The Official Work Pictures Thread

Stag horn oak burns dam hot. Hope you don't melt the furniture in the room.

Carl, did you strip the Ivy on that mutha aswell?

No Rich it had to stay, we took the dead down to the Ivy but left two big dead laterals at about 4ft long.

Burning so hot the wood burner is tinging.
 
Stig, do you try to rattle them out somehow, before felling?

I've only cut one tree which I know to have had bat(s). It flew off after a bit, if I recall correctly.

I've never been able to make them fly out, before the tree hits the ground.

I had some nesting in the gable of my house and they didn't even come out when i nailed a nesting box for Starlings up right outside the siding where they lived.

Depending on the job, we may set up nesting boxes in neighbouring trees before starting out.
That gives them a place to go, and more important, keeps biologists and the public happy.

If we ever get the job of felling the 270 year old,mile long linden alley by the castle, I will have to come up with a plan that includes getting a bat specialist in, setting up nesting boxes and informing all and sundry that all care has been taken to keep the bats alive.

They are pretty rare here, so I gladly do all that.
I have some miniature species living in my 100 odd year old partially hollow apple tree, I love to watch them in our light summer nights.
 
Pretty nasty looking top there Carl. The bats I've run into seem to only fly in the daytime as a last resort. Then if they land on the ground they seem absolutely helpless.
 
Cool, Stig.

Bats are natural predators that reduce the need for poison (insecticides/ rodenticides), like raptors. My friend has a little side line consulting some of the regional orchardists to foster natural controls for rodents.

Bats keep our wetland from ever being a problem with mosquitoes. Swallows, too, by day.
 
If they need more starlings we have plenty to send him... people up here hate them but when some harm is done, the same people are up in arms. Always looking for a "humane" way....perhaps Kentucky Fried Starlings would leave a better taste?
 
Not a video from around here, but it's much the same.

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Gotcha. We must not live in starling friendly country.

We have English house sparrows, but I dont think they hurt anything. I scatter some wheat in the yard for them. How a little bird can survive on a branch at forty below with a wind blowing is beyond me. Them little buggers are tuff.
 
Yup, Jim, it is unbelievable. I just put out some bird seed (which I often do in the winter) and the chickadees and other small birds are workin it right now, in a blizzard...
 
The starling was introduced in the US by a nutcase who had Shakespeare as a hobby.
He wanted to introduce all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare's plays.

Starlings are beneficial here as they eat the larvae of phyllopertha horticola.
Around golf courses they set up hundreds of nesting boxes, because the beetle larvae destroy the grass.

They can be a bother when you grow cherries, but mine have left before the cherries ripen.
I had a pair that nested in an old rotten apple tree, year after year.
When I felled the tree one winter, they showed up in spring and kind of sat around looking confused.
So I made them a box and hung it right behind the place where the tree used to be.
I'd only just taken the laddder down, when they moved in.
Made me feel good.

Anyway, I like birds, so I have a LOT of nesting boxes on my property.
Got both owls, falcons and lots of blue and great tits nesting here, plus countless warblers.
 
Anyway, I like birds, so I have a LOT of nesting boxes on my property.
Got both owls, falcons and lots of nesting here, plus countless warblers.

Thats awesome, how big is your property to host all those species?

Kinda cool that a pair, of even more, of great tits would show up;)
 
'Bout 4½ acres.
But it borders the forest and I have planted some 1100 bushes and trees around the edges, mostly flowering and berry/nut bearing species.
So there is plenty for them to eat.
When I kept bees, the early summer honey was fantastic.
 
Whydja get rid of bees?

Can you name a few of those bush species?

Thanks
 
No time for them. It was fun, but you know how things get to be a hassle when you don't have the time to do them right.
With bees, you need to look after them correctly, or you'll have them swarming all over or dying from Varroa mites.

When I retire, I'll start up beekeeping again, like Sherlock Holmes.

Amelanchia spicata, prunus padus, prunus cerotina, wild apples, wild crabapples, wild pear, malus sargentii, about 7 different wild roses, hazelnuts, walnuts, prunus ceracifera, prunus incitiata, ribes sanquineum, crataegus monosperma, prunus spinosa, a bunch of forsythia just for looks.

That is just what I can remember offhand.
 
Not any more.
Ther was a time where they were pretty easy, but the introduction of the varroa mite and other pests put a stop to that.
At least if you don't want to use pesticides in your hives.

One of my old apprentices used to have a few hives at my place. He still keeps bees, so I get my honey from him.
Also I buy some when I go to Schweiz. I love the conifer forest honey they make in central Europe ( Schweiz, Österreich and Schwarzwald in Germany) where the bees suck excrements off aphids feeding on the trees.
Black as treacle and with a real strong phenolic taste.
It is the honey equivalent of islay whisky:)
 
I feed the English house sparrows here so the Coopers hawk has some thing to eat also. :D

Keeps the hunting pressure off the finch's, nuthatches, chickadees, and cardinals.
 
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