Bungees are Best?

Saturday was the best chance for good weather this weekend, so I planned three small projects.

Firstly, I wanted to test an idea for an ultra-quick, low-profile shelter set up. I want to be able to go into the woods after identifying fallow rut stands, and quickly set up a low-lying shelter so that I would be able to observe the rut.

I thought about purchasing a hide, but these were a) too expensive and b) too bulky.

The quickest and most flexible way I thought to make a quick shelter was a tarp and bungees. I thus took my spare tarp and four bungees into the woods and tried it out. I’m a bit wary of bungees as they can be quite dangerous if they suddenly break, but in this case I think bungees are best.

Picking a more or less random random spot (obviously with a few trees) I set up the shelter in under 2 minutes including a couple of adjustments. That will do for me. I may need a couple more anchor points to stop it flapping about if it’s windy. But it will do for me to lay under and film without getting wet.

I celebrated by having breakfast under the shelter.

My second mission was to re-deploy the camera trap. This time I chose one of the main paths where there was a convergence of tracks. I’ve managed to get footage of badger and fox, but I haven’t got the Poor Park herd yet. If I’m successful at the end of the week, I’ll certainly do a write up of the camera trap and include the footage obtained so far.

I like setting the camera-trap up. It’s challenging to get the angle right and of course, read the track and signs to get the best coverage of the wildlife. For some reason I also get some enjoyment from camouflaging it, even though it’s got security straps and a padlock to stop anyone removing the card (even though these woods are hardly used.) In the picture above, the camera is a third of the way up a tree on the left.

My third mission was to cut back some brambles and holly which had overgrown at the end of the garden. Unfortunately, I can only get to the growth by entering the field through the woods because of a high security fence. I had already asked the farmer if I could enter the field and cut the brambles back.

After half an hour with the Gomtaro saw I had hacked my way to the fence much to the amusement of the Billy, who looked like he was wondering how I had managed to “get out” and he was still “in”. I made a nice viewing hole in the foliage and should now be able to see the deer and other wildlife in the field from the comfort of my lounge.

Thanks for the visit.

Bungees are Best?

Saturday was the best chance for good weather this weekend, so I planned three small projects.

Firstly, I wanted to test an idea for an ultra-quick, low-profile shelter set up. I want to be able to go into the woods after identifying fallow rut stands, and quickly set up a low-lying shelter so that I would be able to observe the rut.

I thought about purchasing a hide, but these were a) too expensive and b) too bulky.

The quickest and most flexible way I thought to make a quick shelter was a tarp and bungees. I thus took my spare tarp and four bungees into the woods and tried it out. I’m a bit wary of bungees as they can be quite dangerous if they suddenly break, but in this case I think bungees are best.

Picking a more or less random random spot (obviously with a few trees) I set up the shelter in under 2 minutes including a couple of adjustments. That will do for me. I may need a couple more anchor points to stop it flapping about if it’s windy. But it will do for me to lay under and film without getting wet.

I celebrated by having breakfast under the shelter.

My second mission was to re-deploy the camera trap. This time I chose one of the main paths where there was a convergence of tracks. I’ve managed to get footage of badger and fox, but I haven’t got the Poor Park herd yet. If I’m successful at the end of the week, I’ll certainly do a write up of the camera trap and include the footage obtained so far.

I like setting the camera-trap up. It’s challenging to get the angle right and of course, read the track and signs to get the best coverage of the wildlife. For some reason I also get some enjoyment from camouflaging it, even though it’s got security straps and a padlock to stop anyone removing the card (even though these woods are hardly used.) In the picture above, the camera is a third of the way up a tree on the left.

My third mission was to cut back some brambles and holly which had overgrown at the end of the garden. Unfortunately, I can only get to the growth by entering the field through the woods because of a high security fence. I had already asked the farmer if I could enter the field and cut the brambles back.

After half an hour with the Gomtaro saw I had hacked my way to the fence much to the amusement of the Billy, who looked like he was wondering how I had managed to “get out” and he was still “in”. I made a nice viewing hole in the foliage and should now be able to see the deer and other wildlife in the field from the comfort of my lounge.

Thanks for the visit.

State of Mind

I’ve been a little out of sorts in the last few weeks both domestically and at work. You may have noticed that some posts have also been devoid of any reasonable wildlife sightings. I attribute the latter to the former.

This may seem strange, but I think that if you go to the woods a bit pent up and anxious, this state of mind can be sensed by the wildlife. That’s why I usually zone-in just after I get into the woods. Obviously, this hasn’t worked during the last few weeks and on reflection, I was aware that I was still wandering around the woods not concentrating on anything but work.

This weekend, I realised that another event-less weekend of wildlife sightings would just about take the biscuit. When I considered this, and attempted to try and fully immerse myself in the woodland and clear my mind of the baggage of normal life.

Now, call it a coincidence, but everything seemed better and after a session of what I suppose was akin to deep meditation, things started to happen. Firstly a fox came into view, albeit a distance away followed by a muntjac, which ignored my presence and came straight towards me before turning off into the brush.

The dragonflies at Broaks wood were getting thin on the ground. There were a few hawkers around and a couple of common darters. The darters seemed to be very slow and I saw at least two getting caught up in well placed spiders webs.

 

On Saturday, I got close to another munjac (I crept up to within 10 yards) and took some footage of a sparrowhawk hunting in Poor Park woods.

I hope you like the new look site. You’ll see why it’s like this very soon.

Thanks for the visit.

State of Mind

I’ve been a little out of sorts in the last few weeks both domestically and at work. You may have noticed that some posts have also been devoid of any reasonable wildlife sightings. I attribute the latter to the former.

This may seem strange, but I think that if you go to the woods a bit pent up and anxious, this state of mind can be sensed by the wildlife. That’s why I usually zone-in just after I get into the woods. Obviously, this hasn’t worked during the last few weeks and on reflection, I was aware that I was still wandering around the woods not concentrating on anything but work.

This weekend, I realised that another event-less weekend of wildlife sightings would just about take the biscuit. When I considered this, and attempted to try and fully immerse myself in the woodland and clear my mind of the baggage of normal life.

Now, call it a coincidence, but everything seemed better and after a session of what I suppose was akin to deep meditation, things started to happen. Firstly a fox came into view, albeit a distance away followed by a muntjac, which ignored my presence and came straight towards me before turning off into the brush.

The dragonflies at Broaks wood were getting thin on the ground. There were a few hawkers around and a couple of common darters. The darters seemed to be very slow and I saw at least two getting caught up in well placed spiders webs.

 

On Saturday, I got close to another munjac (I crept up to within 10 yards) and took some footage of a sparrowhawk hunting in Poor Park woods.

I hope you like the new look site. You’ll see why it’s like this very soon.

Thanks for the visit.

Deep in the Heart of Essex…

It was another cracking weekend, deep in the heart of Essex where you wouldn’t expect much Bushy activity; but there was.

Again, I joined up with Wildcrafts Bushcraft and Survival School to help out teaching some young bushcrafters. Les and Brett took the lads and lasses through some fundamental bushcraft skills like shelter building, knife safety and sharpening,  fire-lighting, rabbit skinning and cooking. I take them for a bit of night movement including dark adaption techniques.

On the last morning the group is split and Les takes them for a wild plant walk and I introduce them to tracking, finishing with a man-hunt type scenario which they seem to enjoy.

 

 

The other benefit of this particular location is that we are fortunate enough to be able to set up a second, more luxurious camp for us er… older bushcrafters who are a little too old to partake in the debris shelters and bivouacs (above) and prefer the luxury of hammocks and camp beds. The rat packs are also swopped out for wonderful stews and, on this occasion, a fantastic curry cooked by the increasingly famous bush-chef, Scrivy.

Scrivy (here in disguise) also subsidised the young person’s meagre rabbit rations with a green-stick barbequed muntjac…

Of course there was more than a little liquid refreshment to wash the whole lot down and a good craic ensued around the well built fire.

Being mushroom season, there was plenty of ‘shrooms to identify and pick if appropriate…

… and it was a pleasure to see Alan create his first ember and fire by bow drill.

I brought down a parachute I just bought and we spent a while setting it up by re-applying the cut paracord around the edges to tie the ‘chute down. A ridge line was hung between two trees but in retrospect, we realised that the ridge line was too low. This was due to the ‘chute being absolutely huge and the rope stretching because it was new. We ended up rolling the edge up to the first seam and ‘buttoning’ up the edges and tying off with a small stick, then tying the edges down.

The end result was quite a smart looking  group shelter with plenty of room. We anxiously waited the promised rain on Saturday to test it out, but, fortunately or unfortunately (depending on how you look at it) the rain skirted around us.

It was great to see old mates again; Steve, Scrivy, and Al (here looking like extras from ‘Snatch’) Simon, Les, Brett, Becky and Alan and the Bush Stig (!) More than this, it was great to introduce another 20 or so youngsters to the world of Bushcraft and Tracking.

Deep in the Heart of Essex…

It was another cracking weekend, deep in the heart of Essex where you wouldn’t expect much Bushy activity; but there was.

Again, I joined up with Wildcrafts Bushcraft and Survival School to help out teaching some young bushcrafters. Les and Brett took the lads and lasses through some fundamental bushcraft skills like shelter building, knife safety and sharpening,  fire-lighting, rabbit skinning and cooking. I take them for a bit of night movement including dark adaption techniques.

On the last morning the group is split and Les takes them for a wild plant walk and I introduce them to tracking, finishing with a man-hunt type scenario which they seem to enjoy.

 

 

The other benefit of this particular location is that we are fortunate enough to be able to set up a second, more luxurious camp for us er… older bushcrafters who are a little too old to partake in the debris shelters and bivouacs (above) and prefer the luxury of hammocks and camp beds. The rat packs are also swopped out for wonderful stews and, on this occasion, a fantastic curry cooked by the increasingly famous bush-chef, Scrivy.

Scrivy (here in disguise) also subsidised the young person’s meagre rabbit rations with a green-stick barbequed muntjac…

Of course there was more than a little liquid refreshment to wash the whole lot down and a good craic ensued around the well built fire.

Being mushroom season, there was plenty of ‘shrooms to identify and pick if appropriate…

… and it was a pleasure to see Alan create his first ember and fire by bow drill.

I brought down a parachute I just bought and we spent a while setting it up by re-applying the cut paracord around the edges to tie the ‘chute down. A ridge line was hung between two trees but in retrospect, we realised that the ridge line was too low. This was due to the ‘chute being absolutely huge and the rope stretching because it was new. We ended up rolling the edge up to the first seam and ‘buttoning’ up the edges and tying off with a small stick, then tying the edges down.

The end result was quite a smart looking  group shelter with plenty of room. We anxiously waited the promised rain on Saturday to test it out, but, fortunately or unfortunately (depending on how you look at it) the rain skirted around us.

It was great to see old mates again; Steve, Scrivy, and Al (here looking like extras from ‘Snatch’) Simon, Les, Brett, Becky and Alan and the Bush Stig (!) More than this, it was great to introduce another 20 or so youngsters to the world of Bushcraft and Tracking.

Quiet Weekend

I had to stay close to home this weekend, but nevertheless found myself wandering around Lowts wood on Saturday.

There are two very old, and very large badger setts at either end of the wood, and both appeared to be very active. I made a mental note to have an overnighter in these woods before the darker evenings set in. The wood isn’t easy to get to, so I would need a drop off and pick up. Nevertheless, a plan is forming!

I had lunch overlooking the western sett, which was pleasant enough when the sun came out, but there was still a chilly wind. As usual this year, I used the excellent mini-trangia to make a brew and cook up some bacon. I used an edible plate (tortilla) to wrap up the bacon. The tortilla is so flexible (literally). I haven’t gone on a trip this year without a packet.

It was nice to walk back along the woodland edge and I noticed that the farmer hadn’t planted right up to the edge, leaving a wide strip of land to be inhabited by nature. I think they get additional money for this from the government.

This week I’ve been playing about with my new toy, which I’ll tell you more about mid-week. It’s a trail-cam, which is activated by motion and has infra-red for night viewing. I’ve got some pretty good results already.

Today I retrieved the cam from Poor Park and reset it overlooking a mysterious looking hole leading to a culvert in a local field. I’ve never been able to work out 100% what uses the hole. I’ve seen both fox tracks and badger tracks around it, so it might be used by both. I’m going to leave the cam out for 3 or 4 days to see what’s going on.

Trying to set a motion activated camera with a Bichon bouncing about was a bit of a challenge! But it’s amazing what the threat of no sausages can do.

Quiet Weekend

I had to stay close to home this weekend, but nevertheless found myself wandering around Lowts wood on Saturday.

There are two very old, and very large badger setts at either end of the wood, and both appeared to be very active. I made a mental note to have an overnighter in these woods before the darker evenings set in. The wood isn’t easy to get to, so I would need a drop off and pick up. Nevertheless, a plan is forming!

I had lunch overlooking the western sett, which was pleasant enough when the sun came out, but there was still a chilly wind. As usual this year, I used the excellent mini-trangia to make a brew and cook up some bacon. I used an edible plate (tortilla) to wrap up the bacon. The tortilla is so flexible (literally). I haven’t gone on a trip this year without a packet.

It was nice to walk back along the woodland edge and I noticed that the farmer hadn’t planted right up to the edge, leaving a wide strip of land to be inhabited by nature. I think they get additional money for this from the government.

This week I’ve been playing about with my new toy, which I’ll tell you more about mid-week. It’s a trail-cam, which is activated by motion and has infra-red for night viewing. I’ve got some pretty good results already.

Today I retrieved the cam from Poor Park and reset it overlooking a mysterious looking hole leading to a culvert in a local field. I’ve never been able to work out 100% what uses the hole. I’ve seen both fox tracks and badger tracks around it, so it might be used by both. I’m going to leave the cam out for 3 or 4 days to see what’s going on.

Trying to set a motion activated camera with a Bichon bouncing about was a bit of a challenge! But it’s amazing what the threat of no sausages can do.