Sunday 30th September 2018

For the first time for a while nearly the whole crew were at Rais this Sunday. Ant, Flee and Tracey with Finn, and me all were there to start the autumn rohdie chopping season. Of course the most important member of the team is still gallivanting round Africa, but she was missed.

This week autumn seems to have been put on hold, it's been warm and while Sunday did have some clouds there were sunny spells as well and hardly any wind. There is a steady slow rain of leaves from the trees but overall the canopy is still more green than red.

I arrived first and fed the birds as usual, they are definitely more interested in the food now the leaves are falling. I also noticed that the tarp over Cassisus was sagging a bit as the bungees have lost some elasticity so I tightened that up a little before the others arrived

It was a busy day. Ant was chopping rohides on the stream bank in the north west corner, Flee and Tracey, with some help from Finn, were clearing brambles and bracken in the wayleave on the other side of the dam and I was carrying on from last week and attacking the rhodies at the top of the steps towards the shower. It was tough going as it was very dense and full of brambles so I have a new set of scratches to add to my collection.

There were some breaks for tea of course, and it was good to catch up, although Ant suddenly got camera shy when he realised I was using a "smart" phone (we had just been talking about how Google and Facebook track you).

Finn added some excitement for us when he managed to bite a wasp, then get vary agitated when he realized what it was. Apparently he was stung recently, but he was lucky this time. Tracey solved the problem by thoroughly squashing the wasp with her boot!



Ant left around 3 and the rest of us stayed until about half 5 and made good progress. Flee and Tracey cleared a great section in the wayleave,

Ant has a good pile of stuff to drag out









and I nearly managed to cut back all of the rohdies, generating a huge pile, and nearly filling up the gully with cuttings in the process.


The chestnut which had been growing around the rhodies is right under the power lines so will, unfortunately, have to go and it will be a big fire next time to get rid of all the cuttings so far.


Wandering around at the end of the day I noted that the hot summer obviously agreed with the sweet chestnut tree. I mentioned it last week but  it is really loaded with fruit, particularity at the crown.

and the weedkiller I put on the rohide stumps is perhaps working better than I had first thought as they are all looking in a worse state than a few weeks ago, I guess it takes a while to work.






Over by the top shed a bird had obviously come a cropper as there were quite a few feathers scattered around, but no evidence of an actual kill so maybe it got away.

The sun was well on it's way as I left and the light certainly has an autumn feel to it just now

Saturday 22nd September 2018

It has been a very windy week, with 3 storms following each other across the country and, disappointingly after two weeks away, the weekend forecast was very wet from Saturday lunchtime onwards.  However, I have worked out that I can count on two hands the number of weekends I can make progress before you get back! and I have a definite target I want to get to so I was keen to get in at least a few hours at Rais, as well as see if there was any damage from the storms.

First thing I noticed on arrival was the old ivy on the oak at the top of the wood, it does not look like it will be attached much longer

Walking down to the hive found another big bough down from the same oak tree as before. A quick wander round the rest of the wood found a couple of small dead trees had come down as well but nothing else major so the first job was to clear the path. I stripped off  the smaller branches and leaves and added them to the brash pile from last time but kept the main branch as intact as possible in case it will be useful.

There's been big change in the two weeks I've been away and Autumn is definitely here. The leaves are starting to turn and the chestnut trees are weighed down with fruit and the weather is much cooler. The activity at the wasps nest has dropped off, although there were still a few going in and out, but despite some recent rain the stream is still bone dry towards the top of the hill. There is quite a bit of fungi popping up though

I knew the rain was not far away so as soon as I had finished by the Hive I started down by the camp. The area at the top of the steps towards the shower was the one section that bracken has not been cleared from so far this year so that was my main aim. Once that was cleared though I kept on and started on the bramble and rohdie

The rain came in about 11.30 and was quite light at first so I kept going for another 3/4 of an hour so so until it really got set in then called it a day, quite dissapointed to have to end early as I had been making really good progress. (and picking up quite a few bramble scratches!)

Despite the food all being out of reach the mice have not given up on Immac. I dropped a new bag of seeds down on Tuesday and they have already had a go at it! I transferred them into the metal bins for safe keeping.

Sunday 2nd September 2018

After a couple of not so nice weeks the warm weather was back for this weekend and it was sunny and dry.

After feeding the birds I started the day in gully behind the yardarm to clear the wood pile that had a huge rohdie growing up through it. I anticipated a big and messy job but actually the wood was in much better condition than I expected, compared to some of the other piles that must date from the same time, and almost all of it was suitable to go on the log pile. Access is not easy to I picked up a few scratches from the rose bush but soon had it all transported down to the wood store and then chopped and stacked

Ant arrived not long after me and spent the day adding to the wood pile with smaller bits of dead fall and rohdies from up by the top shed, once he had filled a section he carried on generally tidying up up there

After the wood pile was sorted I dug up the rohdie stump that had been hiding under the log pile and then moved around pulling bracken, hopefully for the last time this year, from up by the pylon, over by the hive, in the wayleave and over by the dam. I had intended to clear some brambles by toad bridge as well but ran out of time (and didn't want to go on holiday covered in scratches again!)

An update on the oak saplings progress (coincidentally!) At the moment I think we have lost two of them, with a third looking very poorly. All three are up at the top of the wood by the cars where is is very wet (usually) and also very shaded so perhaps they were up against it anyway. The others are all alive and growing although you could not say they look bursting with health. But they do seem to have survived the dry weather. I had not thought there was much growth this year (although I have no idea how quickly to expect oak saplings to grow,) but looking back to when we planted them they are actually significantly bigger.

August 2017

Now

Ant left around three and I took some time to just sit quietly under the Yardarm before I left too. Within a few minutes there was a constant stream of Nuthatches, Coal Tits and Great Tits as usual but also Forrest was busy under the stump, the woodpecker came in (to sample the trees rather than the food) and a young squirrel came down to help himself to the food right in front of the yardarm! which was a lovely end to a lovely late summers day in the wood.

Summer of 2018

Work has continued at Rais this summer, despite me not being there and of course the incredible heat wave that I have completely missed - typical!
Ant, Simon, Helen, Flee and Tracey have regularly been working at Rais as well as spending camping weekends and hosting visitors in my absence. I can't thank them all enough, not only for the work of course, but also for the photos and the snippets of news which brighten my days.
Simon tells me that the usual summer job of bracken pulling was not quite as big a task this year, and in the wayleave in particular the amount of bracken was greatly reduced. It seems that a combination of the previous year’s hand-pulling and the grass getting really established now has made a big difference. The areas more recently cleared of rhodie, on the east side of the wood, are still quite dense though - which is as to be expected when you suddenly allow sunlight to hit the ground for the first time in decades. Let's hope more wildflowers are also awoken from their forced slumber due to light deprivation.
The prolonged hot, dry weather would have affected all the flora and fauna throughout the wood, but the grass in the wayleave has survived well. The stream eventually ran dry and the trees suffered with the heat, shedding leaves to conserve water as necessary.  I wish I could have seen it, but Simon says at some times there seemed as many leaves underfoot as there are in autumn - so the canopy is also noticeably thinner than previous years. I am sincerely hoping the drought hasn't claimed our sapling oaks that were planted last year to fill the gaps left by rhodies.
Whilst I am out in Zambia, fighting a war against the tsetse flies, it seems the hot weather has caused a similar war at Rais with their cousins, the horse flies. Apparently all the woodland workers and visitors alike have had their fair share of attention from these bloodsuckers. So I feel somewhat a part of the woodland suffering out here even though I am not there in person.
Along with the bracken clearing, the ongoing job of digging out rhodie roots has also continued, although understandably mainly in the shadier areas due to the extreme temperatures. Housekeeping tasks during the good weather have included adding chicken wire to the deck, which will hopefully make it less of a slip hazard during the winter, and a second extension to the wood store to increase the amount of firewood that can be kept dry.
After several years the mice have finally discovered that the sheds contain an almost unlimited amount of food and eaten their way through the plastic storage containers so all the food has now been moved into metal storage bins, much to the dismay of the mice!
Now the summer is starting to draw to a close the last bracken will shortly be pulled for this year and after that the rhodie clearance will no doubt begin again in earnest.
So as we head into my favourite season in the UK, I am missing home more than ever. I miss the autumn colours and whilst I am enjoying amazing African sunsets right now, autumn is the best time of year in the UK to see incredible cloudscapes at dusk.
It's harvest time, a time of nuts and berries, bonfires and blankets. A time to forage, fatten, store and preserve in readiness for the cold winds and frosty air.  The temperature here in Zambia is easily topping 30 degrees every day and will be climbing still for the next few months.... where the mercury will be doing the opposite back home.
By the time I board that plane bound for Heathrow next January, I will have spent the best part of a year exploring the lowveld of South Africa, the Mashatu reserve in Botswana, Makuleke concession in northern Kruger and the Kafue national park in Zambia. What an experience, a dream fulfilled.  The knowledge and understanding I have acquired has also given me a thirst to explore every inch of Rais when I return. I want to know as much as I can about our own ecosystems, in the same way I now know so much more about the African natural world than I could ever have imagined.