Pablo’s Woodlife: Wildlife, Tracking and Bushcraft

 

I could only manage a few hours in the woods this weekend. I decided on the spur of the moment to have a go at making a fork. If you’ve ever tried this you’ll know that it’s not easy. I gouged away carefully at the gap between the prongs, but still managed to split the wood slightly. I’ll probably also have to harden the ends of the prongs over a fire or they’ll break too easily. Although it doesn’t look too bad, I don’t think it will last very long under constant use. I think I need more practice!

 

I spent the rest of the time looking at the plants growing on some waste ground. This is a good time to identify these plants as there’s a lot in bloom.

Cinnibar Moth catapillar on Ragwort - Ragwort is poisoness to most mammals

[edit] Burnet moth (possibly six-pot Burnet) on Common centaury

Tall melilot

Great willowherb

Birds-foot trefoil

Scarlet pimpernel

Vetch

Field bindweed

Cinqfoil

Common mallow

Small tortoishell on thistle

Self-heal

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

Friday saw me battling with the afternoon M25 traffic to get to the “Tribe” meet in East Sussex. It was worth the long wait at the QE2 bridge as the Surrey hills opened up in front of me and shortly after, the smell of the Sussex woods started to permeate the interior of the Land Rover Discovery.

A couple of us met up at the local pub and shared a beer and a ham sandwich. The chill out had well and truly commenced.

I was quite pleased with how light I’d managed to get the pack on this occasion. I still took the Sabre 75 but it was only just three quarters full. It was only the 2 litres of water, probaby more than that amount in beer and a bottle of brandy that weighed me down. Even so it was a pleasant walk in.

I pitched up with one side to the rhodedendrons and as the forecast looked good I opened up the front of the tarp to the elements.

It wasn’t too long before more people had arrived and the social got underway. The great thing about these meets is that you can share ideas and experiences. Unfortunately, by the morning, helped by the fog of ’shrafting juice you’ve forgotten most of what you talked about!

After breakfast I decided to take myself off and do some tracking. I ended up at the pond and watched the dragonflies. Broad bodied chasers were about, and 2 smaller damselflies. The weather was so pleasant, I just laid back and enjoyed the sun feeling just a bit guilty that I should be doing something with a more craft aspect to it.

I eventually got my idle self up and followed a thin trail through the thick rhodedendrons. On the damp trail I noticed the usual muntjac and fallow tracks, but I also saw a single fox track. I stood out like a sore thumb and could only have been pretty recent. I followed the winding trail trying not to make too much noise when I caught sight of a white tail tip which disappered around a bend. I tried to speed up and on the next straight I saw a fox (a vixen I think) sauntering along the trail.

The soft ground gave me the advantage of getting closer without alerting her. When she stopped, so did I. Once she turned around but I had pre-empted this and turned side on (well, almost) to try and disguise my shape. This worked but unfortunately her next steps were at a trot and she drew away from me.

She halted again. Do I stop as well or take this opportunity to catch up? I carried on at a slow stalk prepared to stop if she turned again. I had to take a picture. I’d forgotten to do this. She had started to trot on again as I took the picture. She was gaining on me. Time for drastic measures. The old sucking on the back of the hand trick. Well that was the theory. In practice it alerted a grey squirrel who started up a furious chattering. The fox looked around caught me in mid stride and promptly disappeared to the right into the thick rhoddy’s. End of tracking session.

When I returned to the camp, there was more activity going on. Log splitting followed by the starting of a kuksa and other woodcraft work. Evening meal preparations were also in progress where a leg of lamb was slowly being roasted on a spit over the fire. You might notice from the pics the way the spit is resting on the three supports. This technique is well worth remembering if you’re going to do this yourself. The lamb had to be turned every few seconds for 3 hours. A strangely relaxing chore when I took my turn.

The day finished with more ’shrafting juice, great conversation, a splendid warming fire and … more ’shrafting juice. I was amazed at the craftsmanship of the knives, carving and leatherwork on show. Quite oustanding and inspirational. On the next meet someone’s going to set up a primitive forge. Something that I’m particularly looking forward to.

I have to recommend Nige’s website. We talked at length about wildlife and tracking and this site shows his dedication to wildlife in his back garden. Great stuff.

After a great night’s sleep (and luckily with few effects from the night before) and a bit of breakfast I slowly packed up and bade farewell to those still left. Another great weekend meeting of like-minded and very skilled people.

Pablo.

The torrential rains on Friday brought some flooding to the local wood. The water running off the fields gathered in the catchment area I call The Swamp on the far easterly point of East wood. This is the first time it had been properly filled since last winter. It normally harbours a couple of Moorhens and Coots, but I didn’t see any today.

It was when I was walking up to this area that I noticed a couple of Badger tracks in the soft mud. The Badger sett is about 400 yards away to the north of the wood. I seldom see tracks in the wood itself although I know they must visit.

I followed the track about 20 yards up the rise and past the swamp. One individual track showed that the Badger might have turned towards the swamp. Whether it actually went down for a drink or a look I wasn’t too sure as I couldn’t see evidence by the water’s edge; however the trail resumed a little further along. I lost the track at the top of the rise as the mud gave way to grass.

I decided to back track and once I got my eye in, I picked up a meandering trail circumnavigating a large puddle. I was really pleased that I was building up a picture of why the Badger was walking the where it did. Firstly it appeared to keep to the right of the path using the undergrowth as cover, then crossed into the centre of the track to avoid a large, deep puddle, possibly dipping down into the swamp to the right, finally resuming a wander again to the right of the path to the top of the rise and then off into the field.

At one point I lost the track. I did the “lost track procedure” making a circular search of a couple of yards around the last track, but there was no sign. I remembered what Max Maxwell had told us on what to do next. “If you can’t find anything after this – sit down and have a cup of tea” which was exactly what I did. I really wanted to find out where the badger had come into the woods. There are 3 main paths into this part of the wood about 250 yards away (rarely used but paths nonetheless.) I searched those areas for any sign, but there was nothing that I could see. I had to be content with a 40 yard trail.

When I got home I looked up the stride length and registration of tracks in the Brown, Lawrence & Pope Tracks book. The approximate 6 inch stride and indirect registration told me the Badger was probably walking. It also said that a walking Badger might show fur signs from the underneath of the body in the mud, and I wish I’d known this before as I would have paid more attention to it.

My last job today in the woods was to finish off the Bucksaw I started last week. I sanded it off and tried it out on a piece of tough old Hornbeam. I was delighted it that it made short work of gnawing through a 4 inch piece. I notice the blade was bending a little at one end, so a bit of adjustment to the joints on the cross piece will have to be made. I’ll do that at a later date.
The site tweaking is more or less finished. If there any problems, please let me know in a comment.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.