Bel's Wood

I had a really bad run with the cameras catching moving brambles, squirrels and the odd Robin. I have however picked up the occasional gem (Otters, Woodcock, Sparrow Hawk, Badgers etc) so I thought I would gather my favourites and put them in one place. Enjoy. Blackbird and Robin which are very common at the wood as they are in our gardens I am so happy to have Woodcocks at the wood and have seen them in the flesh over the last years, usually just fleetingly when I have flushed them when walking through the trees. They have a mating ritual called 'roding' where they fly low over woodland or heathlands as dawn or dusk in spring and I was lucky enough to see this one time. They are a rare bird and on the red list according to the RSPB. I was therefore delighted to see this one feeding on the beck right in front of the camera.  They are a lovely brown colour and maybe one day I'll get a daylight shot showing their colours. Woodpidgeons are pretty common too. I am including thi...

It is National Tree week in the UK from from 25th November - 3rd December so I have decided to blog about some of my favourite trees telling some of the stories attached to them. This one is about the hard working yew trees on site. I have blogged about the three mature oaks at the wood, a rowan tree that is special to me, praised the gorse on site and told the story of Agnes the hawthorn tree. Check back in to see the other blogs which celebrate trees during National Tree Week. https://treecouncil.org.uk/seasonal-campaigns/national-tree-week/ There are just 3 yew trees at the wood. Two large and a teenager. Yew trees are distinctive and give all year round colour as ever greens and produce flowers in spring and berries in autumn which feed the birds and small mammals. Since they are ever green I have found the two large ones to be helpful as providing shelter. One I use as my wood store and place to keep cooking equipment and tools. When visitors come they have two reactions. Firs...

The beauty of mature trees is that they house a host of flora and fauna. I have placed cameras up various trees trying to capture birds so that I can learn who lives in Bel’s Wood.  Over time I have collected some lovely footage of birds and mammals and I thought I would bring together these stills and videos in one place. I've captured 10 birds (including a mystery one) and 3 mammals (I do have footage of a magpie somewhere so the number is 11 - just can't find it in my filing system!) I choose a flat surface in the hope that it will attract birds to land and be in focus for the camera to capture. I have selected the best footage here. Tawny owl This is still my favourite footage which has its own dedicated blog https://belswood20.blogspot.com/2022/07/tawny-owl-succesful-hunting-morning.html. I keep putting the camera back in this tree hoping to pick up more footage but apart from this two hour period no owl has returned - yet. Tree creeper Nuthatch Al...