Bel's Wood

At least 44% of ancient woodlands were planted with conifers in the 20th century to respond to the shortage of timber (Woodland Trust) and now the UK has only 2.5% ancient woodland. An ancient wood is one that has been continuously wooded for 400 years ie since 1600. One indicator that there may have been an ancient woodland here is the flowers that grow. Bluebells - native English ones - are one of these indicator species. Native bluebells are more delicate than Spanish Bluebells. They have flowers on one side of the plant so drupe and their leaves are narrower. They also have a distinctive scent while non natives do not. Bel's Wood has native bluebells growing there.        There is an increased abundance of bluebells this year especially noticeable in open areas. Last year they were more visible under the trees. The site has not been grazed in the last 12 months which will be the first time that has happened for a long time and so last year the plants will...

I have finally made it back to Bel's Wood. My last visit ended with Kendal Mountain Rescue recovering me from a gorse bush up on the hill. I am now mobile with crutches and wanted to see the changes from 7 weeks ago. The wood sorrel is flowering and there were good clumps of violets growing from patches of dead bracken so hopefully the butterflies will be emerging. Pearl-bordered and High Brow Fritillary butterflies enjoy these conditions.  Bluebells were just pushing up their closed buds and a week later are flourishing With stitchwort in numbers greater than last year. I saw a male and a female orange tip butterflies both of which seemed to be new with very vibrant colours both moving too fast to photograph. Friends heard a cuckoo further up the plot. Being confined to one area I sat in the sun to appreciate what I could see. This silver birch swaying in the breeze was a good place to start Looking north, the blackthorn is coming into bloom     ...

In March 2021 a friendly neighbour took some aerial shots of my land. This gave me a whole new understanding of the site and I was able to pull together my planting plan by the Autumn. A key change since last year is the removal of the long leggy gorse which isn't contributing much in terms of biodiversity and is stifling regeneration of trees. One year on, I needed to check that I have created the space required for the planting plan to be fulfilled so Andy has come back, with upgraded kit, to take new shots.  I'll start with some ground level shots of before and after:- The gate in the shot above can be seen in the middle of this shot below This picture also shows how few trees there were growing under that gorse - just two hawthorns. This area will be planted with aspen which need support in Cumbria as they have become rare and is part of the BOOM project (Back on our Map) being run by Cumbria University https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/business/projects/south-cumbria-sp...

 I have collected together some of the wildlife footage caught in February. Most of the shots are captured at night but these first ones of a young male roe deer are in daylight so I have included them as a series. He is a handsome young fella and looks curious This one is a female of the similar age I have picked up some nice shots of a fox - at night so black and white. I don't know if it's male or female but I have seen one of each over time. I am guessing this is the female but unless they are together it is difficult to tell. Clearly the smell of human is very apparent. The cameras do get damp at night which reduces the quality but I quite like this one which is atmospheric I have been collecting fewer badger shots recently. Here is a good clear night time one. I am aware from using the cameras that the badgers take objection to cameras when they are near their setts so I don't put them there any more. Here is footage of the camera being clonked and the culprit scurr...

Between 18th & 21st February 2022 the UK was hit by three storms. A high level of media coverage was given to Eunice & Dudley while Franklin had a greater impact locally.  This photo was taken just as Eunice was whipping up some real energy - not at my wood but a neighbouring valley (Longsleddale).  There is a useful blog from the Met Office (link below) which shows that Franklin gave a more sustained level of very high speed gusts than the other two storms, although the data was collected off the South Coast of the UK. Eunice showed faster gusts setting a new record for the UK of 122mph at The Needles but for a less sustained period than Franklin. https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/weather/learn-about/uk-past-events/interesting/2022/2022_02_storms_dudley_eunice_franklin.pdf Storm damage was experienced at Bel’s Wood during Storm Arwen. That was highly unusual with the wind coming from the north. Some well established trees fell a...