read about what I did (and what I didn’t) mid week. Thanks for the visit.

Pablo

Continuation from Saturdays entry

… I had tracked the deer and spotted 5 of them on the outskirts of the wood. I originally identified them as Fallow but sitting under the poncho in the rain, I wasn’t so sure. The distance between us was about 50 meters, it was raining hard and even though one of them stood staring at me for a good two minutes, I was not convinced she was a Fallow deer. More likely a Roe. The easiest way of identifying between the two is to have a look at their rumps. Unfortunately, the deer I was looking at was side on. The Fallow has a striped effect rump (white and black rump with a black tail), while the Roe has a white rump (as shown in photo courtesy of museums.ncl.ac.uk). The Roe is smaller and is in fact the smallest of Britain’s native deer. They have become scarce in some areas of Britain. It seems nobody knows exactly why, but I believe they are becoming more widespread again. Certainly in this area of the country, they are quite abundant (except of course in these particular woods).

The more I mused, the colder I got. I had rearranged the poncho to stop the rain pouring through the hood (yes… a good idea to tie up the hood!) and I had angled the poncho to let the rain run off to my right. I had already had a good drenching because I had forgotten to do these simple tasks. It was not particularly cold, but I realised that a combination of damp clothes (what I was wearing had done a pretty good job so far), the lack of activity and the wind-chill was all having an effect of making me cold through to the core (or seemed that way). It was time to act and that didn’t mean walking to the van which was about a minutes walk away.

I gathered a few damp pieces of wood and tried to make a couple of feather sticks. I used my new Companion II knife for the first time and was pleased to say that it performed well. I, however didn’t and the feather sticks were not a great success. I pulled out the tinder from my shoulder bag and after making a small platform of wood and shavings, I lit the tinder with the fire steel. This wasn’t very successful either, and it was a good 5 minutes before the tinder caught. By this time, the shavings and feather sticks were damp again and it was extremely difficult to keep the fire going. The wind had also veered without me realising it at the time and was making matters worse by blowing strongly on the exposed part of the fire. On reflection, I should have a) kept more out of the wind by selecting a more sheltered spot and b) kept the tinder and kindling in a drier state.

All was not lost and at least I did get a small fire going. The fuel was very damp though and it soon petered out. It was certainly not enough to get warm and I considered that if I would have had to stay out longer, I would have needed to prepare the wood much better. Even though I was pleased with the knife, I certainly missed the axe for doing these wood chopping duties.

As it was, I had had enough. I had been out for 4 hours and I was getting colder and colder and wetter and wetter. My gloves were soaking and it was all I could do to take down the poncho and pull on my day sack. As with the axe, I certainly missed the tarp. Even the remnants of the flask of tea weren’t enough to warm me up. I retreated to the van and gratefully drove the short journey home.

An hour later, with feet still thawing even after a hot shower, I thought about the highs and lows of the day. I was delighted I had found the deer, but I wasn’t too pleased about the way I went about trying to ‘survive’. I had made a couple of fundamental mistakes setting up the poncho, the location of my site (nearly facing the wind and on top of a rise), and the lack of preparation for the fuel for the fire. I had nevertheless, actually got a fire alight even for a short time. I probably wouldn’t have been able to do that this time last year. I hadn’t panicked when things went wrong nor become frustrated and given up. Some of these things I might have done in the past. Still lots to learn though.

It was when I was searching for the deer last Saturday that I found this (photo). I was following the deer tracks on the north west side of the wood.

Between the north edge of the woods and a single tree line of willow, there is a long, narrow track. Lying on the side of this track, I found the leg. My first thoughts were that of a fox. There isn’t a fox earth in the woods, but I had seen many foxes in the area. Significantly (or not as the case may be) some appear to have a limp (see last Jan post).

I searched the vicinity, but couldn’t find any evidence as to how this came about. There was no blood, no other fur, no other parts, and more importantly no other tracks that might have given me a clue of what happened. I certainly haven’t seen any traps in the area either.

I’m not an expert by any means, but it appears the leg had not been severed cleanly. There are no teeth marks on what’s left either. As to how it arrived at this particular spot I can only guess at it being dropped by a carrion eating bird. I looked up at the nearby rookery and wondered if the rooks could in fact manage to carry what might be (for them) quite a weight in their beaks. How far would they have carried it? I have seen a couple of Buzzards in the area, but I’ve never seen them land in the area.

There were too many questions. I have to get some assistance on this one, so I’ve posed the conundrum to the folks on BCUK. I’ll post an update on their theories next week sometime. One thing I have since realised is that the leg of a fox is very dark, almost black. This leg doesn’t look that dark, so it could possible be a small dog. Intriguing; gruesome, but intriguing.

Pablo.

I can’t really not mention the weather the last week. Thursday brought high winds which caused structural damage around the country and brought transportation to a standstill. I don’t normally travel in the course of my job, but Thursday was the day I had to do it, which was typical. 9 hours travelling for a 2 hour meeting! You’d never guess how glad I was to get home.

The woods hadn’t suffered that much. There were a couple of rotten trees uprooted and of course lots of debris. Excellent! More fire wood!

It was just a quick outing today. I just took my shoulder bag and day pack with a flask of tea and went for a wander. For much of the time, I watched some grey squirrels chasing up and down the trees. This is mating time for them and the males chase the females up and down and across the trees to try and get their wicked way. Many treat the grey squirrel as a pest, but I can’t help seeing them as endearing and highly intelligent creatures (until I’m hungry in a survival situation of course!) The name squirrel is apparently taken from the greek skiouros meaning ’shade-tail’. Well, there you are then. I have been lucky enough to see red squirrels in the Isle of White but not recently.

The woods are completely bare now. I can almost see straight through from the north side to the south side. This makes spotting wildlife so much easier but it also makes you easier to be spotted as well. With a practiced eye you can notice any movement in the trees or on the ground hence the squirrel watching today. I also managed to creep up on a rabbit to within 6 feet despite wearing quite cumbersome clothing.

I’ve got a post ready for mid-week which you might find interesting, so I hope you can visit then. which reminds me that snow is forecast next week. Can’t wait for that. Tracking time!!

Best wishes. Pablo.

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.