I realised that it was before Christmas since I was in Poor Park wood. My excursions have been mainly in my immediate area, chasing fallow deer, trips to Hatfield forest and, at least in the last week, nursing a bad back at home.
It was nice to get out today. The temperature was hovering just above zero as I walked slowly through the woodland. I am now so used to this woodland, I can tell the difference even in a few winter weeks when all is meant to be quiet. The wood is now virtually see through and as I wandered through it I thought that it would probably never get any more transparent as today as soon, early spring growth will start to appear.
No sooner had I thought this, I saw a nice show of hazel catkins. They won’t be ripe quite yet, but already they are turning yellow.
All over the woodland floor, there were small sproutings of Dog’s mercury – one of the first woodland plants to emerge. Don’t enlarge the picture. It’s blurred but gives you an idea.
Squirrels are now digging up their reserves of nuts and the woodland floor is full of little excavations. The fruits of their labour was evident on one of my favourite areas where I normally have a cuppa. I call this area Muntjac camp as it seems to be a favourite area for them. This was again confirmed by the droppings in the area. A couple of summers ago, I was charged by a Muntjac here. It was probably defending a youngster – an act that isn’t uncommon. They aim to miss,of course, but it’s a really unnerving experience.
The main paths had quite a bit of human activity and this was mixed with fallow and muntjac tracks.
As the sun tried to breakthrough the cold looking clouds, I decided to check on the nearby badger sett. Again, there was plenty of activity with old bedding bundled into large balls outside the entrance hole where the badger had been clearing out the sleeping chambers. In fact this might possibly be a clean out in preparation for new arrivals which will be born underground very soon.
Please check in mid week for a ‘good news’ post about my local woods. Hope the see you then.
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