The Greening

         At last a few days of sun without the seemingly endless rain. It has been a very wet season and a difficult one for working in Crow Wood with so much standing water. We did manage to find one dry day to deal with the chestnut coppiced in January and the tractor thankfully did its job without damaging the tracks very much. The timber, all 15 tons of it will now be turned into post and rails, firewood and fencing products by a local contractor.  

       Spring advances all the same in spite of the rain and the "greening" has begun in earnest. The first Brimstone butterflies are on the wing, the woodland flowers are showing their colours and the birds are looking for nests. Chiffchaffs are the earliest Spring migrants to welcome in the longer days, hopefully a sign that the wet days are behind us.

A Chiffchaff welcoming a blue sky

                              The Chiffchaff - not the most colourful bird but a sign that warmer days are here

Looking a possible nest site

Wood Anemones

Early Purple Orchid

Wood Sorrel

Wood Violet

Extracting the coppiced Chestnut