The Woodlands.co.uk Blog - Wildlife
Grey Squirrel Control – a video presentation with Julian Evans
Following on from his video on grey squirrel damage, Professor Julian Evans discusses ways of controlling them. Read more…
Sparrowhawks – at home in the South-West
Much has been made of the RSPB’s magnificent programme to reintroduce the Red Kite in Wales and many areas of England in recent years.
Their hugely successful efforts have been widely publicised, but over the same period the recovery in the numbers of another British bird of prey has been equally, if not more impressive, especially since the species has achieved this remarkable renaissance with just one vital piece of human intervention. Read more…
Woodland Courses 2010 Pt 1
There’s a bumper crop this year, so this is just a very small selection of courses up to June that caught our eye. Check on websites such as Woodlots , Small Woodland Owners Group and the Small Woods Association magazine for more. If you have been on any courses that you would recommend, or run some yourself, why not share it with others by putting a comment in the box below. And don’t forget that Woodlands.co.uk now includes £300 towards the cost of courses and training as part of its new woodland owner package. Find out more at Free Courses for Woodland Purchasers. Read more…
Trail Cameras – Woodland wildlife on camera
Our woodland is full of creatures: birds, squirrels and rabbits. We have seen a couple of deer and even a badger, but there is evidence of so many more! The boar dig enormous holes and wallow in the mud, and the badgers are creating homes all over the place. That is why Mike and I decided to invest in a trail camera, we wanted to know what everything was up to at night! Read more…
Keeping pigs in woodlands
Many people have asked us how practical it would be to keep a few pigs in their woodland so we’ve asked around … Read more…
Bird Decline Indicates Homogenised Woods
With under-management diminishing woodland bird populations, landowners are being encouraged to act.
The population decline of woodland birds has been well documented in the national press: headline grabbing stories of the cuckoo’s demise and the lesser spotted woodpecker’s struggle for habitat are given plenty of column inches. We wanted to get to the bottom of why woodland birds are in decline, what this means for the woods, and how the problem is being addressed? Read more…
Re-introductions and rewilding
Rewilding is a word that has been used often by the media in recent times. Broadly speaking, it refers to the re-introduction of species to areas or habitats where they have ‘died out’, in some cases hundreds of years ago. The list of animals considered for rewilding varies, but the elk, wolf, lynx, wild boar, beavers and bears are possible candidates. Read more…
Fungi Fanatics
Summer may well be coming to an end, but as the nights draw in, the temperatures drop, the long rains set in and the leaves start to fall, the woodlands take on a new lease of life. As any of the legions of fungi fanatics will tell you, a forage around the forests in Autumn can be as exhilarating as a safari across the Serengeti. Read more…