🌳Exploration of a new forest🌲

Yesterday I decided to go to a forest that was new to me. So to speak, reconnaissance for future hikes and photo hunts. Yes, I’ve already been to these places when I, as a specialist and connoisseur of wild birds, was invited on an excursion. But we didn’t go far then. Yesterday I walked around one side of this forest, and next week I will walk around the other, completing it.
I reduced the size of the photos by 50% because they weighed a lot.

This forest is located almost on the outskirts of the city. Entering it, you can see a typical autumn picture: fallen leaves, almost bare trees.

Almost immediately I encountered a Great Spotted Woodpecker. He barely grabbed onto the branches with berries and ate them.

I saw some remains of former buildings. I wonder how old they are...

There are paths in the forest, and it’s great that they are displayed on the maps (Locus Maps).

I saw some tiny wooden bridge. Apparently there once was a river there; it is actually shown on the map. But this river no longer exists, and apparently for a long time.

I left the forest, or rather went down from above to the river.

There were a lot of squirrels in this forest. Real, wild, not tame ones who live in parks and climb on hands in search of treats. These squirrels were looking for food. It was difficult to photograph them.

The forest turned out to be sparsely populated. In 5 hours I met only one fisherman by the river, a man on a bicycle, and two women with hiking poles.

There was a small group of bullfinches on the berry bushes.

I walked to a place where there was an old abandoned ski jump. As I found out, it has been abandoned since about the 80s. It is no longer possible to climb onto it, everything is rotten, it is dangerous. That's why it was surrounded by a fence.

Meanwhile, I was gradually approaching the city. After looking at the map, I realized that there was no point in going the other way, because icould go further and get out to the station and bus stop.
I approached the cliff; it offered a good view of the city.

Moreover, the path to the station lay through a botanical park, which, by the way, I also wanted to visit one day.

And now I’m already in the park. There are expected to be a lot of people here, and a lot of ducks.

This lake is the main attraction of this park. The ducks here are not afraid of people.

They were literally a meter away from me, minding their own business.

A floating house was made especially for them.