A Night in Yaffle
The view from Yaffle cabin’s balcony, looking across to the Blackboy’s Ridge and the High Weald
Tuesday 21st May 2024
We arrive at Wilderness Wood pretty well at the time expected - 5pm - having left our home in Battle 6 hours earlier. We sneak in via the West Gate electing to walk the last 400 yards instead of cycling. The previous 31 miles in the saddle have not been kind to us, especially in the nether regions.
Dan and Emily have kindly allowed us the use of Yaffle, one of two wooden framed cabins designed and built by Dan. Sitting on the cabin’s balcony we enjoy the view out across the Christmas Tree Field and towards the Blackboys Ridge.
Not everyone in the wood is appreciative of our moving into Yaffle. A Great tit in the process of trying to feed insects to its young brood of chicks, flits nervously from branch to branch on a nearby tree, not prepared to risk getting too close to the pair of would-be predators biding their time on the balcony. To reassure it we move our seats further away and that seems to do the trick.
She/he/they have taken up residence inside the cabin’s roof and are now probably regretting the decision. It is hard to tell if there are two parents foraging, but we only ever see one bird at any one time. Managing a single parent family is as difficult for birds as it is for humans.
From our elevated vantage point I catch sight of Jake, the Wilderness Wood security guard on his evening patrol. He has a rifle slung over one shoulder. Heavy stuff is Wilderness Wood Security!
“Any unwanted prowlers?” I shout to him.
“Just the odd rabbit and the usual squirrels” He answers.
In case you hadn't guessed Jake has the task of controlling the wood’s lagomorph and sciaridae populations. Some readers might be aghast at this revelation.
“Killing nice little bunnies and squirrels!”
But ‘bunnies and squirrels’, along with ‘Bambis’, are a serious pest in the wood causing damage to trees of all ‘stripes’.
He holds up his latest victim, a squirrel, and asks “Fancy this for your dinner?”
“No thanks we just had chicken at the Blackboys Inn.” I answer.
Chicken, rabbit, squirrel, fallow deer, they are all part of someone’s food chain, whether it's a human’s or some other carnivore’s.
He tells me he is going to leave it out at Bat Park in the hope of attracting a fox to hunt there. I approve of this strategy especially as Bat Park is my key focus in the wood. The rabbits are heavy grazers of the turf there, but also the heather, wild flowers and young hedge shrubs which I'm trying to encourage to grow. Mr Fox may do us a service controlling the rabbit population at least.
After drinks with Emily on the balcony we go for an evening walk around the wood, something I rarely get to do. The long-suffering Frances has heard my war stories about conservation work at Wilderness Wood many times, but has not seen the fruits of my labours here for some while.
A Blackbird flutes his notes from a tree top at Orchid Glade as we inspect the 7 or 8 Common Spotted Orchids in full flower there. Tall pink spikes reach some 12 inches or more into the rapidly cooling woodland air - an impressive sight for any visitor to the wood. The same can't be said for the Common Twayblade Orchids whose inconspicuous green inflorescence is more suited to the keen botanist than the general public.
Twayblade Orchids - not everybody’s cup of tea, but botanists (and slugs) drool over them.
Descending the Cross Ride a Chaffinch declares its territory and another one responds from across the valley. This tree-top slanging-match (or chirping diplomacy perhaps) ensures each family has a territory providing enough food resources to bring up the next generation.
“Ooh, lots of leaky dams!” Frances exclaims as we near the Wilderness Stream - currently barely running as summer approaches.
I show her the very professional looking one her brother and I built 2 year ago and she looks suitably impressed.
The dam she and I rebuilt 3 years ago is still doing its job, now with a mass of wet stream-borne sediment accumulated behind it. Even when the small pond here dries up by August the sediment will still be home to wet loving plants and invertebrates.
The leaky dam built by myself and brother-in-law Greg 3 years ago
There is little to be seen of the anticipated large pond/wetland project planned for the area next to the new bridge, but she is gushing about the ponds dug out in the lower wood 2 years earlier. The whole area is cloaked in luxuriant dark green waterside plants, with countless pink foxglove flower spikes covering the far bank. Water brings the desert to life and likewise a dry woodland environment.
We briefly check out the wet woodland and Streamside Pond before finishing our tour at Bat Park. Bat Park used to be the butt of jokes whenever I showed photos of it to her. However, its former near-permanent browness has been transformed to green, with the promise of added summer yellows from birdsfoot trefoil, ragwort and Tormentil, being supplemented by the pink flowers of Century and the purples of Self heal.
She is also able to see how the new deer fence has breathed new life into the hedge saplings previously browsed close to death by fallow deer.
Our one hour tour of Wilderness Wood completed, we settle back onto Yaffle’s balcony, glass of wine in hand, and watch pipistrelle bats emerge out into the dusk sky, providing us with an aerial display to match the best of Eastbourne Air Show.
David Horne
If you fancy a few nights in Yaffle or Dumbledore cabins check out the details on the Wilderness Wood website www.wildernesswood.org.