At the weekend quite recently i was invited to do a bit of stalking , not of the creepy type (chuckles) but myself and fellow outdoorist (jp from woodlife trails) had to carry out a survey on the wildlife that fall into the category of Cervidae so that was fallow deer and muntjac that frequenced the wood.
The woodland was responsible to the national trust (NT), and a fence was erected to give the wood some protection but in the meantime such mammals remained in the area , there is a plan to plant new growth and clear some of the old wood matter and foliage to rejuvinate the area with new tree saplings etc.
Which a new tree sapling to deer and the like is the equivalent to a red rag to a bull or chocolate to a sweettooth.
So thats where we stepped in to assist with the survey, we arrived reasonably early on a very chilly icy but sunny and bright blue sky day.
On parking the vehicle we carried out a recconaisance of the forest area mainly the fence boundary first of all to establish where access gates where as the wood was regularly frequented by dog walkers.
On our first walk round we never sighted any deer or muntjac, the wood had a number of water features -ponds and possibly sodden ground and with the heat of summer would possibly dry out.
There was an array of footpaths , badger access points, oh yes nearly forgot about the trees in the woodland,,, there was a real mix of birch, hazel, ash, hawthorn, oak and hornbeam - i must mention here that i really love the amount of heat this wood kicks out (hornbeam that is), which really made our camp area cosy that evening.
Anyway after we walked the perimeter there was other areas of the enclosure that had bushes of brambles , bushes etc and in one of the areas there was a high chair for use by the stalkers.
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