As forecasted today's planting involved bad weather and non-stop rain.
Due to some late arrivals it was 10:30 by the time we left the car park and my boots (which hadn't fully dried since Thursday) were already wet by the time we set off.
Luckily the weather was actually quite mild so despite the rain, we didn't get too cold.
Because of the conditions a shortish day of planting was planned so I hadn't expected to plant many trees.
However, the planting site and water logged conditions turned out to be highly amenable to screefing so I actually planted at least 60 trees which is a fairly standard day.
As I get more experienced at planting and aware of the detrimental effect of planting in boggy areas I have become more selective on where I plant.
The planting site was quite well defined by "lighter coloured grasses", however, within that zone there were still a lot of mossy areas that were easy to screef but were potentially concealing peat bog.
Understanding where can be planted is an ongoing process but it will be interesting to re-visit this planting site in years to come to see how well the trees are doing in this marginal ground.
The photos attached to this post show just how water logged the site was.

Wildlife highlights

There were several knowledgeable volunteers on this trip and some cool observations were made:

1. "Pixie cups" lichen
2. Slime mould - growing in the soil at the planting site
3. Hen Harrier juvenile or female.