Thursday, November 12, 2020


 The Forest was extremely busy today. Unsurprising as exercising outside is encouraged under Lockdown 2 but even where it is fairly quiet I didn't see much wildlife today.  It did make me think more about the habitat though. I walked past an exclusion plot (a fenced area to exclude deer grazing.) It also happens that the area around this plot has been mown regularly too.


The fenced plot was full of bracken, with some overgrown heather. The mown area was Purple Moor Grass (Molinia caerulea) with heather (Calluna vulgaris.)  Bracken is invasive and there is a lot of it in the area, so the heathy grassland provides important habitat for heathland species.  The mowing here certainly seems to be keeping the bracken in check.


There was plenty of sunshine today, although I mostly walked before and after it!  Again I missed getting a photo of the mixed tit flocks (or of the Marsh tits on our feeder) but there were wasps in our greenhouse, making the most of the autumn warmth and the grape juice.  They won't be around much longer and the grapes have gone too mouldy for us to eat.


Not really wildlife but definitely adding to wellbeing, we still have roses flowering in the garden.  The weather conditions really seem to have favoured them this year and they are a delight to see in November.



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