A VISIT to a nature reserve can sometimes present us with a puzzle which can lead to doing a little detective work to solve the mini mystery.

A recent example of one of these mysteries was a strangely smooth path in the wet woodland at Hurcott.

There were lots of half-defined footprints in the surface of the track, but none of these were distinct enough for an identification.

Looking at where the path went into a bramble bank I could see a few greyish hairs trapped on the odd thorn.

From this and the size of the tunnel leading into the bush, I now had a good clue that I was looking at the work of rabbit - an extremely well-used rabbit path leading into a wet wood.

The wet woods at Hurcott, especially in this area, are criss-crossed with deep-water channels and the path seemed to lead to a region of the woods at the boundary of the pool, which I knew was totally flooded.

Intrigued I followed the path and sure enough it came to one of these deep-flowing channels, but a tree had fallen across the channel at this point. The path at this stage also showed that it was not just rabbits which used this tree as a bridge. There were also tiny hoof prints of muntjac deer and even a badger paw print.

The other side of the log looked to me like a real jungle full of collapsed and coppiced alder and willow trees, struggling to grow out of completely flooded ground - just what wet woodland should look like.

By now I had arrived at the point of really wanting to find out what on earth the rabbits were going to want from crossing into this sort of habitat.

It was as far removed from the nearly mown rabbit lawn you see on the reserves of Burlish Top and Habberley Valley, as you could possibly find.

Crossing the channel turned out to be a rather wet experience and the path only continued for about a metre before fading out.

Everywhere from there was wet. I walked in a little to find it was not just wet, but full of mud which I ended up sinking into well over my knees in places.

I was bemused. Perhaps rabbits just went to the edge to drink, but then I saw my first rabbit. Unbelievably, it splashed through the water, then moved across to the log.

I had obviously frightened this one, but at least I knew the rabbits were actually in the wet wood.

Over the year I have learned that it is sometimes best to stop and sit for a while and then the wildlife will lose a little of its fear and start carrying on as normal.

You can then find out much more about their habits. So I sat on a log and watched, and sure enough, I saw the rabbits.

They were climbing out onto the twisted trees to small islands, which had formed around many of the coppice stools, and there they were feasting on the lush grass that was growing there.

Mystery solved, I had to up my estimate of rabbit ingenuity.