Pablo’s Woodlife

Took a day off today. The weather was so good. It was too good to miss a day out in the woods. Friday 13th? Pah! No worries. I prefer going to Broaks Wood during the week as there are fewer people and dog walkers. I don’t mind dog walkers, in fact when my black Labrador, Ben, was alive, we used to go there often. But dogs do disturb the wildlife. These thoughts came apparent as I had a break in the small valley.

After about 10 minutes sitting in the sun, I spotted a mutjac deer about 20 yards a way. I scrambled for the camera but hit the wrong settings. A wasted opportunity but at least I was able to see it wander off casually down the valley and up the other side of the hill. A couple of seconds later, I heard barking, which I assume was the deer I’d seen.

I’d always wondered why the wood was called Broaks Wood (Brock is an old English names for Badger, but it might not be this) I had never previously seen any signs of Badgers in the woods. This changed as I climbed to the highest point of the wood. I spotted a track mark pointing to a dip in the wood. After guessing where the owner would go, I came across a huge sett with a number of entrances, scratching posts and latrines. It must have been extremely old judging by the scratch marks that had healed in the wood.

I continued up to the highest point of the wood and had lunch. I had dispensed with the trangia today and had just brought sandwiches. I knew I was going to do a bit of walking and wanted to travel light. In fact I only had my sit mat with me. The axe was swapped out for the walking stick, the trangia for ham and cheese sarnies. The view from the top of the wood was wonderful. Looking east, it appeared the epitome of the English countryside with undulating hills, farmland and wood.

On the way back via a different route I discovered a Hornets nest. Not so much discovered as someone had put up a sign, warning of the impending ‘danger’. I spent a while filming the nest actually getting quite close. They appeared not to be too bothered by my presence. I did start to worry as suddenly quite a few came out from the nest at once. I think if you panic in these situations, it just makes things worse and even insects smell your fear, so I got up slowly and walked away.

My last encounter was with fallow deer on top of a hill. Again, I only just managed to catch the deer on film before they ran over the top of the hill. They must have seen me approaching as at that time I wasn’t walking particularly quietly. Most of the trip I had been. I have learned a technique of walking in the woods so as not to spook wildlife. You basically walk toe to heel instead of t’other way round, keeping the feet pointing forward and s l o w l y does it. I also roll my feet out to in. This is quite hard work and can’t be done for long periods, especially if you’re not wearing the right footwear. I tried to follow the deer but they had a greater head start. There were so many tracks in the mud, I didn’t know which ones to follow.

I finished the trip at one of the small ponds, where I spotted a few more dragonfly. You all must be getting fed up with these dragonfly pictures, but I do find them fascinating. Actually, I made an identification error with the previously shown ‘red-dragonflies’. They were in fact Common Darters (but still red in colour). The variation of the Common Darter colour is this brown colour and probably means it’s a female.

Okay. Now here’s something I want to try out. By pressing the wrong button on my camera, I activated video mode which I very rarely use in the woods. I got home and mucked about a bit (a lot actually) and came up with a video of the excursion. I know my technique needs a bit of work and the image isn’t as clear as I thought it would be, but see what you think. It’s about 3 1/2 minutes long and there’s no audio. I might do something on a more bushcraft type subject at a later date.

In the same mail as the Karrimor Sabre (see post below) I received another couple of pieces of kit that has been on my wish list (and it’s not even my birthday!) After attending the bushmoot and talking to Mors Kochanski I became convinced that a bow saw complemented an axe entirely. I have a small Bahco folding saw, and very good it is too, but to saw through wood any bigger than the span of the hand would cause a few problems. I like the idea of the traditional hand made bow saws and would still like to have a go at making one at a later stage. As my philosophy at the moment is to buy the kit, and then regress in an attempt at making something myself as my skills improve, the search was on to find a bow saw.

Inspired my Mungo’s post on the same subject, I knew there was a bow saw out there and even better, a collapsible one at that. My search ended at Bearclaw. This was cheap, collapsible and had three blades. It duly arrived in its own nylon bag. I stashed it in the same Sabre bag pocket as the axe and headed for the woods.

At first it was a bit of a mission finding out how to set it up. I was a bit dubious that the whole strain of the blade was held on a small pin in the handle. The saw didn’t look as though it was mass produced. My fears were realised as the blade jumped off the pin when I took up the strain by pushing down on the handle. No harm done, but I was very aware that when I set it up next time the hole in the blade was seated firmly on the pin, and I also kept my eyes well away when I took up the strain on the blade. I’m not too sure how this small pin and its seating would stand up to constant pressure of taking up this strain and general use.

Cunningly concealed in the main strut of the saw is a further two blades. These are help in place by a simple screw which pushes the blades into the side of the main strut. One is a hacksaw blade and the other appears to be a normal small toothed blade. The wood blade is the one I would probably use more.

Once the saw has been seated correctly on the pin, the strain is taken up by pushing the plastic handle down to make the whole thing triangular shaped. This triangle shape might be a little restrictive on larger sawing projects but this is the price of portability. The plastic handle was surprisingly well positioned to use the saw, although I’m not sure if I would say that if I had bigger mitts. The whole thing is very light weight, made from aluminium and plastic (apart from the blades). I tested the saw on a piece of fallen log.

The saw rattled a bit (due to the other blades) but after tightening the screw it wasn’t too bad. I’m not a woodworker by any means, but I was pleasantly surprised at the speed the saw went through this hard wood. It doesn’t have the weight that I think most people would like for a bow saw, but again, that’s the price you pay for portability. For larger cutting projects and to complement the axe, I think this is a winner and for £15-95 you can’t go far wrong. The test will be longer term use on a couple of winter projects I have in mind.

On another subject and following the post about pot hangers, I’ve been asked by Sam from Woodland in Poland to put up a video about how to make one, so here it is. I don’t think that any of the books show you how to do this properly because of the difficulty in showing all the angles involved to do it successfully, so I’m pleased to contribute. (I shy away from calling it a tutorial as I don’t think I’m skilled enough to call myself a bushcraft tutor). Even now it looks a little awkward, but this is probably more due to the fact I was trying not to block the camera view with elbows and arms. I had the video camera jammed between two branches and the weather looked ominously wet. Excuses over. Here we go…

More next time.

At last my new tarp has arrived. I decided a few months ago that the 2.50m x 1.50m Katmandu tarp might not be big enough for excursions over a few days. I was in a bit of a dilemma whether to get another one. I finally succumbed and ordered a Tatonka 2 tarp.

Coming in at 3m x 3m this tarp is really the business. This poly version only weighs 93 grams although the poly cotton version is a bit heavier. The tarp is well made as you would expect from a reputable company with reinforced loops on all corners as well as eyelets. There are also loops in the middle and in the centre of the ridge line. They’ve even put a small Velcro loop in the centre underneath the tarp so that you can run a utility line under the tarp. The advantage over the smaller tarp is that apart from more room to stash kit, cook under and cover the hammock or other sleep system, the 3m sides can be pulled almost to the ground in bad weather, and there will still be enough head room to move about comfortably. The smaller tarp certainly won’t be made redundant. I like this tarp because it is small and will be still be used for shorter excursions, use in closed woodland and for daily use.

I use the 10 meters of 7mm paracord for the ridge line and 5meters of 3mm cord for the guy lines. The length of the ridge line allows for a utility line to be rigged underneath the tarp. This is handy for hanging stuff on (like stuff sacks, torch, glasses etc). I took the opportunity of filming setting up and packing away the tarp. There’s definitely a knack to this and I think it’s good to keep practicing. There’s nothing worse than fiddling about when it’s pouring with rain. In inclement weather, the tarp should be first up. I’ve also demonstrated the knots I use. If these aren’t very clear, let me know.

The Evenk and slippery knots work quite well for me, being quite simple and more importantly, quick to set up and easy to release. The slippery knot helps keep the ridge line nice and taut. Since I made the film, I decided not to wrap the ridge line around the folded up tarp, but to fold it separately after the tarp has been put into the stuff sack. This way, when unpacking, time is saved unrolling the line from the tarp and there’s less chance of the line getting tangled.

All in all I’m very pleased with the tarp. I’m now going to experiment with different configurations but I’ll mainly use the ‘open front’ configuration (photo) unless it’s really bad weather when, of course, the whole thing will be closed down.

I must apologise for not posting the promised mid-week post as I had Internet connection problems. I’ll try and post mid week if all goes well.

Thanks for the visit.

As promised, some moving pictures from the weekend’s meet at Mark’s wood.

It’s probably a good time to have a look at what has happened over the past year… so if you’ve got 8 mins 8 secs to spare, why don’t you share it with me? As they say in all good review features, ‘… includes previously unseen footage.’

Many thanks to all those who contributed in some way and thanks to you, one of the many visitors who have supported this site.

Pablo.

As I suggested, over the last month or so I’ve been busy filming spring in the woodlands around and about where I live.

I’ve enjoyed my new found freedom by occasionally taking off my aircast and I have been limping about the woods pointing the camera shakily at everything that moves.

I’ve put up the compilation of the footage on my YouTube channel (have look if you haven’t been there before).

If you don’t want to go to the channel, you can view the video footage below. It’s about 5 minutes long. By the way, this is the first footage in something called High Definition so I hope you enjoy it. If your connection is too slow, you can view it without HD by clicking on the HD button.

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.

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 was speaking to someone the other month and we were talking about solo trips. To my surprise he, and many others so it seems, had never done solo trips.

I like meets, but I also love getting out on my own. You can do what you want and chill out. It is a little strange at first, but if, like me, you don’t mind your own company, you quickly get used to the solitude. This weekend, after a postponement from last weekend, I was out in Poor Park Woods.

I took my light weight 55 litre pack and, for a change, packed my ground-dwelling Snugpack Stratosphere hooped bivi, 3 litres of water, pre-prepared stew and some bacon and eggs for Sunday morning.

The weather was perfect at 21C. I wandered around the woods all day without a schedule, examining tracks and other sign and explored some areas of the woods I’d not been in before.

At about 5pm I lit a fire and warmed up a stew.

At 8pm I was in position at the north edge of the woods to see if any badgers would emerge out of a sett entrance I had identified. I didn’t hold up any hopes. Suddenly, there was a commotion to my right and 2 large fallow does came into view. The lead doe saw me and veered off over the badger sett. The following doe came to a stop right in front of me no more than a few yards away. She didn’t seem to realise I was there but soon ran off and followed the first doe. Two yearlings and a young buck followed close behind. I managed to get a picture of a couple of rumps.

I soon realised the reason for this commotion. Two dogs off their leads were chasing the deer through the woods. Amazingly, only one dog spotted me. The other went wandering past.

The next incident was much more serene. I decided to sit by the side of a well used path leading into the woods from a field. I wasn’t there long before I saw a Muntjac buck in velvet come and pay me a visit. He was literally only 5 yards away and I managed to film the whole approach. Have a look at the footage below and see how he uses his nose to try and ID me. He also stamps his feet to try to get me to move and to warn others. I’m pretty sure he didn’t quite know what I was even at the end. He certainly didn’t look as though he was threatened.

I returned to the camp, lit up the fire again and took in the darkening woods before turning in.

I woke a few times during the night, but I wasn’t aware of any nocturnal visitors. During breakfast, I heard the barking of a fallow doe (much deeper and not so shrill as a muntjac) but couldn’t locate her. There was no sign of any early morning visitors by looking at the “morning papers” for tracks or spoor either.

After packing up I had a look at the sett entrance. The stick that I’d gently placed over the hole was still in place, which tended to suggest the sett was not occupied.

Exactly 24 hours after entering the woods, I walked out. It was a peaceful, reflective time with a couple of close encounters. I was really pleased with these encounters because it was obvious that I hadn’t been easily identified as a human. I put this down mainly to the fact that the fire had de-scented me. But even so, I’m getting ever closer to the wildlife.

Here’s the footage of the muntjac buck.

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.