January Diary

January Diary Bleak January

Early January and what a mess! There's mud and water everywhere. This is the result of lots of rain — it's the worst I've known it for years. The water stands in puddles everywhere and hardly has a chance to percolate through and 'dry' the soil when along comes another deluge.

The tree felling is going on apace. Heavy chainsaws, a JCB and land rovers. The soil is taking a bashing here too. Let's hope it's all worth it. There must be lots of wild flower seeds lying dormant just waiting for the opportunity to germinate. The felled oak and ash standards look magnificent though; no splits in the boles, no gaping holes or rotting wood; I'm sure it's worth a £1000 per tree and that any joiner would love to work with it.

Hopefully, the soil will dry out enough for the tree planting to begin — 6000 saplings are due to go into the ground in January and February! Hazel, oak, ash and hornbeam planted close together with the aim of ultimately having them 1.8m apart, I'm told.

Although it's been pouring with rain since before Christmas, it has been mild too, as one would expect. I am quite surprised by the amount of birdsong to be heard in the woods. One would think it would be quiet but no, it's busy, my guess is that the birds may think spring is here already.

Goldcrests It's mid-month the felling is done and 850 saplings already have gone in - but it's still so wet. We had a sprinkling of snow one morning too! Seeing some nice coloured birds: a jay, red-hatted green and greater spotted woodpeckers, a scarlet bullfinch. There was also a pair of goldcrests pretending to be hummingbirds, skillfully hovering around the sloe and elder by the brook.

The end of the month: it's still soaking wet, I'm only making brief visits to Furzefield now; I saw the jay again in the same place in the meadow and a wood pigeon carrying twigs to where they nested last year. Noticed some long tailed tits as well - these birds always come in groups. Oh for some dry weather! Roll on February...

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