Every day is different at the wood but what I think is odd is how even very common visitors can on certain days be there all the time and then on other days not turn up at all. I have now stopped feeding the little birds so the Blue, Coal and Great tits are not in and out all the time. Likewise I see Chaffinches, Dunnocks, Robins and Blackbirds less often. But there is food available for the Magpies and Jays and most times the Magpies are constantly in and out, almost the same with the Jays but then you can get a day when only one Jay turns up and even the Magpies are few and far between. I did see a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a Willow Warbler and some young Robins but that was it.

Why? is it the weather, no I saw a Magpie sat on a log in the pouring rain recently and at the same time a Crow was present and was very much taking shelter, backing up to a large Oak tree to avoid the downpour. Corvids are supposed to be intelligent but I would rate the Crow as having more grey matter than a Magpie. Could the low numbers be that they have found a rich source of food somewhere else, or maybe a dog has recently run through the wood leaving its scent everywhere and that has put the wildlife off.

So when times are quiet it is nice to sit and survey the scene and be at one with your thoughts but after a couple of hours and with the camera on you lap you finger gets twitchy and you look around to see what photos you might take. The bracken is unfurling its leaves now and a developing fern frond is always a good subject. I let the bracken grow up in front of my hide to give it some camouflage, (I also have Ivy growing on it now and some Cotoneaster fanning up in front of it) So with the light being good I took some snaps of the bracken, there are also quite a few little groups of Bluebells dotted about so they too became a source to pass the time.

Finally it was down to snapping away at a Squirrel, these fortunately have been visiting less often recently, possibly because I am not feeding the little birds although I am still randomly scattering peanuts for the small mammals and the Jays. Yes they are quite sweet but the do cause a lot of damage, possibly as many as a quarter of my larger Silver Birches have had the bark removed in a ring about two thirds of the way up the trunk, causing the upper area of the tree to die. Luckily I do have hundreds probably thousands of Birch so it is not a disaster.