If you drive down to Flanders you will notice that there has been a bit of activity in the woodland next to the track. you will see that more birch trees have been felled in 3 specific areas. As posted back at the end of 2010 this work serves several purposes. Firstly we wanted to form sunny glades for reptiles and insects along the south edge of the wood. We also wanted to use some of the materials to build hibernaculums for adders, that is places for them to spend the winter hibernating. And thirdly the 4 members of the Stirling NNR team needed somewhere to fell trees as part of our refresher training for our chainsaw users certificates. So it was a case of killing several birds with one stone. It has been a fun couple of days concentrating on different felling cuts, dealing with hung up trees and ending up smelling of freshly saw timber. And while working we have been able to watch the weather changing drastically, the wind going round to the south west, picking up and blowing hard, rain coming in in squalls and the snow disappearing fast. Suddenly the ditches on the moss are flowing and along the bog edge little springs of water are bursting out of the peat. I don't know how long it will last but it has been heaven to feel the breeze and the rain on our faces but only wear half the number of layers clothing that we have for the preceding 7 weeks.
The car park and path is still a bit icy so be careful as you walk around but hopefully it will soon be clear if this warm weathers last for another couple of days. Look out also for the geese in the fields along side the track. Large numbers of pinkies plus greylags and Canadas were all about while we were sawing.
