Walking Through a Hunting Forest

On Thursday 27 January we went on a 10 kilometre hike through the forest surrounding the Grandmontian Abbey near Le Grand Pressigny. We encountered forestry workers cutting firewood and lots of deer. On half a dozen occasions Roe Deer slipped into the forest out of our sight and most excitingly of all, a herd of Red Deer crossed the track a hundred metres ahead of us near the end of our walk. We often see Roe Deer, but it is rare to spot Red Deer, despite how big they are. I didn't manage any photos of the wildlife, as they appear and disappear before I've stopped hopping up and down and squeaking 'Look! Look!'. Of course, what I should have been hopping up and down and squeaking was 'Regardez ! Regardez !', since Simon was the only other English speaker present, but you know how it is in moments of excitement...

 

This European Holly Ilex aquifolium (Fr. Houx commun) was the only one we saw with berries.

 

This place on the edge of the forest produces wood chips for communal heating systems. For example, the primary school and swimming pool in Preuilly is linked to a heating system that is fuelled by wood chips.

Walking through a part of the forest where the trees have been thinned to allow individual trees room to grow and provide high quality timber in a hundred years or so.

There was maize scattered in a number of places in the forest. This means the hunters are feeding the wild boar, which is not best practice. It keeps the boar numbers at too high a level.

The trees on this edge of the forest were covered in ice.

The prints of a shoed horse and a hound, showing the hunt has passed this way recently.

A molehill, with an interesting radiating arrangement of what seem to be soil plugs, as if the mole produces a series of plugs which it then pushes out, which I think is exactly what they do, but normally the plugs break up once pushed out and on the surface.

This forest trail was built with public money, although the forest is private land. It acts as a firebreak.

Lichen, and some moss, on a stump.

I am assured that these tunnels in the undergrowth are made by badgers. I was invited to sniff the air and get the whiff of badger, but to be honest, I couldn't detect a scent.

The ground here has been ploughed by wild boar (Fr. sanglier).