Clearing the Glade and a wood mouse

Posted by Tanos on Sun 7 Dec 08, 12:58 AM

I had a trip to Bridgewood today and cleared the branches and tree trunks scattered across the southern half of the Glade, left over from felling trees. I also came across a wood mouse, dodging between some of the logs and managed to photograph it.

The trunks of the big standard trees are about 18 inches in diameter and are very heavy as you can imagine: tonnes for some of the biggest ones. I cut them up into two or three foot lengths so they can be rolled around the clearing. But to do this requires cutting from the top side, then rolling the whole trunk, then cutting from the newly exposed sides until the cut goes all the way through. It's surprisingly easy to get one of these trunks rocking back and forth like a swing until eventually it can be rolled. Only if it's sunk into the ground or has a branch on the bottom side is it harder to move, and then it's necessary to cut it in half, right through from the top into a hole dug underneath with a spade.

I used these sections of trunk to mark the edge of the Glade, and then stacked branches and twigs outside the trunk sections, partly to dispose of them and partly to make a barrier to protect the thickets that provide screening around the Glade. Once done, this also feels quite like being inside a fenced homestead - it even reminded me of Din Lligwy hut group, despite it having stone walls. Maybe this is how Iron Age farmsteads started off, cut out of the woodland too?

The photo shows a wood mouse in a pile of logs in the Glade. It was quite like a field mouse or even a house mouse, and was longer than it looks like from this angle. The other woodland candidate, the dormouse, should be hibernating at this time of year and it didn't have the furry tail of the dormouse.

I also had a rather proud pheasant come strolling down the ride to see what was going on. I heard his claws tapping on the frozen ground before I saw him, but after a quick glance round, he was off.

Edited Fri 17 Apr 09, 5:35 PM by Tanos