Woodfest and a quiet Saturday

Woodfest is a celebration of the woodland and it's creatures in my local wood, to show members of the public what they can see when they visit.

I helped out on the Oxfordshire Mammal Group stall to promoted what the group do and encourage people to join or come to some of their talks.

(The next one is George McGavin on 12th October, which I'm really looking forward to. http://www.oxonmammals.org)

Other stalls at Woodfest included Forest School, Butterfly Conservation, Moths, Wilderness Pioneers and The Wood Conservation Group.

It was so nice to see so many people enjoying walking around the wood.

Woodfest was completely different to Saturday when I had the wood and the fields to myself.
Mum and I spent 3 hours just sitting watching the Hares and wandering around the fields.

There are so many Jays around in the trees at the moment after the acorns.

Jay

The Jays have competition for the acorns from the squirrels, this one sat in the tree above our heads and was chattering while flicking its tail, which is an alarm call, although it sounded more like it was telling us off.

If you stand still for a few minutes in the woods all the birds reappear.

Green Woodpecker

Coal Tit

Long tailed tit

 This female Kestrel hunts near to the Hare field every day. On Saturday it was chasing the Yellow hammers and other small birds up and down the hedgerow.
Sometimes the small birds gang up on her and chase her away.

 There were 4 Hares out on Saturday afternoon, it was a bit earlier than we normally go to see them.
I found was interesting to see how when the sun came out the hares were more active and hopped about eating, but when the sun went behind a cloud, the Hares laid down so I couldn't see them.

H3 and her mate came over a few times and the Hares hid in the grass. When two male Pheasants starting fighting and making a lot of noise all the Hares ran into the maize.