Buds, birds and flowers in the woods

It's warming up a lot now (in the daytime at least), and this weekend we took advantage of the sunshine for a walk in the woods. There's loads of Spring flowers out now, like the Wood Anemone (all the following flower pics are from Sweep Wood):

the Lesser Celandine:

and of course the Primrose:

There's Daffodils too - I thought these were probably garden escapees, at the top of Sweep Wood, but there's one further down the hill too, which is odd:

What's particularly noticeable is how the strip in Sweep Wood that we coppiced this winter and last is really green as it gets so much light:

Compare this to a patch near our camp in Chestnut Coppice, which won't get much sunlight for a few weeks yet:

Not to be outdone by the flowers, some of the trees are in bloom too, like this Plum at the top of Sweep Wood:

Our own fruit trees are budding, like this pear:

and the wild Apple:

Some are a bit further behind, like this Sycamore:

While others already have leaves, like Elder:

and Hawthorn:

Meanwhile the willow has its catkins on:

With all these flowers coming out, it's not surprising to see bees around:

and also butterflies, like this Comma:

There was even a Ladybird sunning itself:

The birds are very busy right now, singing to mark out their territory. Here's a Robin, a Blackbird, a Blue Tit and a Pigeon:

Oops, I guess someone ate the Pigeon!

Last but not least, we found a huge bone. I assume someone's dog dropped it, unless we have cows in the wood...

Mike

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Springtime flowers and wildlife

At last, the wood anemones are in full bloom!
That picture's from our friend's wood on the other side of the wayleave. Here's one from ours, near the pond, where we coppiced just over a year ago - there's new flowers arrived - dandelions:
There's other promising developments too, like lots of thistles, seeded from the single thistle we had last year I assume.
And a mystery plant we haven't identified yet. We'll probably have to wait for it to flower, unless anyone knows it straight away?
The area we coppiced in 2007/8 is beginning to look green again:
although there were still plenty of dead leaves from the autumn to camouflage this Purple Thorn moth while it rested:
Butterflies were busy in the same part of our wood too, including several Peacocks:
There's other insects out as well now:
and with the insects come the birds that eat them, such as this Treecreeper:
and this Great Tit
A surprise in the wayleave was to see some Sparrows hiding in the brambles, as they're normally living nearer to people.
Back to insect-eaters, we saw this lizard near our camp as well. You'll see it's in the process of shedding its skin:

And finally, how are the trees getting on? Here's some Hazel:
Some Willow:
and some Birch:
Just inside our entrance we found a few self-seeded Birch that have been growing since we coppiced there. Very please to see this natural regeneration going on:
That's all for now. Hopefully we'll visit again this weekend as things are changing so fast in the wood right now!

Mike

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New birds and a mole

We're in the middle of moving house, but we found time to go up and sit in the wood for an hour and light the kelly kettle for a coffee. We saw several new birds today. First was a Jay - we knew they were in the wood as we'd found a feather in the past, but this was the first time we'd seen one, although only fleetingly.
Next up was a Chaffinch (I think - feel free to correct me) - a common bird, but not one I've noticed in the wood before. He was fluttering from branch to branch in the oaks, looking for insects I assume:The old favourites were around too, such as the Great Tit:and the Robin, feeding at the freshly filled bird feeder:
OK, trying to feed...
We also found a mole had been digging a tunnel under one of our rides! It links up to the one we found a week ago.
Things are changing fast at this time of year. Here's a picture of willow buds we took a week ago:
and here's one from today:
I expect leaves to be appearing soon....

Mike

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