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Last year I spotted that a starling had built a nest in a hollow branch of an oak. While I wanted to try and get some pictures, other commitments meant that I never had that opportunity. So I have been keeping a careful eye on the tree this year to see if this starling returned. As the male will often use the same nest site year after year, it was likely.
When I looked yesterday (Sunday), it was still empty. Today however, as I approached I saw the starling pop its head out of the hole. I had not prepared for this eventuality so I found myself a quiet spot and set up the camera, all the while expecting the bird to fly off. But as you can see from the clip, he did not, he stood guard at the entrance to his pleasure pad. This gave me time to film him while he looked around. When he finally did fly off it was probably to tell his wife that he has got the keys to the same house they squatted in last year.
This was actually the start of what turned out to be a good day. I set out with a mission, I was determined to film the Grey Wagtails down by the river. While I can often see them, getting close enough to film them is not easy, as they are small birds, a little bit smaller than a sparrow, and their plumage and tail bobbing behaviour provide them with great camouflage.
Anyway having got to know the local populations habits, I set up and waited, it only took six hours to get about a minutes worth of film, but I got a nice sequence of one feeding at the waters edge. I am hoping that soon I will be able to start sharing some of the filming I have been doing. However, I still need to get a couple of bits of software before I can do that. The problem was that I bought the software needed from Ebay, but the seller supplied a pirated copy, so I actually need to replace it with a legal copy to unlock it and fully use it.
So watch this space you never know what may turn up here.
Today for me every thing has turned full circle. Last year I went out and helped collect some of the acorns from the wood. I rather rashly agreed to look after them in the back yard of my house. And in spite of hoards of ravenous corvidae a good number survived.
It was in fact the third activity I had carried out with the Friends of Chopwell Wood, and it makes me realise just what a remarkable year it has been for me. Last year I would never have expected to be elected to a committee position nor to have re-found my link with the natural world, all this because of a small wood that happens to be right on my doorstep.
Today quite literally I was able to give something back to that wood, in the form of baby oak trees. Fortunately I was not alone as we had a good number of volunteers arrived from Newcastle University Conservation club. The majority were planted and those that were not can be planted as two-year-old trees next year.
It was remarkable that the place chosen for the planting was clear felled about eight years ago, but remarkably it is regenerating quite well anyway and with oak too. That actually made it quite challenging to find the space to plant our seedlings the four to five metres apart we were aiming for. But I must say that the volunteers did a fantastic job and at least two thirds of the trees were planted and we did it without loosing a single volunteer. What is even more remarkable is that they want to come back.
So from the Mouse in the Wood; 
Three cheers for Newcastle University Conservation Club.
Your friendly neighbourhood Wood Mouse will be appearing in the local paper soon. The reason for this is my obsessive-compulsive behaviour of growing Oak Trees.
It all started when I was first out walking in the wood and I first encountered the ranger. She told me that the forest had a friends group and they carried out practical work in the wood. So I decided I would become an acquaintance of the Friends of Chopwell Wood.
Well you know how these things can escalate; I was foolish enough to offer to plant up the acorns that were gathered during last year’s tree seed collections. If only I had realised that there were nearly six hundred of them. I then had to go out, on the scrounge, to garner enough pots together to put them in. Fortunately the local community helped and soon I had all the pots I needed.
It was not easy, as I had to fight off all manner of birds, mainly the jackdaws but also the odd Jay and several magpies as they were constantly trying to eat their future perches. Eventually in the spring my compulsive, others would say eccentric, behaviour paid off and about two hundred and fifty baby oaks emerged.
It was as a result of doing this that this morning I had to take some of the trees back into the wood so that the Press Officer from the Forestry Commission could take some pictures of me with these trees. Now while I know that some people love performing in front of the camera, I don’t relish it, as I am very much like an oil painting, an old master in fact, cracked and flaking! However I did my duty, I don’t know how the images came out, as I haven’t seen them, but I felt a complete idiot standing there holding pots of trees in contrived poses. Even the Dog walkers were laughing at me, I think even the dogs were too.
Well there was I thinking that this is just for the staff magazine or some obscure place where no one would see them, like my Blog, then I get a call from the biggest paper in the region and it’s the environment editor, and before I know it, I will be in the local paper.
Well at least it will not be saying “Don’t Approach this Mouse” I just wish that the Ranger had not beguiled me when I first met her. It’s all her fault really.
All joking aside there is a serious point to all this, as these trees will be planted so that we can regenerate the ancient wood here in Chopwell. In doing so we can directly aid over one hundred species that are on the UK at risk list of flora and fauna. The reason for the publicity is so that we can encourage other people to become actively involved in collecting seed, helping to plant the trees and do their little bit.
As it was such a great morning it was worth, well almost, the humiliation of having my visage captured on film.
I got my own back by snapping this picture of the photographer!
Have you ever had one of those moments when you are thinking of something and it appears that others are thinking the same thing? Yesterday, that’s exactly what happened. While I had been busy in the morning, I wanted to get out into the wood with the specific aim of collecting tree seeds. As our wood is an ancient woodland site, it is going to be replanted over the coming half century with native broadleaf trees, and this will come from seeds collected locally. It is important that they are local as if we planted Hawthorn from seeds gathered from the south, they would flower at a slightly different time and hence not have the same benefit for the environment and wildlife as would the local genetic stock.
So there was I getting myself together to head out when the Forestry Commission Ranger telephoned me, she had passed on my details to the FC Press Officer and he would be giving me a call. This is because from the last acorn gathering, I ended up fostering about Two hundred and Fifty Oak seedlings. There would have been a lot more but I had to defend them from Jackdaws, Crows, Magpies, and even a Jay or two, so the numbers diminished as the birds ate their future perches. The FC press officer wants to do a picture of the trees and me, all rather contrived but I agreed to this. Not because I am looking for some kind of self-aggrandisement, but because I feel that it is vital that we do plant trees and if by loosing some degree of anonymity I help encourage others to help or take the initiative and do the same, it will be worth doing so. It is also why in part, I keep this on line journal, I hate the word Blog, as it may inspire others to do their bit for the environment.
However, when the call came through from the Forestry Commission Press Officer, I was already in the wood and I had just sighted the fox in the picture. It had shown no indication of having seen me, until the cellular phone rang. I snatched a couple of pictures none that sharp. After cursing the contraption I called back and had a chat with this chap.
I hope that I will see this dog fox again, and that I will not have had need to carry the phone with me. But at least I can say that I had another encounter with the wildlife that inhabits my countryside.
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