Dear Woodlanders,
With January coming to and end, the growing light is tangible. Spring will be here before you know it!
This week the weather has been pretty varied. That didn’t stop Angus and Owain from having a big burn-up at the castle pond, burning away the cut material from the ongoing rhododendron clearance there. Steady away, the aim is to clear up stream of the pond to the castle drive.
We also received a big delivery this week, 20 tonnes of type 1 stone – very exciting! This material will be a valuable resource. We can use it to spot repair the access road from Bearside as well in spots where the footpaths have become a quagmire. Plenty shovelling to do, I think I can feel a volunteer day coming on! Though once again we can only do what we can do, and for now that means 2 people max.
I have been chipping away on making a workbench for our budding base of operations. A must for any future fettling, the big larch on fairy hill yielded the material! Looking forward to having a nice sturdy platform to work on.
The tawny owls have been very vocal of recent nights. Having established their territories, couples will be spending lots of time together. They mate for life, so old bonds will be rekindled. They will often be singing duets, with the females contact call ‘kewick! – where are you?’ and the male’s ‘hooooo – I’m here!’
Woodcock, also, are widespread in winter. The population of resident birds will have been supplemented with migrants from Scandinavia, who presumably find Scottish winters less savage than those back home.
Stay tuned for more updates, and as ever, please don’t hesitate to get in touch about anything woodsy.
Cheers for now,
Amos