We took advantage of the sunshine yesterday to go for lunch in the woods with my parents, who were visiting for the day. Although I saw solitary Bluebells a couple of weeks ago, there's a liberal scattering now visible!
The Wood Anemones are also looking good, now at the height of their flowering:
Between them and the Bluebells, the woodland is completely green now!
In the wayleave there are also Violets in flower, to the delight of various insects:
There's a good number of Primroses too - these were near the roadside:
Also scattered amongst the Wood Anemones over in Sweep Wood are Lesser Celandine and an occasional Daffodil:
The butterflies are also out in force now, here's a Small Tortoiseshell:
a Comma:
and a Peacock:
The birds are busy too - we saw some scouting out nesting sites, and the pheasants are strutting around making a lot of noise as usual for the time of year:
The trees all come into leaf at different times - Oak is still some way off, but Hornbeam is coming out now:
Hawthorn is well on the way:
Hazel is just starting:
and in the warmer spots in Sweep Wood there are even some Sweet Chestnut leaves appearing, but in most parts of the woods they are not started yet:
Here's a view of an area we coppiced in 2010/11, with ground cover growing like crazy:
And here's the area we cut in autumn 2013 - we spotted a few butterflies making the best of the new sunlight in this area already!
Finally, Tracy had her class visit the woods this week, so their dens/shelters are now in a better state of repair:
One group even got as far as making some miniature clay pots for the den's 'kitchen'!
We're looking forward to some more sunny days so we can spend time in the woods, now the wet weather has passed...
Mike
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