Winter Blog - February 2012

I thought my next blog would be one showing an abundance of snow- drops. Well it does and it doesn’t.  They are just out, but you cannot see them! This is what happens when snow drops as it did last night in abundance!

The wood has been transformed into a wonderful white wintry wilderness with just a few telltale signs of life.  The snow has revealed the overnight activities of wandering wildlife, whose tracks have made mysterious patterns. 

The muntjac deer prints are fairly clear at 15 cm intervals and are everywhere, but some other prints are quite puzzling as you will see from the photos below.  Don't forget, you can left click on a photo to make it even bigger on your screen!   

I am afraid I could not resist giving you another one of Robert Frost's poems - you can see why – it is probably one of his most famous:-

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

The snow covered bridge where no man has trod before... 

....even our little river has frozen over

The birches over-wintering

Muntjac tracks  

A muntjac has stepped onto and over a fallen tree trunk 

This trail did not display any prints, rather just a continuous line about 5cms across zigzagging about like a huge snail.  Eventually we realized why that was – the prints were being obliterated by its tail dragging through the snow – at first we thought maybe it was a fox but on reflection we believe it was probably one of our resident pheasants!  It is not hard to imagine it strutting through the snow looking for food in the early morning, its beautiful warm colours offset against the pure white of the snow.

Just what or who made these prints?  It certainly wasn’t us!  Any ideas?

‘Two tracks diverged in a white wood’ (misquote from Robert Frost)

Another rare species of local wildlife spotted next to a young Oak tree – we believe it to be called the ‘bearded blue hat’ otherwise known as the ‘Abominable No-Man’