Pablo’s Woodlife

There are two woods I currently frequent. One is called Lowt’s Wood and the other Airfield Wood. The latter is a local name. Lowt’s wood (entrance to which is pictured in the first post) is part of a formal nature trail, although there seems very little maintenance of the wood. I’ve only visited this wood a couple of times, but I have noticed that at the far east of the wood there’s a badger set. It takes me about 6 or 7 mins to get there in the car. After parking up, there’s a walk along a public footpath that follows a hedgerow for about 5 mins before entering the woods themselves. More about this wood later.

The other wood is very local is just a quick bike ride away, although I take the car to save time. This wood is on private land and I’m able to use this wood to practice bushcraft as there are very few visitors. The wood is quite small and split into two halves; West wood and East wood. The only occupants appear to be crows and rooks, who have built a substantial rookery in the canopies if West wood, and the occasional rabbit. This wood tends to be very damp while the East wood is far dryer. Both the woods are deciduous woodland and in the following entries, I’ll try to describe the flora and fauna in more detail.

The picture shows a rest stop in East wood where I’ve chosen to practice bushcraft. At the moment, I’ve just used the space between the two trees to sit, ponder, and write a couple of journal entries. I’ve also drawn a rough map of the area in the hard copy journal.

Today’s walk in East wood brought me into contact with what I think is tinder fungus. I cut a piece in half and set fire to it with a lighter. It smouldered very well, but did not catch.

I’ll confirm exactly what it is in the next post. I’ve never really bothered with identifying fungus before, but I understand that this fungus is good for fire making. Cut my thumb though using my newly purchased Frosts Clipper knife. I even looked around to see if anyone was watching! At the moment I feel like a true beginner and it will take me a bit before I’m comfortable doing this again.

My trip today ended about 3pm. It was a beautiful couple of hours in the woods and I enjoyed the peace and quiet. The sun was out and the temp was about 7 deg C. It was starting to turn colder by the time I left. I seemed alone in the wood. Apart from a few bird-calls from blackbirds, the woods were still.

P.S. Thanks to the people on BCUK I’ve identified the fungus as Cramp Balls or King Alfred’s Cakes (Daldinia concentrica) it’s most commonly found on Ash trees or Oak. I’ve now confirmed it by referring to http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/ It smolders very well when lit and I’ve been advised that small shavings with other tinder will fire up well.

Again, it was very cold when I ventured into the woods this weekend. I was quite well prepared and took a flask of tea as I knew I wouldn’t have time to make a brew. The reason for this was the main reason for my outing and that was to test out my new Bushcraft Van! Well, I actually bought it for transporting band kit about, but it’s ideally suited for carrying bushcraft kit about as well. I know that some hardened bushcrafter’s will say it’s defeating the object of walking and carrying kit, but the van I think will enhance the experience. It will extend the versatility of nature watching and bushcraft by having the ability to transport kit and select the appropriate kit at the access point. Besides, one still has to get to the woods in the first place.

I think the van will be more useful in summer, when the warmer weather would extend outings. In the meantime, the van is used for storing bushcraft kit strapped in the back in a box. The most notable item being the hexy burner, mess tins and packet soup. I now don’t have to make the decision to select this at home.

I walked through Airfield woods, this time starting at the the east end. As last time, there was very little movement although I thought I saw a fox briefly running away to the west. This was confirmed later when I came across fox spur, which was very fresh and still warm.

At one of my favourite rest points, I contemplated on other nature watchers comments about the strange winter we are having. Although there’s been a couple of harsh frosts, there have been some of mild days. Some have observed catkin and and other trees budding. I’ve noticed that leaves have fallen later this year, and I noticed that there are still some stubborn oak leaves high on the trees. The temperature today has just crept above freezing, but it is still a very bright and sunny day.

I had two other projects to do today, one was to choose between two bino’s. One was 8×21 the other was 10×25. I chose the 10×25’s because they were slightly better for observing birds at a distance, but they did seem harder to focus properly.

The second mission was to test out a hatchet. I have a very old rusty hatchet, and had read that this was an essential part of bushcraft if you were to build shelters and fires, as even the sturdiest bushcraft knife would not suffice for these tasks. I tried clearing a few branches around my rest point. Of course the hatchet was more effective and I could see the potential for a good sharp non-rusty version. This was something that I had not tried when I was bushcrafting 15 years ago. This will certainly be on my wish list for summer bushcrafting. A Granfors Bruuks Wildlife hatchet or small forest axe appears to be the best buy on the net. I cut myself a walking stick with the axe and the clipper knife and I didn’t even cut myself! Not a bad attempt. Even worthy of taking home. Wife said, “Nice stick. How many times cutting yourself did it take!”

My 3 hour excursion finished with a walk back to the west side of the wood, looking for any decent loose wood to chop! I fancy having a go at making something out of wood, but will only chose wood that’s fallen. I’m still not sure the best wood to use and will explore this at a later date. A philosophy of Mears’ bushcraft is to utilise anything preferably without killing or destroying it unless absolutely necessary. I sincerely agree with this and therefore I will only utilise fallen wood. I found the hatchet sat well tucked into my belt and wasn’t uncomfortable at all. Any larger size probably would be.

My final task today was to have a cuppa in the van on my fold down stool. I watched the rabbits and the crows (the only abundant wildlife today) in the relative comfort of the van!

Even though I’m envious of the vast wild expanses of North America and Canada – both places I’d love to visit for bushcrafting purposes – I can’t help thinking that for diversity in a woodland, you can’t beat an English wood, especially our ancient woodland. They might be small, but there is an intimacy that you can’t resist. I’ve been frequenting my particular wood now for 9 months and have nearly come full circle in its life cycle.

Although I’ve not seen anything spectacular in the way of wildlife, I’ve become more aware of the inhabitants and I’m beginning to know where to find them, what they will be doing and how to watch them. The woods themselves never cease to amaze me. Two months ago, I couldn’t see any tracks because of the high undergrowth. Now, the woods are again giving up secrets that I didn’t know existed, even for a tiny wood.

It was one of these secrets I stumbled on today. I wandered deep into the wood where I don’t normally go. I was in search of some cramp ball fungus that grows abundantly in the area. I suddenly came across a small clearing on the north side. How I’d not seen it before was a mystery even though I don’t frequent the area that often. Unlike the rest of the wood, it was quite grassy and being in the north edge, it was quite open to the sky. It was an ideal spot for a bushcraft site. I set to work immediately, seeing if the hammock would fit between the trees and foraging for wood. I’m not sure what the drainage would be like when it really rains hard as the north side does tend to get quite waterlogged, but for now, it makes a fine site.

After a quick lunch, I turned my attention to the kit I’d brought on this excursion. I’m getting a bit paranoid of late, not so much about what I take, but what I take it in. I have to have my usual bushcraft tools i.e. knife, folding saw, string, tinder, binoculars, sandpaper, neck scarf, gloves, heat gel, 1/2 litre of water, camera and my mobile phone. These would go in a shoulder bag which is normally my Raider bag. It’s a great little bag as it has back straps as well as a shoulder strap, but I can’t really get any more kit in it. If I take a trangia, tarp and hammock, I have to resort to a day bag rucksack.

Today I took my all the contents of the Raider bag and what I consider my day kit (trangia, tarp, hammock ration bag) in my 15-20 litre rucksack and was pleased with the result. It was much more comfortable to wear. I even managed to hang my axe on the side. I think from now on I’ll save the Raider bag for very short excursions. As I said in a previous post, the day bag has the additional advantage of ‘piggy backing’ on my main rucksack with a slight modification.

I finished off the day visiting my old friends the red dragonflies. They were still there, and still making last ditch attempts to oviposit in any greenery they can find. I’m amazed that at the end of the first week in October, they’re still about. It is very mild still although the evenings are getting colder. Time to think of a few winter projects. I think I’ve got a couple in mind. More about that later.

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.

It seems we’ve done it again. As Sam reports on the delivery of his NRA kit, I’m planning how to put the same kit through it’s paces. Again courtesy of American Bushman and JRE Industries, I’ve received the same package. Also in the package was a shiny new Bark River PSK that American Bushman has already looked at. I admit to having a bit of a play already but can’t wait to really try it out. I’ve decided to do a bit of extreme testing. More about that later.

Following on from my awards ceremony two posts back, which was more kit orientated, I now turn my attention to what I’ve learned in the last year and what I could have done better. (You can tell I used to be a trainer). I’ve really been quite generalist about my approach to bushcraft letting many things soak in. I wanted to achieve two main objectives though. One was to make fire by friction and the other was to learn about trees in the UK, their properties and their main uses. I didn’t achieve either. A wisp of smoke on a couple of occasions has made me more determined to pursue fire by friction with a vengeance later.

Even though tree ID wasn’t fully achieved, I was pleased that my knowledge of wildflower ID hadn’t suffered too much over the years and I was able to identify many plants and mapped it across to their uses.

I hadn’t camped out since my army days, and I was pleased that I didn’t suffer flashbacks of ankle deep mud, shouts of “gas, gas, gas” and fingers frozen to bits of metal! Seriously, I took to a new way of sleeping out (hammock and tarp) like a duck to water. I even ventured into ground-dwelling during the later part of the summer. I wished I’d experimented with ‘man-made’ shelters a bit more, but I think I might be able to do more of this through the winter. It’s a case of having to really. That hammock’s pretty cold even now.

Crafts have never really been my strong point. I was pretty pleased with myself for making a couple of spoons. I actually can’t stop making them now and I really need some inspiration to carve something different. I want to do some leather work next and venture into making some primitive tools.

Putting aside bushcraft skills, my main joy this last year has been to be reacquainted with the woods and all its inhabitants. The delight of seeing and indeed living with even the smallest of animals and birds. The elation of picking up a track and providing myself with an educated guess of what made the track and what the subject was doing at the time. Even indulging in the simple pleasure of eating a tin of beans which have been heated up on an open fire that you’ve created yourself felt good.

My first year’s journey into the world of bushcraft has been literally awesome. I’ve realised that there are so many different aspects to it that it can be mind-spinning. So many things to learn and not a great deal of time to learn it all in. But the most important thing for me is to enjoy every minute, even if it does mean dropping everything and falling asleep in your hammock.

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.

A Lunar eclipse took place last night. This happens when the moon is immersed in the shadow of the Earth. During “totality”, only light that has been filtered through the Earth’s atmosphere reaches the Moon’s surface, making it appear a reddish colour. I took this pic at about 11 o’clock.

There’s been a lot of talk on some forums about the early onset of spring, so I thought I’d go outside of my usual woods to try and find out what’s happening in other areas. I started out in Broaks Wood on Friday. I had a day off and it was a good choice as the sun streamed through the house when I woke up. I packed light with just my day sack, a few sandwiches, flask of tea, sit-mat, belt and pouch. I don’t usually take any tools with me when I go into public woods except the Opinel.

The plan was to follow the main tracks which is about a 3 mile route. No sooner had I walked 100 meters when I noticed a Comma butterfly on the track. It was soaking up the sun and didn’t seem to be bothered when I closed in for a photoshoot. I’m aware that these butterflies mate in March, but this was only 2nd March. There were definitely signs that there was other spring activity with buds on the trees, including some cherry blossom. The only other wildflower I saw however was the primula (primrose) which is probably a normal time to bloom.

The walk was hard work as the tracks were saturated with mud and very slippery, but it was good exercise. The only other wildlife spotted was a single muntjac and mallards on one of the ponds. I had lunch over looking the small valley while the sun warmed the area. A glimpse at the thermometer showed 15 degrees C. More like summer than spring!

Saturday saw a bit of morning rain, but the temperatures were still quite high. I went to the ‘new’ woods. I hadn’t been there since November and I was interested to see if my renovated watch tower has survived. Again, it was a muddy slog getting to the area. The watch tower had survived and the rope holding the ladder was still in place. Unlike the myriad of Fallow deer tracks, there was no sign of humans. I thought that I should really visit these woods more often and I started looking around for a suitable site for the spring/summer. I had brought my hammock this time and I tried a few areas for suitability, eventually mentally marking an area on the south side of the wood, close enough to the entrance but far enough away from the open fields. A nice fallen tree would provide a sitting/working/cooking area.

I looked back in my wildlife diary from last year and really didn’t notice anything different wildlife or climate wise except that I didn’t notice a butterfly until 2 April, so there might be a bit of truth in the early onset of spring.

Interestingly (or not) my blog for March last year showed the delivery of my first tarp and Swedish Army Trangia. How time flies!

All the best, Pablo

A couple of weeks ago I hooked up with the local wildlife group by attending a couple of meetings. On Saturday, the group had arranged to do a field trip in my local area, and of course, I tagged along hoping to learn something especially about my local wood.

We started off by touring the fields and hedgerows surrounding the woods. Some of these areas I hadn’t previously visited and it was interesting to identify fox and badger lay-up areas as well as tracks made by the muntjac deer. We also identified a wonderful estimated 200 year old boundary oak on the north side of the area. I’m particularly fond of oaks and the English tend to hold them in great esteem but often forget why. Peter Ackroyd writes, “Oaks mean something to us and somehow the old oak stands for England.” Quite apart from our naval history and “Hearts of oak our our ships…” there is a possibly deeper, more ethereal significance.

It was strange wandering through the woods with people and I smiled to myself when we passed my usual Bushcraft sites, grateful that I always clear up the sites completely after each visit. I was surprised that the group members stomped around, chatted loudly and missed many obvious signs. With a little sense of superiority, I pointed out several aspects of the woods that they failed to notice. I was of course at an advantage by having visited nearly every weekend for the last 14 months. I even spoke with an air of authority on the Cramp ball fungus, but seemed to lose them a bit when describing its ember producing properties. Their expressions said “Why on earth would you want to set fire to it?”

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a tree expert on board, therefore, I’m still a little in the dark about exactly what trees there are in the woods. The group leader was however quite knowledgeable on plants and I was able to glean some information on the shoots that were appearing in the undergrowth. I also realised that I had made a serious error on misidentifying the Lesser celandine with an Arum Lilly (Cuckoo pint or Lords and Ladies – see this post). Serious, because I now know that the latter is poisonous (especially the berries) while the celandine isn’t. The lesson learned here is that it’s vital that you correctly identify plants before you even think about eating it. (I thought the leaf tasted particularly bitter!!) We were quite excited to identify some young leaves of the relatively rare bee-orchid just outside of the woods (pic below), an area that will now be brought to the attention of the local farmer, who is more than willing to assist in preserving rare plants.

The group talked about some woodland management projects that included the wood itself. This would involve clearing some undergrowth and thinning out of some trees. At first I was a little concerned even dismayed about people traipsing through my woods, but then reflected that it could only be for the best by encouraging more wildlife and plants by sensitive woodland management. The decision was taken to observe the woods for a year and then carry out some small projects in identified areas of the woods. I found myself putting my hand up to assist.

Later in the afternoon, I went back to the woods. There was a strange sense that everything was back to normal.

Pablo

The last week I’ve managed to have a few great days out finishing off my holiday nicely. I’ve visited all the local woods and spent Friday night out with a 24 hour excursion.

I didn’t really have a particular project, but I wanted to make a few changes to my 24 hour kit. The idea was to try and make everything fit in my new 30 litre bag. The first thing I changed was to swap out the SA Trangia for a simple Trangia burner, Hexy cooker stand and Crusader cup mix. This cut down on a lot of bulk and weight. I decided to take the larger tarp, as I’d not slept under this before. Again took the trusty DD hammock.

The other change I made was to split the utility bag into two, putting tarp pegs, bungees and cordage in one while putting the headlamp, sharpening stone and water purifier in the other. Not exactly saving weight here, but more manageable. I also decided to take just 2 litres of water in two water bottles instead of 3 litres in the water carrier. This would also save space in the bag. The result was that indeed, everything fitted nicely into the 30 litre bag (except the Nanok sleeping bag). My shoulder bag took the usual additional stuff including the new GB mini hatchet.

It was a standard night out: The cacophony of the Rookery at dusk; Badger watch with no sign of a Stripey at all (!); a nice open fire to end the evening with warmed up soup; woken by barking muntjacs at 3am; woke at dawn and climbed out of the hammock as the sun warmed the wood at 10am with a squirrel staring at me from about 3 feet away.

I also decided to try Seorus’s idea of putting the Thermarest inside the sleeping bag. The Nanok bag has a zip each side, therefore it was quite easy to slip the Thermarest inside it, get in the bag while the bag is in the hammock and zip it up (instead of getting in the bag before ‘falling’ into the hammock as I usually do). The system worked well and as stated by Seorus, the Thermarest didn’t slide around in the hammock. Usually I wake up with the Thermarest a 45 degrees to the hammock and the foot of sleeping bag pointing out at the same angle the other way! I’ll certainly try this method again.

I realised that by leaving the Trangia behind I’d also left my spork, which would make eating my lunchtime tinned Ravioli a bit awkward. So I quickly fashioned a simple fork using the Opinel. Ha! This is what Bushcraft is all about. Adapting to the situation (as simple this might be on this occasion). It was only the thought of a decent dinner waiting for me that I left the woods in the middle of the afternoon.

Today was an ideal day for taking a walk around Broak’s Wood, with temperatures in the 20’s C and clear sunny skies. These ancient woods never cease to amaze me and I’d quite forgotten that this time of year yields a spectacular display of Bluebells in the older part of the wood. English woods have some of the best Bluebell displays in the world and account for 20 per cent of the world population of the flower. One has to be aware that there are hybrids; the native Bluebells interbreeding with the introduced Spanish variety. To tell the difference, follow this link. You must be there to smell the wonderful sweet-scented fragrance of the Bluebell wood. Absolutely wonderful.

Other flowers in bloom were Red campion, Primula, Cowslips, Wild strawberry, White deadnettle, Ground ivy and Dog violet. I was pleased that I could identify these without looking them up. Speckled wood, Brimstone, and Peacock butterflies were quite abundant as well.

Oh well, back to work tomorrow!

Pablo.

I went to see the old folks in my home town this weekend. On the way back (on a whim) I decided to look at the house where I spent the first 6 years of my life. Remarkably, despite a few wrong turns to cater for new roads and new builds, I found the old house. From there it was easy to find the woods I used to play in. In my very first post I mentioned that I was always the last kid out of the wood and often (despite my young age) went to the woods on my own. I spent many a happy hour climbing the trees, wandering along the tracks and netting newts in the pond.

Although not dressed for the occasion, I couldn’t resist taking a walk. The main tracks had been graveled over making it a more recreational wood, but the east side was how I imagined it was… well as much as I could imagine it some 40 years on!

Of course I was looking at the woods with new eyes, and I was pleased that they were well managed and maintained. The wood seemed alive with birdsong and activity. After a while I came across the same pond that I spent so much time collecting frog’s spawn and newts. The pond now had a fence around it I suppose for health and safety reasons. I became quite emotional which is strange for me. The experience culminated shortly after this when I came almost face to face with a Roe deer. After what seemed an eternity, I slowly reached for the camera, but she was gone.

These were my first woods and probably formed my early love for woods and nature. Whenever I visit the folks I’m drawn down memory lane, but on this occasion particularly so. Perhaps I should visit more often. Perhaps I should move nearer my folks as they get older. Perhaps, perhaps.

I’ll post the next part of the Spring Bushmoot review mid week.

Cheers for now

Pablo.