Autumn comes to the Owl Wood (again):

Pleasant pheasant chicks and the invasion of the big burly bully and albino peacocks from the wrong side of the tracks...

When the owls get tough they get going and when the tough owls have got gone... other wildlife moves in. Owl Wood is covered with pheasant chicks at the moment. They're a little bit shy but then, given the constant gunfire in the neighbourhood, so would you be if you were a pheasant. The two boldest are shown here among the rhubarb of the neighbouring veggie patch and, given our tendency towards anthropomorphic wussie-nonsense, have been christened "Custard" and "Pie".

Today, however, we had an invasion of peacocks. The wildfowl and big burly bird sanctuary just outside the village has been attracting the nocturnal attentions of a fox or three. Consequently, their peacocks - already keen wanderers at the best of times - tried to decamp into the Owl Wood neighbourhood.

Now, pheasant with chicks and invading peacock don't mix happily and the odd fight broke out as younglings were defended. In the lower background here we have "Gus", the invading peacock, and the in upper corner we have defending champion, Ms.Pheasant with chicks and with the flapping and the claws and the pecking and the noise.

After two falls and a submission in round three a gentleman from the Wildfowl sanctuary came and showed us how they round up them doggies and keep 'em rolling in the, er, the east. Ta very muchly. See y'all tomorrow?

It all happens in t'country you know.

Owl walk-about!

Our owls are precocious - one of the wee beasties is already on walk-about, spotted in a tree adjacent to the nesting box. Balancing on a wobbly thin branch was obviously a novelty but it's great to see at least one of the chicks starting to pack its belongings into a knotted handkerchief ready for hitting the road to pastures new.

All three chicks have now been tagged.

The volunteers for the British Owl Trust called again yesterday to check on and tag the tawny chicks in the nesting box - and what a difference a couple of weeks makes! We were expecting them to look like little defrosted chickens with a feather deficiency but what fantastically good-looking wee beasties they in fact are!

A big, big, thank you goes to the volunteers for patiently showing them to us all. Thank you!

The estimate is for about another week to ten days before they start to leave the nesting box. They don't fly off immediately but, rather like teenagers, hang around the next in nearby branches and trees, occasionally on the ground.

Once they do leave the nesting box for good however they have to find themselves an unoccupied territory to inhabit.

As ever, all three were carefully returned after their inspection.

Meet Mullig - our tawny. (Groans...)

Meet Mullig, our tawny owl (yup, bet no-one's ever heard that name before in the owl world, but it's new to us!). Volunteers for the British Trust for Ornithology called yesterday evening to ring the mother of the chicks (and carefully return her to the nest!) - and this is her. It's not possible to safely remove or disturb the owl while she's sitting on eggs but now they've hatched she can be ringed and recorded. The chicks will be checked and ringed and similarly carefully returned when they are a little older.

She was amazing placid (in expert hands) once netted from the box and remained so during ringing and recording.

This wee beastie is Huey. Possibly Louie. Maybe Dewey. We have no idea. Also amazingly unflustered at being oiked from the nesting box and gawped at by all and local Bumpkin-Sundry (us!)

First, net your owl and do your best to neutralise the claws - claws that can easily go right through a human hand. She may look placid but she'd rather not be poked and prodded given the chance.

Give your owl a quick once-over.

Carefully ring and record the bird. The ring is attached, bent into a "D" shape so that it swivels easily on the bird's leg and doesn't catch on any feathers.

Weigh your bird. Getting the owl into the bag is the relatively easy part - getting her out without injury to bird or human is a lot more difficult. If at all possible the claws are left poking out of the bag (so that the handler has an idea of where they are when trying to get a safe hold on the bird again).

Place the owl ("Mullig") back in the box with the chicks. The technique here is to block the bird in with a sack, remove the ladder, clear the area of local Bumpkin-Sundry (us again!) and leave her there in the dark for a few moments to settle. The gentleman who looks like he's contendedly fishing in a tree in a wood (you can just make out the string between gentleman and nesting box) is, in fact, about to tug on the string to remove the sack from the entrance to the nesting box and leave the birds in peace. The male owl would have been likely to be around and about during this process and unhappy at the disturbance and delay, he does the hunting and food provisioning at the moment.

The Owl Wood lives! The greenery is returning after winter and it has a bit of life in it now. Our grateful thanks to the folks from the Trust for giving us the opportunity to see the magnificent beasties close-up and for allowing us to take photographs of this process. More photographs are available at the main website, www.owlwood.co.uk.

We have owl chicks - three of 'em!

The Owl wood is home to owl chicks.

Wow, I hear you say, isn't that what the Owl wood is for?

Well, yes, clever-clogs, it is and it's brilliant proof that the owl Wood is working as intended!

We had a visit this a.m. from some nice chaps (and a lady) who are volunteer ringers for the British Trust for Ornithology. Bedecked in surgical gowns, surgical face-masks and latex gloves they carefully confirmed that we were "with chick".

OK, they actually plonked a ladder against the tree, furtled around (professionally) in the nesting box and grabbed 'em (carefully and professionally) and hugged 'em (ditto carefully and profressionally!) and cuddled 'em (not really, but almost) and then - very carefully indeed - put 'em back where they found them.

More photos and detail as soon as we can get it - the photograph here is library stock and not of the actually chicks.

The issue of names rears its head of course. My vote as Chief Assistant Trainee Underling Web-Blog-Updater is for Huey, Duwey and Louie ...

Statutory Notice of Temporary change of use of The Owl Wood

When we first took over Owl Wood our main aims were to keep the woodland safe for the locality and for the future, and to provide a safe haven for British owls. Those are still important aims. However, as with any undertaking, things can move on and circumstances can change dramatically. With the advent of relatively cheap and accessible satellite surveillance provided by Google (a spin-off of which is the availability of "Google Earth" and other web facilities) information became available indicating that there might be a lot more to the Owl Wood than just wildlife.

We can now reveal that one of the main reasons for getting the Owl Wood cleared as quickly as possible was to provide access for the geophysicists and the palynologists to complete their surveys. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by their vehicles being parked on Main Road.

Privately commissioned "next stage" exploration using quiet and non-invasive geo-magnetic mapping and deep-radar techniques has produced nothing but more good news. At the behest of DEFRA (Dept. for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) three separate firms (Tender A, Tender B, Tender C) have now completed the independent surveys required for a "European Union Statutory Override - Change of Use Order" allowing suspension of the conditions of the current lease and paving the way for commercial development under the terms of the EU Treaty of Lisbon Local Resources Development Set-Asides of 2003. We're pleased (as punch) to be able to say that all three surveys were positive, concluding a 78% "B" Grade sand/shale deposit peaking under the woodland area and meeting Level 6 criteria for both EU and UK start-up funding for extraction.

The deposits have been declared viable for extraction using new technology developed in the UK by Profero Energy Inc. Genetically modified microbes (based on microbes previously known as "HN51") are used - in layman's terms - to "digest" the deposits. The microbes then work their way back towards the surface attracted by ultra-sound transmitters (only ever likely to affect dogs, the sound is just beyond human audible range) and are then collected by continuous mechanical pumps along with the oil they have "eaten". In this ground-breaking technique a flow of microbe-carrying fluid is pressurised and electronically controlled to the point where economical extraction is maximised but risk to the local water-table is minimised to within EU safety standards developed immediately following the Exxon disasters and the subsequent quarantine of parts of the Alaskan fields.

We have been given written assurances that all work will be carried out to ensure that the Owl Wood Extraction is not affected by these problems and N.E. Lincs Monitoring Ltd have been authorised to take regular monthly tap and garden samples for the duration of the extraction (currently estimated to last until at least 2045). Incidentally, please note that N.E. Lincs Monitoring Ltd are acting on behalf of the Council and thus have a Statutory right of Entry to take the samples. When calling their operatives will provide photo-ID and be as brief as possible. However, each two gallon sample must be taken from different sources within the village weekly so some minor disruption is inevitable.

While the wood will have to be cleared and topsoil removed the planning permission received stipulates that the soil will have to be stored and reinstated at the end of the commercial extraction (2045) and the whole of the area re-planted and wildlife re-established. Nesting boxes will still be maintained on-site as part of the infrastructure with at least one box on each "nodding donkey" pump (the owl experts at The World Owl Trust assure us that the gentle rhythmic movement actually sooths the birds on the nest) and two boxes on each of the four 50,000 gallon on-site temporary crude oil storage tanks. The owl-webcam will be relocated but due to safety regulations (mains power) will have to be slightly further away than at present. It is stipulated that the site must be returned to its orginal state within five years of exhaustion of the deposits.

As with any oil extraction process waste methane will need - for safety reasons - to be flared off but in order to safeguard the owls these flares will be both caged and fitted with percussive bird-scarers (the sort that simulate gunshots). World Wildlife Fund recommendations will be followed so these bird-scarers will run only during the natural owl "active" cycle overnight, minimising aural disruption during the daytime. The photograph shows one of the flares being field-tested next to the new Owl Wood fencing. Flaring the gas in this manner removes most of the chemicals that give methane its characteristic smell and should reduce emissions to an acceptable minimum. We are assured that the aroma will only be of a nature similar to a small to medium sized pig farm.

Planning permission has also been received from local authorities for a filling station (to operate only as long as the local reserves last). There will be a slight increase in road-tanker traffic (limited to not more than thirty-six tankers a day, to carry away and distribute fuel not sold locally). The extraction site will also tie into the new Lincs-Wolds Pipeline due to pass close to the area in 2010. The branch pipeline is expected to run overland for reasons of cost but will be landscaped (painted in a green non-reflective camouflage) and will use at least part of the old railway route.

This Development Order will allow people local to the site to support the development by buying their petrol locally (the entrance to the forecourt will be roughy where the gates to the Owl Wood are currently) and for the council to benefit financially from the new pipeline. All oil pumped into the pipeline is subsidised by the EU and sold on at cost to French farmers in a bid to encourage the rural French economy. We are proud to be able to assist our EU cousins in this way.

Since the current Owl Wood lease-holders will shortly be permanently relocating to the Cayman Islands the new planning permission also includes fully-approved plans for the properties to the east of Owl Wood to be converted to staff offices, parking, a forecourt shop and a Little Chef.

Beneficial knock-on effects of this exciting new commercial development will include the widening of Main Road and the by-passing of The Railway Tavern. A temporary hostel and machinery depot has been approved for the fields and woodlands opposite Owl Wood. Assurances have been received that all properties acquired under Compulsory Purchase Orders to facilitate the road-widening will be acquired sympathetically and at as near to current property-market value as possible within Council budget restrictions.

Work will begin in earnest in April 2009 and we will endeavour to keep you all up to date via this blog.

Our very grateful thanks go to Councillor X, pictured below, for his assistance with planning permissions. Drive safely Councillor.

Add a touch of Spring sunlight and the place is looking ten times better already.

Yesterday's visit by the contractors has left the wood looking ready for a new, healthier, start.

Mulchers - the return.

Mulchers - The Return, or, if you want the working title for a film: Mulchers - Friday 13th for twigs and branches.

Mark Vigrass Ltd were back to finish the job yesterday leaving behing three more huge piles of mulch. The wood is beginning to look a bit worryingly as though it is being cared for and maintained ... and, since the bill hasn't arrived yet for the contractors, that's still a great feeling.

Five workmen, one tractor with Kenwood attachment, one Land-Rover, one trailer, one car for t'workers ... four hours ...

Not a moment too soon - the big machinery arrives for session number one ...

The big commercial machinery has arrived for a quick mulching session. Five blokes, one Land-Rover County plus trailer and one tractor with tree-chewing attachment: Goodbye scrubby branches and undergrowth, Hello tons of mulch to spread.

Five workmen counted in and five digitally intact workmen counted back out again.

This has just been the first of a few sessions as the mulchers eat their way through the wood. Once they're done the piles of healthy ground-cover can be spread. If nothing else it will give the squatting squirrels a slightly softer landing when they are evicted from one of the owl nesting boxes.

Brush clearing and wood sorting and stacking in preparation for professional mulchers ...

Current back-breaking manual labour labour of love in The Owl Wood is the sorting and stacking of brush and dead wood in preparation for the imminent arrival of commercial contractors for mulching. This highly technical task involves the shifting of huge piles of logs and branches from one place to another, a task historically suited to the female of the species ... apparently.

Once the "waste" has been mulched and spread over the ground to provide natural cover there'll be a lot more room to breath (and fly around) in the wood.

We did try using a hired machine for the mulching but nothing that may legally be rented for civilian use in the UK was man enough for the task - the biggest machine to be found would only chew up to 1 - 1½ inches diameter, nothing like big enough!

The current wildlife webcam has seen better days and is being replaced too.

The current wildlife webcam has certainly seen better days. Technology has moved on significantly from the old straight-to-disk systems and the new one promises (on the box, so we believe them, really we do) to be very much easier to tie into the web! Once the current single camera feed has been replaced with multiple and better viewpoints and with the more efficient infra-red facility we'll be able to share the real-time owl-watching with anyone accessing the website.

Of course, the way things are going at the moment the wildlife caught on camera might not be owls. If the squirrels stay put we'll just go with the flow and rename the webcam as "squirrel-watch" instead. If all else fails then we'll aim the cameras at the hedgehog habitats and that way you're virtually guaranteed two interesting wildlife webcam days a year - hogs in (in Autumn), hogs out (in Spring).

David Attenborough - eat your heart out!

Squatters in the main owl nesting box - and there's a Trust inspection due ...

One of the nesting boxes sits way up in the branches, right in the centre of the woodland and - in owl terms - is worthy of an honourable mention on Grand Designs and a make-over by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. However, with typically wry humour old Ma Nature has seen fit to install a pair of very dozy (as in sleepy, not as in dumb) squirrels.

The Trust Inspectors are due in the next two or three weeks for one of their regular visits so the aforementioned squirrel squatters will find themselves unceremoniously flying through the air with the greatest of ease - evicted.

Given the amount of owl activity that does take place in the wood this proves one thing that Bill Oddie may or may not know: squirrels can bully owls out of house and home if a decent night's sleep is up for grabs in winter.

Hundreds of yards of new fencing is now in place, as required by The Woodland Trust.

The hundreds of yards of rinky dinky new fencing required by The Woodland trust are now in place, with just the odd gap to sort out. The new fence is stock-friendly, unlike the barbed wire it replaces.

The fenceposts have been stained green so it's difficult to see them behind the roadside hedgerows but, you'll have to agree, even from the field side it does look neat. Not so neat was the physical condition of Elaine, George and Jonathan once they'd finished the work. They have now variously recovered and/or come to terms with ache, pains and a permanent stoop.