Of deer, toads and toadstools

               Autumn seems to have arrived quite suddenly although a lot of time has passed since my last visit to Crow Wood as we have been away.  In my absence there has been a lot of deer activity with many droppings present, many branches grazed and a curious hollow which looks as though the stags have been showing off using their antlers to dig: it is the rutting season after all. They have found last year's Christmas tree, which I thought I had protected well enough with a chicken mesh fence but no they have chewed the leaves and used it to rub their antlers on. I should have done a better job of protecting it. I do like knowing that the deer are there but they can be pretty destructive. I am unclear how they know but they are very adept at finding and eating my special trees !

             It looks like a very good year for chestnuts and fungi. I am not very good at identifying the many species that we get in our wood apart from the well known ones, like Fly Agaric and a few others. We usually find a few edible Boletus varieties but so far the only ones I have located have been too mildewed to be worth collecting. Every year we collect the best of the chestnuts to enjoy at Christmas in our special nut pie and to roast over the fire.

              Toads are great travellers and we often find one or two at this time of the year hiding under a log. On my last visit I found a real tiddler, goodness knows how far it had hopped from its pond. It was tiny. There is no standing water in the wood so it must have travelled far

          Recent storms have brought down a few trees and they will need cutting up at some point this winter.  The chestnut trees are shallow rooted and very prone to wind blow. We are continuing to monitor our dying central oak in case it presents a danger as the split in the trunk is gradually widening and lengthening. It may reach a point that we have to fell it. That will be a great shame as it is such a fine tree.

The familiar Fly Agaric

The widening crack in the oak tree

The oak looking rather sad with its thinning  canopy

The Christmas tree I should have protected better, ravaged by deer

wind damage, one of several trees down