Despite our drought, nature appears to be surviving in the wood.

And it is dry! At the beginning to the year, the main pond was as full as I’ve seen it in recent years…

… now could be in danger of drying up completely.

This did happen about 25 years ago and it took a few years to reappear. The situation today should not be as dire – the bund (retaining bank) at the end of the pond  that was created when WKWT  first began managing the wood should help it to refill more quickly once the rains arrive.

And you’d think that no-one would need to be told how idiotic it would be to light a fire in a tinder-dry wood, but apparently you’d be wrong…

(Speechless)

The water-filled path side scrapes, created when the main path was resurfaced, have provided alternative sources of water throughout the wood, but pretty much all have dried up. In one of these, in its muddy final few days, I photographed a bunch of fledgling birds that seemed to be partying around it.

The bird forum that helped me identify these juveniles (they can be tricky and I’m no expert) commented “It’s interesting how many young birds seem to be gathering around drying pools at this time of year.” I was particularly pleased to see successful Spotted Flycatcher breeding in the place they probably nested previously. The bird recorders have also picked them up in various other parts of the wood. I have a soft spot for these birds – when I was a boy (so just a few years ago) we had a pair nest in our house porch, and we had to ask visitors not to stand and chat by the front door so as not to disturb them.

Because of the general drying, I guessed that the main pond, or what’s left of it, should be getting  more activity again, so I moved the trail camera there just recently to check it out. What did we see? Lots of inevitable squirrel activity, large birds (crow, jay, pigeons) , small birds (thrush, blackbirds, wren and many unidentifiable), dragonflies, fox, muntjac, roe deer and everyone’s favourite – rattus rattus -the rat, and these quite frequently. In fact, rats (possibly the same one, possibly not) were the most common overnight visitor.

Here’s a fun composite of what the camera captured, pretty crowded if they all arrived at the same time! See what you can spot.

It continues to be a great year for butterflies, they seem to thrive in the hot dry conditions. Here are a few recent photos:

and lastly, the suitably named Beautiful Demoiselle

And that, as they say, is a wrap!

Chris