A Glorious Weekend in Sussex

This last weekend I was in East Sussex with the Tribe - a bunch of close knit friends who get together once every two months to share skills and have a good laugh in the woods.

This weekend some people had a go at chair making and other wood carving projects like kuksas and bowls.

Dave and Scotty had success with the the hand drill. I knew that my delicate office hands wouldn't stand a chance - so I just watched.  I would need to condition my hands for a while before I tried this. Maybe next year.

The weather was hot and sunny, so I made my way to the pond where I saw Common hawkers and Common darters. I managed to get myself on the flight path and inquisitive dragonflies came face-to-face with me frighteningly close-up. The Common darters landed on me, seeing me as a kind of protector and a respite from the bullying tactics of the hawkers, much to the amusement of the onlookers with binos.

As usual kit was compared. This is Joe's superb trio of new tools made by Roger Harrington from Bison Bushcraft.

I managed to get close to some Fallow deer on the Saturday morning. The younger members of the group stayed put ...

...while the mature doe tried to lead me away from them with bouncing jumps and barks. I'll put this video up on my YouTube Channel later.

Tom, Nigel and Neil joined me for a repeat performance on the Sunday morning, but only Nigel was in the right position to view what I knew was the same group.

Thanks to everyone for a brilliant weekend.

A Glorious Weekend in Sussex

This last weekend I was in East Sussex with the Tribe - a bunch of close knit friends who get together once every two months to share skills and have a good laugh in the woods.

This weekend some people had a go at chair making and other wood carving projects like kuksas and bowls.

Dave and Scotty had success with the the hand drill. I knew that my delicate office hands wouldn't stand a chance - so I just watched.  I would need to condition my hands for a while before I tried this. Maybe next year.

The weather was hot and sunny, so I made my way to the pond where I saw Common hawkers and Common darters. I managed to get myself on the flight path and inquisitive dragonflies came face-to-face with me frighteningly close-up. The Common darters landed on me, seeing me as a kind of protector and a respite from the bullying tactics of the hawkers, much to the amusement of the onlookers with binos.

As usual kit was compared. This is Joe's superb trio of new tools made by Roger Harrington from Bison Bushcraft.

I managed to get close to some Fallow deer on the Saturday morning. The younger members of the group stayed put ...

...while the mature doe tried to lead me away from them with bouncing jumps and barks. I'll put this video up on my YouTube Channel later.

Tom, Nigel and Neil joined me for a repeat performance on the Sunday morning, but only Nigel was in the right position to view what I knew was the same group.

Thanks to everyone for a brilliant weekend.

The Owl and the Wildlife Enthusiasts

Last week, I took a couple of members of the local wildlife group out to see the badgers. at first we only managed to get a sighting of a furry grey back but we were luckier later as an inquisitive stripy face came into view to check us out. This is unusual behaviour but I was delighted for the pair of wildlife enthusiasts who had waited patiently (and unusually in silence) for an hour. It wasn't a long encounter but the pair were beaming as we walked back to the car.

On the way back, I spotted the barn owl quartering the field. I asked the crew to get out of the car when I stopped. I was taking a chance to try and get the owl to swoop low over us. I had done this before with a squeak to reasonable effect, but I didn't hold up that much hope for a repeat performance.

I had a hand held torch and my video camera but I was struggling to operate it all plus the car. I was bouncing across the newly harvested hard ground which didn't help matters. When I thought I was close enough to the owl, I stopped the car and we all jumped out.

I switched on the torch and switched the video onto record (with my tongue) as the owl annoyingly started to fly away from us. I did my squeak and amazingly we saw the owl turn and head back towards us as I continued squeaking (perhaps a bit too long in my excitement). At first the owl hovered directly over us for a few seconds and then did a couple of low-level passes.

It was an amazing experience for me let alone the two wildlife group members who had never had close encounters with wildlife in their lives, let alone two in one night! The footage is a little rough but I think it conveys the excitement the evening.

Thanks for the visit.

The Owl and the Wildlife Enthusiasts

Last week, I took a couple of members of the local wildlife group out to see the badgers. at first we only managed to get a sighting of a furry grey back but we were luckier later as an inquisitive stripy face came into view to check us out. This is unusual behaviour but I was delighted for the pair of wildlife enthusiasts who had waited patiently (and unusually in silence) for an hour. It wasn't a long encounter but the pair were beaming as we walked back to the car.

On the way back, I spotted the barn owl quartering the field. I asked the crew to get out of the car when I stopped. I was taking a chance to try and get the owl to swoop low over us. I had done this before with a squeak to reasonable effect, but I didn't hold up that much hope for a repeat performance.

I had a hand held torch and my video camera but I was struggling to operate it all plus the car. I was bouncing across the newly harvested hard ground which didn't help matters. When I thought I was close enough to the owl, I stopped the car and we all jumped out.

I switched on the torch and switched the video onto record (with my tongue) as the owl annoyingly started to fly away from us. I did my squeak and amazingly we saw the owl turn and head back towards us as I continued squeaking (perhaps a bit too long in my excitement). At first the owl hovered directly over us for a few seconds and then did a couple of low-level passes.

It was an amazing experience for me let alone the two wildlife group members who had never had close encounters with wildlife in their lives, let alone two in one night! The footage is a little rough but I think it conveys the excitement the evening.

Thanks for the visit.

A Walk Around the Fields

This weekend, I stayed close to home and walked around the meadows and fields.

The sun was out and it was a glorious day.

Billy came with me. We walked and walked until we were too tired and hot to walk any more. Then we went to the top of  an embankment and watched what was going on.

We saw a buzzard soaring over the fields and a kestrel. Meadow pipits were still around.

There wasn't too many wild plants about. The odd Field scabious and this Scarlet pimpernel.

I was trying out this Maxpedition Sitka from Lakeland bushcraft. I'll do a full review of this next month. And of course I was still getting used to my binos.

Today's weather was nearly as good. I walked into Poor Park and noticed that already there was quite a layer of fresh leaves on the ground and distinct smell of autumn permeating the woods.

It wasn't long before I spotted the Fallow herd at a distance. I'm sure I heard a Buck bellowing the other night, so I suppose it won't be too long before the rut begins.

On my travels I met up with the Muntjac buck. I saw him foraging about in the undergrowth and crept up as close as I dared and waited for him to come onto the path. A little squeak and he was inquisitive enough to turn around and check me out. 

A Walk Around the Fields

This weekend, I stayed close to home and walked around the meadows and fields.

The sun was out and it was a glorious day.

Billy came with me. We walked and walked until we were too tired and hot to walk any more. Then we went to the top of  an embankment and watched what was going on.

We saw a buzzard soaring over the fields and a kestrel. Meadow pipits were still around.

There wasn't too many wild plants about. The odd Field scabious and this Scarlet pimpernel.

I was trying out this Maxpedition Sitka from Lakeland bushcraft. I'll do a full review of this next month. And of course I was still getting used to my binos.

Today's weather was nearly as good. I walked into Poor Park and noticed that already there was quite a layer of fresh leaves on the ground and distinct smell of autumn permeating the woods.

It wasn't long before I spotted the Fallow herd at a distance. I'm sure I heard a Buck bellowing the other night, so I suppose it won't be too long before the rut begins.

On my travels I met up with the Muntjac buck. I saw him foraging about in the undergrowth and crept up as close as I dared and waited for him to come onto the path. A little squeak and he was inquisitive enough to turn around and check me out. 

Binoculars

You might think this strange, but I rarely use binoculars. I find them cumbersome and in the woods you don't exactly have the opportunity to see any great distance. Conversely, the benefit of a good pair is that you can see even close up objects in more detail and you can look into dark foliage to see what's there. As you know I also like to get quite close to animals as naturally as possible but at times, this isn't an option.

My current binoculars are about 30 years old. I got them second hand and they certainly did me proud during the height of my bird-watching days. They are a pair of Carl Zeiss Jenoptem 8x30.

Carl Zeiss Jenoptem 8 x 30

When I signed up to go to Namibia (did I tell you I was going to Namibia?) my first thought was that I would treat myself to a new pair of binos.

Where to start? Luckily I have a birding friend who has a pair of Opticron Verano 10x50 so that was a good bench-mark for a modern pair and a comparison to my old Carl Zeiss. There was quite a difference not just in magnification but light gathering properties. The Carl Zeiss is a porro prism system (giving the binos its traditional shape) as opposed to the roof prism (straight shape) of the Veranos. The porro prism gives the Carl Zeiss binos a bit of blurring around the edge of the viewing circles. Roof prisms then were the way to go.

Opticron Verano 10 x 50

My next step was to go more up market and look at some higher end instruments. I had a look at my mate Maverick's Leica  8x32. Very, very impressive with a superb sharp image but at £1,000 plus (new) they were out of the question. Binos are very personal and you have to try them out. One persons delight is another's disappointment, so it's no good saying that the more expensive the better. However, in this case I thought the Leicas were fantastic, but I just couldn't justify the price.

I went back to the Opticrons and looked at a higher spec model. By all accounts (and reviews) the imagic was the better instrument than the Veranos although this was £80 over my budget at £380-00.

Opticron imagic 8 x 42

As luck would have it, my local bird reserve had an optics day and I travelled down to see what was there. Most of the binoculars were Hawkes, Opticrons, Minox and Bushnells and I tried them all.

I played with the higher x 10 magnification, but, as was pointed out, they are on the limit of a hand held stable image and a bit of wind would render them useless. In comparison, there wasn't a great deal of difference in any case in my opinion. I also tried out a pair of the imagic 8x42 in direct comparison with my Carl Zeiss pair.

I made up my mind. The imagics were the ones for me. My plan was to buy them on line... until... what was that? Out of the corner of my eye I saw a group of second hand binoculars. And guess what? A pair of Opticron imagic 8x42 was amongst them. The pair was one version down from the current version with slightly less field of view and pull out instead of twist out eyecups. Apparently, there's no other difference. The price was definitely right at £199-00.

I'm never that lucky. But today it looked like it was my day. After a thorough check for any defects, I gave the chap my plastic card, which he kindly gave back complete with a pair of Opticron imagic 8x42 binoculars. Job done!

Binoculars

You might think this strange, but I rarely use binoculars. I find them cumbersome and in the woods you don't exactly have the opportunity to see any great distance. Conversely, the benefit of a good pair is that you can see even close up objects in more detail and you can look into dark foliage to see what's there. As you know I also like to get quite close to animals as naturally as possible but at times, this isn't an option.

My current binoculars are about 30 years old. I got them second hand and they certainly did me proud during the height of my bird-watching days. They are a pair of Carl Zeiss Jenoptem 8x30.

Carl Zeiss Jenoptem 8 x 30

When I signed up to go to Namibia (did I tell you I was going to Namibia?) my first thought was that I would treat myself to a new pair of binos.

Where to start? Luckily I have a birding friend who has a pair of Opticron Verano 10x50 so that was a good bench-mark for a modern pair and a comparison to my old Carl Zeiss. There was quite a difference not just in magnification but light gathering properties. The Carl Zeiss is a porro prism system (giving the binos its traditional shape) as opposed to the roof prism (straight shape) of the Veranos. The porro prism gives the Carl Zeiss binos a bit of blurring around the edge of the viewing circles. Roof prisms then were the way to go.

Opticron Verano 10 x 50

My next step was to go more up market and look at some higher end instruments. I had a look at my mate Maverick's Leica  8x32. Very, very impressive with a superb sharp image but at £1,000 plus (new) they were out of the question. Binos are very personal and you have to try them out. One persons delight is another's disappointment, so it's no good saying that the more expensive the better. However, in this case I thought the Leicas were fantastic, but I just couldn't justify the price.

I went back to the Opticrons and looked at a higher spec model. By all accounts (and reviews) the imagic was the better instrument than the Veranos although this was £80 over my budget at £380-00.

Opticron imagic 8 x 42

As luck would have it, my local bird reserve had an optics day and I travelled down to see what was there. Most of the binoculars were Hawkes, Opticrons, Minox and Bushnells and I tried them all.

I played with the higher x 10 magnification, but, as was pointed out, they are on the limit of a hand held stable image and a bit of wind would render them useless. In comparison, there wasn't a great deal of difference in any case in my opinion. I also tried out a pair of the imagic 8x42 in direct comparison with my Carl Zeiss pair.

I made up my mind. The imagics were the ones for me. My plan was to buy them on line... until... what was that? Out of the corner of my eye I saw a group of second hand binoculars. And guess what? A pair of Opticron imagic 8x42 was amongst them. The pair was one version down from the current version with slightly less field of view and pull out instead of twist out eyecups. Apparently, there's no other difference. The price was definitely right at £199-00.

I'm never that lucky. But today it looked like it was my day. After a thorough check for any defects, I gave the chap my plastic card, which he kindly gave back complete with a pair of Opticron imagic 8x42 binoculars. Job done!

In the depths of Essex a prisoner escapes...

On Friday I once again met up with Scrivy and old mate JP as we offered to help out Les and Brett from Wildcrafts run a course for some youngsters in the depths of an Essex wood.

It wasn't too long before the fire was going, the hammocks were rigged (a nice open configuration to take into account the good weather) and we had opened a bottle of beer for a pre-course social.

The next day Les and JP showed the youngsters how to handle and sharpen knives and make some shelters.

It always amazes me the amount of effort and energy it takes to build a natural shelter. This must obviously be taken into account when you're in a survival situation. When all is said and done, there may be alternative ways to build shelters and perhaps a lean-to with fire in an open front may be more cost effective in terms of energy. Personally, I'll stick to a tarp.

Talking of energy, Scrivy kindly made me this brilliant flint axe. What a fantastic job and it will take pride of place in my study. Thanks mate.

The shelter building and fire making soon gave way to water filtering and food prep. Les has certainly got things right in terms of teaching the basic skills in order of priority. The youngsters' rabbit prep was helped a long by the provision of a muntjac cooked "spit-roast" style on our side of the camp and provided the full complement of about 20 people with enough meat to go round with some to spare.

That evening I did a small talk and an exercise on night vision and light discipline in camp. It's amazing how many people insist on wearing the head torch complete with bright white light on their heads instead of around their necks, thereby shining it into peoples' eyes thereby obliterating any night vision they might have had.

I concentrated on using other senses in the woods not only at night but for use during the day as well. Instead of a picture of that, I'll show you a huge Dryad's Saddle fungus JP found and identified. The fungus is edible and the coin is a 2p piece (about 1 inch diameter.)

The next day the group was split into two groups. While Les took one half on a wild plant walk, I ran a man hunt scenario with a bit of tracking involved which seemed to go down well. Despite the dry ground and lack of substantial clues, both teams found the escaped prisoner before the helicopter came to airlift him away. Well, I like to pretend if no-one else does!

All in all it was a great weekend as usual. It was great to see the youngsters enjoying themselves in an open but controlled environment. I think there might have been a couple of adult converts as well.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

In the depths of Essex a prisoner escapes...

On Friday I once again met up with Scrivy and old mate JP as we offered to help out Les and Brett from Wildcrafts run a course for some youngsters in the depths of an Essex wood.

It wasn't too long before the fire was going, the hammocks were rigged (a nice open configuration to take into account the good weather) and we had opened a bottle of beer for a pre-course social.

The next day Les and JP showed the youngsters how to handle and sharpen knives and make some shelters.

It always amazes me the amount of effort and energy it takes to build a natural shelter. This must obviously be taken into account when you're in a survival situation. When all is said and done, there may be alternative ways to build shelters and perhaps a lean-to with fire in an open front may be more cost effective in terms of energy. Personally, I'll stick to a tarp.

Talking of energy, Scrivy kindly made me this brilliant flint axe. What a fantastic job and it will take pride of place in my study. Thanks mate.

The shelter building and fire making soon gave way to water filtering and food prep. Les has certainly got things right in terms of teaching the basic skills in order of priority. The youngsters' rabbit prep was helped a long by the provision of a muntjac cooked "spit-roast" style on our side of the camp and provided the full complement of about 20 people with enough meat to go round with some to spare.

That evening I did a small talk and an exercise on night vision and light discipline in camp. It's amazing how many people insist on wearing the head torch complete with bright white light on their heads instead of around their necks, thereby shining it into peoples' eyes thereby obliterating any night vision they might have had.

I concentrated on using other senses in the woods not only at night but for use during the day as well. Instead of a picture of that, I'll show you a huge Dryad's Saddle fungus JP found and identified. The fungus is edible and the coin is a 2p piece (about 1 inch diameter.)

The next day the group was split into two groups. While Les took one half on a wild plant walk, I ran a man hunt scenario with a bit of tracking involved which seemed to go down well. Despite the dry ground and lack of substantial clues, both teams found the escaped prisoner before the helicopter came to airlift him away. Well, I like to pretend if no-one else does!

All in all it was a great weekend as usual. It was great to see the youngsters enjoying themselves in an open but controlled environment. I think there might have been a couple of adult converts as well.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.