Saturday, 20 June 2020

There, there, my dear




Another Saturday morning up Wessenden, and another deer/dire situation. This time we were working and heard a godawful screeching racket the other side of the reservoir. Turned out to be a distressing altercation between some deer and a dog. We think a mother deer and a young un, with the young un running off and taking refuge down by the water (pictured) and the mother scrapping with the dog then running off with the dog in pursuit. They put down dogs that worry sheep, probably no such penalty in this case. The picture was taken with a combination of my telescope with Jess' phone, 20x optical magnification achieved, with arty circle effect too.

It seems to be an effect of the epidemic, more people out enjoying the countryside, including more dogs. The deer had probably got used to a quiet life over that side of the reservoir, but now theres a near constant stream of people and their dogs going over there. And, using our tree guards as dog chew toys when there are not deer to chew on.

We were: myself, Geoff, Jess, Peter, Tanya and Ben in one group. Dave Hap and Stephen in another group. And Philip, Cath, Jared, Alastair and John in  the third and furthestmost group.

Lots of bracken got bashed and guards straightened.

And one of my all time favourites for the music.



Saturday, 13 June 2020

Animals



The last few weeks we have been putting deer guards back on some young trees at Butterley, because we could see the bark was getting eaten or rubbed by deer. Lo and behold, this morning in the fog we ran into two of the culprits. The irony of tree planting is that the more successful we are the more deer there will be, which will make it more difficult to establish more new woodland. Hey ho.

We also saw a frog, owls (might have been same owl twice), curlew, and a buzzard.

We were: Philip, Jess, Lee, Cath, Guy and John in one group. Dave, Ben, Hap and Stephen in another, and finally myself, Adrian, Geoff, Jared and Alastair.

Saturday, 6 June 2020

Out in the fields



This Saturday we were up the Wessenden Valley, knocking down bracken before it shades out any of our growing young trees.

We were: myself, Philip, Dave, Geoff, Adrian, Hap, Alastair, Jared, Peter, Susan, Stephen, John and Cath.

We divided into two groups to try and adhere to the guidelines.

This week's tune, a heavy rock request from Dianne.

Saturday, 30 May 2020

Sastanàqqàm

Geoff looking exotic


Myself, Geoff and Steve were again working and being socially distant at Scammonden. Guard and stake removal. I made one trip back to the nursery with our spoils. Geoff had forgotten his sunhat so was going round looking like a member of Tinariwen.