Forestry
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Redstart (M) - Phoenicuros Phoenicuros
The common redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus), or often simply redstart, is a small passerine bird in the redstart genus Phoenicurus. Like its relatives, it was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family, (Turdidae), but is now known to be an Old World flycatcher (family Muscicapidae).
Common redstarts prefer open mature birch and oak woodland with a high horizontal visibility and low amounts of shrub and understorey especially where the trees are old enough to have holes suitable for its nest. They prefer to nest on the edge of woodland clearings. In Britain it occurs primarily in upland areas less affected by agricultural intensification, but further east in Europe also commonly in lowland areas, including parks and old gardens in urban areas. They nest in natural tree holes, so dead trees or those with dead limbs are beneficial to the species; nestboxes are sometimes used. A high cover of moss and lichen is also preferred. They also use mature open conifer woodland, particularly in the north of the breeding range. Management to thin out the trees is thus favoured.
In England, where it has declined by 55% in the past 25 years, the Forestry Commission offers grants under a scheme called England's Woodland Improvement Grant (EWIG); as does Natural Englands Environmental Stewardship Scheme. It is a very rare and irregular breeding bird in Ireland, with between one and five pairs breeding in most years, mainly in County Wicklow.
It is a summer visitor throughout most of Europe and western Asia (east to Lake Baikal), and also in northwest Africa in Morocco. It winters in central Africa and Arabia, south of the Sahara Desert but north of the Equator, from Senegal east to Yemen. It is widespread as a breeding bird in Great Britain, particularly in upland broadleaf woodlands and hedgerow trees, but in Ireland it is very local, and may not breed every year.
The males first arrive in early to mid April, often a few days in advance of the females. Five or six light blue eggs are laid during May, with a second brood in mid summer in the south of the breeding range. It departs for Africa between mid-August and early October. It often feeds like a flycatcher, making aerial sallies after passing insects, and most of its food consists of winged insects. The call is chat-like and the alarm a plaintive single note, wheet, like that of many other chats.
The male’s song is similar to that of the Robin, but never more than a prelude, since it has an unfinished, feeble ending.
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Pine Marten - Martes martes
Pine martens are found in the Scottish Highlands and Grampians, with isolated populations in southern Scotland. In England and North Wales pine martens seem to be on the verge of extinction. They are widespread and relatively common in Ireland. Although they occur in a wide range of habitats, pine martens prefer well-wooded areas with plenty of cover.
Diet: Pine martens are generalist predators, feeding on small rodents, birds, beetles, carrion, eggs and fungi. In autumn, berries are a staple.
General Ecology: Marten dens are commonly found in hollow trees or the fallen root masses of Scots pines, an association that probably earned pine martens their name; cairns and cliffs covered with scrub are frequently used as alternative den sites. Martens have territories that vary in size according to habitat and food availability. For males, these are about 10-25 square kilometres and for females about 5-15 square kilometres. They mark their territories with faeces (known as scats) deposited in places where they are conspicuous to other martens; they are frequently left along forestry trails.
Breeding: Young martens are born blind and hairless, in litters of 1-5, in early spring and stay with their mothers for about six weeks. Their eyes open at the end of May and by mid-June they begin to emerge from their den. Male martens play no direct part in rearing the young.
Conservation Status: Martens and their dens are fully protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981); martens must not be trapped, sold or disturbed except under licence from Scottish Natural Heritage, the Countryside Council for Wales or Natural England. Despite this legal protection, poisoned baits and traps, often set for hooded crows and foxes, still probably account for many marten deaths each year. Others are also shot at hen houses, and some are killed when mistaken for mink.
Until the 19th Century, pine martens were found throughout much of mainland Britain, the Isle of Wight and some of the Scottish islands. Habitat fragmentation, persecution by gamekeepers and martens being killed for their fur, drastically reduced this distribution. By 1926, the main pine marten population in Britain was restricted to a small area of north-west Scotland, with small numbers in N Wales and the Lake District. They have now increased their range in Scotland, and now occur throughout the Highlands, N of the Central Belt but remains one of the rarest native mammals in Great Britain, with a total population of around 3-4,000, but Ireland probably also has as many.
Waldwirtschaft
February 2023 - Ferenberg-Bantigen BE, Schweiz
Mamiya 7II, 4/80 mm, Kodak Tri-X 400, D-76 (1+1)
Print auf Fomatone 132 mit Moersch ECO 4812
Selentonung MT1 1+9, 1:30 min
Mountain homeland
Neukirchen bei Altmünster, Oberösterreich
1999
Noblex Pro 6/150 UX, Kodak CN 400
Lithprint auf Kodabrome II RC
SE5 1+15, +3 f-stops, 5 min
Catechol/NH4Cl 8+10+800, 1 min
A larger view of the log piles in the previous post (see below) to put it in context.
We were on a walking trail in the Symonds Yat area.
HTT!
Not mist but a controlled burn by forestry workers from a nearby conifer plantation that had been felled. An area that I'd visited numerous times over the years and from which I'd managed some lovely pictures, but nothing stays the same and I'd always known it was plantation and would be felled at some stage. Poignant all the same and although "my area" was closed due to the works this adjacent area had smoke drifting through which was backlit creating this mist-like effect and seemed to be a fitting finale.
A tree display at the academic building where Forestry is taught. Morning light. I always like this living creation. The trees are Planes/Sycamores, favorites for this treatment.
UC Berkeley.
A reworking of an earlier image. Sadly, I suspect this lovely historical relic was damaged or lost some months after the shot was taken, in the bushfires of December 2019.
Beckdale is a lovely forestry walk from the town of Helmsley in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, England.
HTmT!
This building houses the 'tree specialists' on the Berkeley campus. I think the tall skinny one front and center is a Ponderosa Pine.
"Ponderous" means "of great weight" and "unwieldy or clumsy because of weight and size". "Ponderosa" reminds most people of an old television show about a ranch!