Rushbeds Wood and Lapland Farm - Buckinghamshire

A Sunday lunchtime walk in Rushbeds Wood and Lapland Farm Nature Reserve (http://www.bbowt.org.uk/content.asp?did=23527). The temperature throughout the walk was between 3 & 4°C with 100% sun. In the shadows frost still lingered and a cold wind slightly moved the tops of the trees.

Rushbeds Wood

'Oxbow' in Rushbeds Wood

Rushbeds Wood

Trackbed of the disused Brill Tramway as it runs through Rushbeds Wood (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brill_Tramway)

The Wood and its environs are located in UK National Grid Tetrad SP61S and this visit was focused on completing my late winter visit to that Tetrad for the BTO Bird Atlas 2007-2011 (http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/birdatlas).

The following were of note.


Birds:



Only 21 species were seen and/or heard and then recorded on the BirdAtlas site. Not a great total but I was not expecting a great watching session from the numbers view of point! There were two key sightings; 2 Marsh Tit (Poecile palustris) and, a first for me at this location, a Raven (Corvus corax). Add to that some sustained song from Great Tit (Parus major) and Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes), the walk proved very enjoyable despite the lack of species numbers.



Mammals:



Some fresh Mole (Talpa europaea) activity was noted as were 2 high-seats! I guess, from the presence of the latter, BBOWT (http://www.bbowt.org.uk/default.asp) must be culling deer in the Wood. Certainly the deer severely restrict coppice re-growth which does not benefit woodland fauna and flora which flourish in coppiced areas. It does seem odd to see rifle shooting going on in a nature reserve; however, that is, I guess, what has to be done in regions where deer have no natural predators!