Woodland Tracker

At Woodlife Trails we rarely stay still. I’ve been dreaming up the Woodland Tracker course for some time, trying to find tracking techniques that would work better for the difficult environment and substrates of the British woodland than those techniques designed for warm climates.

This weekend the dream was realised as ten brave souls came out to trial the course. The result was an unmitigated success, even though I knew there’s a bit more work to be done.

The continuing mild weather made things quite comfortable and tracking on the main pathways of Hatfield forest was easy, which was great to test out a few theories. Unravelling individual prints contaminated by human traffic, however, wasn’t so easy. As we tracked deeper and deeper into the forest, things also got even more difficult; but the feedback was that the techniques worked well.

Following tracks and trail leading to the deeper parts of the forest also produced some stunning close encounters for everyone including foxes and the ever present fallow deer. The techniques from the Immersion course also helped and, for some, it was obvious that things were really coming together.

We also tried out some  new casting plaster from a company called “First Forensics”. We are still trialling this but first impressions are quite positive in relation to the quick-drying properties, although the plaster can’t be spread too thinly or it will crack. It’s also not very easy to separate from the woodland floor.

Thanks to everyone who came along and to Scrivy for being Marigold.

I’ll leave you with a small clip of the fallow.

Thanks for the visit.

Woodland Tracker

At Woodlife Trails we rarely stay still. I’ve been dreaming up the Woodland Tracker course for some time, trying to find tracking techniques that would work better for the difficult environment and substrates of the British woodland than those techniques designed for warm climates.

This weekend the dream was realised as ten brave souls came out to trial the course. The result was an unmitigated success, even though I knew there’s a bit more work to be done.

The continuing mild weather made things quite comfortable and tracking on the main pathways of Hatfield forest was easy, which was great to test out a few theories. Unravelling individual prints contaminated by human traffic, however, wasn’t so easy. As we tracked deeper and deeper into the forest, things also got even more difficult; but the feedback was that the techniques worked well.

Following tracks and trail leading to the deeper parts of the forest also produced some stunning close encounters for everyone including foxes and the ever present fallow deer. The techniques from the Immersion course also helped and, for some, it was obvious that things were really coming together.

We also tried out some  new casting plaster from a company called “First Forensics”. We are still trialling this but first impressions are quite positive in relation to the quick-drying properties, although the plaster can’t be spread too thinly or it will crack. It’s also not very easy to separate from the woodland floor.

Thanks to everyone who came along and to Scrivy for being Marigold.

I’ll leave you with a small clip of the fallow.

Thanks for the visit.

Fallow Camera Trap

On Friday I collected the trail cams from the Woods. One stand had very little activity while the other was reasonably active.

It shows that there are at least four bucks; one yearling, two juveniles and the dominant older buck. As I reported last week the rutting activity is pretty subdued at the moment. This maybe because of the weather or simply that the dominant male has very little competition.

In the clips you can see a stand-off between two juvenile bucks. They seem unsure what to do, so they just stand there! Most activity around the area is at night or dawn / dusk. During the day, they tend to go deeper into the woods.

Next week we’ll be back in Hatfield Forest for our Woodlife Tracker Course. we have ten participants and it promises to be an excellent course.

Until next week…

Fallow Camera Trap

On Friday I collected the trail cams from the Woods. One stand had very little activity while the other was reasonably active.

It shows that there are at least four bucks; one yearling, two juveniles and the dominant older buck. As I reported last week the rutting activity is pretty subdued at the moment. This maybe because of the weather or simply that the dominant male has very little competition.

In the clips you can see a stand-off between two juvenile bucks. They seem unsure what to do, so they just stand there! Most activity around the area is at night or dawn / dusk. During the day, they tend to go deeper into the woods.

Next week we’ll be back in Hatfield Forest for our Woodlife Tracker Course. we have ten participants and it promises to be an excellent course.

Until next week…

Stuck in a Rut

As I had to stay close to home this weekend, I decided to spend some time observing the rut in my local woods, Poor Park. The woods were wonderful, especially in the evening sun light.

I set myself a number of rules. Firstly, I would observe from a stand-off position and not get too close. If I was spotted by the buck more than twice , I would withdraw for an hour. More than three times and I would leave the woods.

I also wanted to identify a good stand or two in order to leave the camera traps in place for a week. I started my mission by doing a recce of stands. I started on the east side and made my way west.

I knew a couple of areas from previous years and  I wasn’t surprised to see ground scrapings and rutting signs in these places. In fact there were four main areas scattered throughout the woods; but unlike previous years, there was little sign of the aggressive thrashing and burnishing against the trees.

I had heard some bellowing over the week, but again there wasn’t as much as previous years. Perhaps the weather had affected the start of the rut. It has been extremely mild. However, it wasn’t long before I heard the bellowing of the stag deep in the most inaccessible part of the wood.

I managed to get close enough for a sighting with the wind nicely in my favour. The huge palmate antlers actually clashed against low branches as he moved slowly towards the stand to the far east of the wood. I followed on a parallel course about 30 meters behind. To my delight, the stag moved into more open ground, but he was speeding up, making me less cautious where I was stepping.

My National Geographic money photo was getting closer and closer as I moved in. I lifted the camera to get a nice moving shot when, suddenly, it seemed as though the whole wood had woken up. I had stepped on a large twig which sounded not just like a gunshot, but a canon shot! The stag jumped and proinked out of the woods and ran into the open ground and away across the field.

The next day, I was a little more fortunate. I spent all day on and off following and observing the stag. I withdrew quite a few times and I was spotted twice. I was interested to notice that that there was definitely a lack of aggression this year and I came to the conclusion that the rut hadn’t really commenced. I hadn’t witnessed the stag covering any does – and despite another fully formed stag in the area, their was no aggressive display.

My last task was to set the camera traps and sit down for a well-earned break. As I did so, I was concentrating on the ladybird on my notebook so much, I missed a photo opportunity of a young pretentious stag that casually wandered in front of me about 7 meters away. By the time I collected up the camera, I could only get a couple shots of his rear end!

Thanks for the visit.

Stuck in a Rut

As I had to stay close to home this weekend, I decided to spend some time observing the rut in my local woods, Poor Park. The woods were wonderful, especially in the evening sun light.

I set myself a number of rules. Firstly, I would observe from a stand-off position and not get too close. If I was spotted by the buck more than twice , I would withdraw for an hour. More than three times and I would leave the woods.

I also wanted to identify a good stand or two in order to leave the camera traps in place for a week. I started my mission by doing a recce of stands. I started on the east side and made my way west.

I knew a couple of areas from previous years and  I wasn’t surprised to see ground scrapings and rutting signs in these places. In fact there were four main areas scattered throughout the woods; but unlike previous years, there was little sign of the aggressive thrashing and burnishing against the trees.

I had heard some bellowing over the week, but again there wasn’t as much as previous years. Perhaps the weather had affected the start of the rut. It has been extremely mild. However, it wasn’t long before I heard the bellowing of the stag deep in the most inaccessible part of the wood.

I managed to get close enough for a sighting with the wind nicely in my favour. The huge palmate antlers actually clashed against low branches as he moved slowly towards the stand to the far east of the wood. I followed on a parallel course about 30 meters behind. To my delight, the stag moved into more open ground, but he was speeding up, making me less cautious where I was stepping.

My National Geographic money photo was getting closer and closer as I moved in. I lifted the camera to get a nice moving shot when, suddenly, it seemed as though the whole wood had woken up. I had stepped on a large twig which sounded not just like a gunshot, but a canon shot! The stag jumped and proinked out of the woods and ran into the open ground and away across the field.

The next day, I was a little more fortunate. I spent all day on and off following and observing the stag. I withdrew quite a few times and I was spotted twice. I was interested to notice that that there was definitely a lack of aggression this year and I came to the conclusion that the rut hadn’t really commenced. I hadn’t witnessed the stag covering any does – and despite another fully formed stag in the area, their was no aggressive display.

My last task was to set the camera traps and sit down for a well-earned break. As I did so, I was concentrating on the ladybird on my notebook so much, I missed a photo opportunity of a young pretentious stag that casually wandered in front of me about 7 meters away. By the time I collected up the camera, I could only get a couple shots of his rear end!

Thanks for the visit.

Wilderness Immersion Course

Our Woodlife Trails Wilderness Immersion Course does exactly what it says on the tin. It immerses participants into the wilderness; in this case the wonderful setting of Hatfield Forest.

Last weekend, 7 participants did exactly that. After giving them the tools of the trade, they all, without exception, came back with some stunning stories of what they observed and how close they got to the wildlife after a night spent alone in various parts of the forest. In fact, throughout the weekend we had some really good sightings all round including fox, badger and buzzards.

Of course this was partly due to the abundance of food on the forest floor and the start of the fallow deer rut.

As well as observing wildlife at close quarters, we all had the opportunity to study deer signs …

… and homes of various creatures.

The wonderful weather helped our 24 hours “on-the-trail” and classroom sessions.

Even so, our base-camp set up was available just in case and it also provided a central admin area.

Hatfield Forest was, as usual, spectacular.

Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a superb course.

 

Thanks to Griggers who helped out on the course and supplied the excellent footage and some of the (better) photos.