Tinderbox

I don't know how many days we have had clear blue skies, sunshine and a bracing chilly breeze.It is very unusual to have such a long stretch of fair weather on this wet Atlantic coast. It is my idea of ideal because it's not too hot to work hard in and you can find warm spots out of the wind to eat lunch. 
However, the dead grasses and bracken have dessicated to tinder dryness and are just waiting for any excuse to ignite. This weekend marks the beginning of the Easter Holidays, so there will be a big influx of people using the countryside, and increasing the risk. Glass bottles and reflective drinks cans are particularly good at focussing the suns rays and this strong wind would whirl any smouldering debris into instant crackling inferno.
So, the task for today was taking down the winter Stormy Weather signs and putting up the Fire Risk notices at all the gates and entrances to the forest.

One of our star volunteers turned up to start monitoring the annual bird survey. There's been a lot of tree felling since last year and with the wind not many birds were singing. Even robins and wrens sounded muffled. The chiff chaffs are back but there's no sign of any willow warblers yet. However, J had a great day watching a pair of ravens croaking overhead and magnificently sharing the space with an osprey for a few minutes. And then a hare galloped across the service road and up into the playground, whilst a couple of red squirrels gambolled around the hide. As he said - not a bad day.