Blustery Day

It was a very blustery day today; the sort of day where you keep to the outskirts of the woods, which is exactly what I did.

I walked around the outside of Park Wood, my nearest wood. I guessed that the recent rains would provide some tracks. This little wood provides little mammal activity but there was bound to be some. 

As suspected I picked up rabbit prints…

… and two lots of muntjac. The second set of tracks was considerably smaller and I managed to track it slipping about on the mud for about 20 meters before I lost it. The only mammal activity I actually saw was a squirrel.

A kestrel was making the most of the strong northerly wind but needed to come down often to rest.

The woodland edges provides for many plants. Water mint, great willowherb, rosebay willowherb, teasel…

…scarlet pimpernel, burdock, silverweed and thistle…

… and the associated butterflies like gatekeepers, speckled woods and cabbage whites.

 

My best sighting of the day was this wonderful brown hawker (A. grandis). I thought it was a bit odd seeing this at the woodland edge where there’s little water, but apparently they like to hunt here as opposed to rivers and ponds.

I’m off to the Wilderness Gathering on Thursday. I’ll send updates via Twitter (on the left). Let’s hope the weather stays fine.

Thanks for the visit.

Blustery Day

It was a very blustery day today; the sort of day where you keep to the outskirts of the woods, which is exactly what I did.

I walked around the outside of Park Wood, my nearest wood. I guessed that the recent rains would provide some tracks. This little wood provides little mammal activity but there was bound to be some. 

As suspected I picked up rabbit prints…

… and two lots of muntjac. The second set of tracks was considerably smaller and I managed to track it slipping about on the mud for about 20 meters before I lost it. The only mammal activity I actually saw was a squirrel.

A kestrel was making the most of the strong northerly wind but needed to come down often to rest.

The woodland edges provides for many plants. Water mint, great willowherb, rosebay willowherb, teasel…

…scarlet pimpernel, burdock, silverweed and thistle…

… and the associated butterflies like gatekeepers, speckled woods and cabbage whites.

 

My best sighting of the day was this wonderful brown hawker (A. grandis). I thought it was a bit odd seeing this at the woodland edge where there’s little water, but apparently they like to hunt here as opposed to rivers and ponds.

I’m off to the Wilderness Gathering on Thursday. I’ll send updates via Twitter (on the left). Let’s hope the weather stays fine.

Thanks for the visit.

Close to Home

I picked up a bit of a leg injury last week, so I kept close to home this weekend. It’s a good job I did because it’s only a 2 weeks to the Wilderness Gathering and I hadn’t even started on this years Woodlife key fobs yet. After a couple of hours work, I only have to hammer in the rivets properly and it’s all complete. I have a few more things to do, but it’s gradually coming together. I’m really looking forward to this years Gathering. It will be great to meet up with everyone again and chill out for a few days.

Today, I went into Poor Park for a wander around. The woods and its inhabitants were looking a bit tired and ragged despite a drop of rain last week. The plants look withered, and some butterflies looked the worse for wear. Some leaves which has fallen on the ground were a yellow colour.

It won’t be too long before the harvest begins. In fact in some parts, the harvester has already been at work.

 

This heralds late summer and even now, there are some blackberries out.

 

As I sat in one of my favourite places, a young squirrel came along and decided to have a good scratch and wash. Only when he turned to see the large eye of the lens staring at him, did he turn on his tail and jump off his seat.

I also spotted a sparrow hawk swooping down and using the wide-path as an air corridor as it flew from north to south through the wood. After a few hours I went home without seeing anything else.

Thanks for the visit.

Close to Home

I picked up a bit of a leg injury last week, so I kept close to home this weekend. It’s a good job I did because it’s only a 2 weeks to the Wilderness Gathering and I hadn’t even started on this years Woodlife key fobs yet. After a couple of hours work, I only have to hammer in the rivets properly and it’s all complete. I have a few more things to do, but it’s gradually coming together. I’m really looking forward to this years Gathering. It will be great to meet up with everyone again and chill out for a few days.

Today, I went into Poor Park for a wander around. The woods and its inhabitants were looking a bit tired and ragged despite a drop of rain last week. The plants look withered, and some butterflies looked the worse for wear. Some leaves which has fallen on the ground were a yellow colour.

It won’t be too long before the harvest begins. In fact in some parts, the harvester has already been at work.

 

This heralds late summer and even now, there are some blackberries out.

 

As I sat in one of my favourite places, a young squirrel came along and decided to have a good scratch and wash. Only when he turned to see the large eye of the lens staring at him, did he turn on his tail and jump off his seat.

I also spotted a sparrow hawk swooping down and using the wide-path as an air corridor as it flew from north to south through the wood. After a few hours I went home without seeing anything else.

Thanks for the visit.

Shadowhawk Tracking Instructor

5 years ago, I decided to go on a tracking course at Shadowhawk Tracking School. I’d been tracking for a long time. My first tracking book was the 1988 edition of Brown, Lawrence and Pope’s Animal Tracks and Signs and it was new. At the same time I purchased Lofty Wiseman’s SAS Survival Guide, but I just wasn’t progressing in the tracking world. There’s only so many times you can identify a deer track without wanting to know something more about it.

After the 4 days course at Canonteign Falls in Devon, I wasn’t just hooked. The course hadn’t just changed my outlook, but had literally changed my life. But I wanted more. And more. And more.

I kept coming back to assist on the courses as a mentor to learn not just about tracking, but about camp-craft and bushcraft. You can’t learn to track and not learn bushcraft skills. I was determined to stand the other side of the circle and become a Shadowhawk Tracking Instructor. It was only my injured ankle that stopped me going to a couple of courses. I hobbled to the next one without fail, climbing the steep Canonteigne path to the camp 200 feet above the car-park.

Like tracking, where there will always be set-backs, there would mental blocks, frustrations and even tears as I was pushed to the limit. The highlight of this frustration was last years’ Advanced course where I can honestly say, that I hadn’t been that pushed physically and mentally since my Physical Training Instructors Course in the Army. I was told that if I didn’t find that track and describe the story it revealed, I would be busted back another year. At the last minute, it all came together. Just!

I don’t pertain to be a great tracker, nor a great instructor but a passion for both plus a determination to go the whole way I guess is what it takes. If you are not one of the 6 people who have completed this 5 year apprenticeship, I’m sorry to offend, but I would be very dubious of your ability to teach others how to track.

Of course, it has helped to have a training and instructional background but although reasonably confident in front of students, I hadn’t formally taught for about 5 years and of course, the subject matter was hugely different to what I was used to. Enthusiasm might not be enough.

This weekend was Instructor check-out and I was responsible for the whole of the 3-day Module One course with another colleague undergoing the same process. Luckily we gelled quickly, and everything from camp set-up to dealing with students’ issues to delivery of the all important sessions went reasonably smoothly. This was despite the fact that none of the full instructors were present to guide us because of one reason or another (I still think it was a conspiracy!) Only the uncompromising presence of the boss, Ian Max Maxwell, was there to throw in the odd low-baller.

Late nights, early mornings and a few extra stand-in sessions at short notice for the Module Two session left me totally exhausted. I stumbled around the camp to smooth out the leaves at every individual bivi area. If there was any trace whatsoever of 3 mentors (who I can’t thank enough for their assistance) and 8 students, we know we would have failed despite the preceding 4 days instructional work. Waiting in the wings to find something amiss was arguably the Northern Hemisphere’s or possibly the World's greatest tracker.

All fell silent as the students disappeared. England’s highest waterfall was the only background sound as Shadowhawk’s latest tracking instructors walked away from the woods.

Shadowhawk Tracking Instructor

5 years ago, I decided to go on a tracking course at Shadowhawk Tracking School. I’d been tracking for a long time. My first tracking book was the 1988 edition of Brown, Lawrence and Pope’s Animal Tracks and Signs and it was new. At the same time I purchased Lofty Wiseman’s SAS Survival Guide, but I just wasn’t progressing in the tracking world. There’s only so many times you can identify a deer track without wanting to know something more about it.

After the 4 days course at Canonteign Falls in Devon, I wasn’t just hooked. The course hadn’t just changed my outlook, but had literally changed my life. But I wanted more. And more. And more.

I kept coming back to assist on the courses as a mentor to learn not just about tracking, but about camp-craft and bushcraft. You can’t learn to track and not learn bushcraft skills. I was determined to stand the other side of the circle and become a Shadowhawk Tracking Instructor. It was only my injured ankle that stopped me going to a couple of courses. I hobbled to the next one without fail, climbing the steep Canonteigne path to the camp 200 feet above the car-park.

Like tracking, where there will always be set-backs, there would mental blocks, frustrations and even tears as I was pushed to the limit. The highlight of this frustration was last years’ Advanced course where I can honestly say, that I hadn’t been that pushed physically and mentally since my Physical Training Instructors Course in the Army. I was told that if I didn’t find that track and describe the story it revealed, I would be busted back another year. At the last minute, it all came together. Just!

I don’t pertain to be a great tracker, nor a great instructor but a passion for both plus a determination to go the whole way I guess is what it takes. If you are not one of the 6 people who have completed this 5 year apprenticeship, I’m sorry to offend, but I would be very dubious of your ability to teach others how to track.

Of course, it has helped to have a training and instructional background but although reasonably confident in front of students, I hadn’t formally taught for about 5 years and of course, the subject matter was hugely different to what I was used to. Enthusiasm might not be enough.

This weekend was Instructor check-out and I was responsible for the whole of the 3-day Module One course with another colleague undergoing the same process. Luckily we gelled quickly, and everything from camp set-up to dealing with students’ issues to delivery of the all important sessions went reasonably smoothly. This was despite the fact that none of the full instructors were present to guide us because of one reason or another (I still think it was a conspiracy!) Only the uncompromising presence of the boss, Ian Max Maxwell, was there to throw in the odd low-baller.

Late nights, early mornings and a few extra stand-in sessions at short notice for the Module Two session left me totally exhausted. I stumbled around the camp to smooth out the leaves at every individual bivi area. If there was any trace whatsoever of 3 mentors (who I can’t thank enough for their assistance) and 8 students, we know we would have failed despite the preceding 4 days instructional work. Waiting in the wings to find something amiss was arguably the Northern Hemisphere’s or possibly the World's greatest tracker.

All fell silent as the students disappeared. England’s highest waterfall was the only background sound as Shadowhawk’s latest tracking instructors walked away from the woods.

Wildcrafts at Hatfield Forest

We had another great weekend in Hatfield Forest as Wildcrafts held another Basic Bushcraft course.

Every participant on the course has mentioned that it’s harder than they thought, with shelter building an area which seems to test them the most. It certainly shows how much energy is expended but also shows if it’s not completed properly, there could be dire consequences as the participants actually sleep in their shelter for the final night.

As Les says, the basics should be tried out to appreciate the rest of the “bushcraft” experience. The basic course covers safe use of the knife and knife sharpening, shelter building, water collection and purification, fire preparation (firesteel) and food prep (usually skinning and cooking a rabbit). Add in a little tracking, tree ID and wild plant ID and what more would somebody need for an initial bushcraft event?

The stunning back drop of Hatfield forest is an additional incentive for people wanting to come on the course. One of the participants this weekend had never seen a deer outside of a road collision. I wish I had taken a picture of his face when, after a brief zone-in session, a family of fallow passed within 20 feet of him.  It’s moments like these that make me proud to be included in the Wildcrafts team.

When wandering alone looking for likely deer watching areas, I was drawn to the many ancient trees in the forest.

This area is the site of the ancient “Doodle” tree; the girth marked out by stakes.  The tree died in 1907 but was reportedly over 1,000 years old when it eventually fell and at one time one of only two trees in Britain of that size. The tree to the right is an off-shoot of the original tree, so technically the “Doodle” tree still survives.

As usual my summer set up is the Scout DD hammock and Auscam tarp. The camo on this tarp is excellent for this woodland. (Note the mug tree on the left in the foreground)

I’m off to Devon this weekend. I’m leading a Shadowhawk course and will be assessed by Max as a Shadowhawk instructor. This is the culmination of 5 years of hard work at Shadowhawk, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed all goes well.

See you next week.