Springtime in the woods - flowers and butterflies

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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A walk in the woods

With rain threatened for this afternoon, we popped into the woods this morning to see what new things are growing there since we last had a proper look round. Everything's very green now, and the paths are beautiful to walk along:
We came in through Sweep Wood, where we were coppicing last winter. The ground at the top is transformed, with the sunlight coming in and much of the ivy gone. The result is large patches of nettles and Dog's Mercury coming up:
along with some more exotic-looking plants, like Lords and Ladies:
The mystery fruit tree has some fruit on it. This time we're determined to keep an eye on it and find out what it is, and also try the fruit! Any suggestions so far?
The trees we coppiced are sprouting their shoots now:
and even the chestnut stakes we made to hold log piles in place are having a go:
As you go deeper into the wood, there are still lots of bluebells (they're winding down in the sunnier spots now, having started earlier there):
There are a few white bluebells around as well:
and also some that are white with a hint of blue:
Ferns are unfurling. These are different to Bracken, which grows better in the sunnier spots.
We also spotted a primrose, which must have been there before but we'd never noticed it...
Carrying on from there, the path between Sweep Wood and Grist Wood is getting darker now the leaves are coming out:
Making our way to Chestnut Coppice, we passed the pond. After drying out and then being re-dug last summer, it's stayed full and is now back to the "green stage":
I expect it to develop more variety over the summer, as in previous years. Near the pond is some chestnut that has grown remarkably straight since coppicing:
the reason why is apparent when you look up - it has a restricted view of the sky, directly overhead:
This is of course why coppices are meant to be densely planted, so that each tree helps its neighbours to grow up straight by blocking light from the sides.

Entering into our "wildlife corridor", there's a profusion of plants appearing at the sides of the path:
There's a huge variety here, compared to the shaded woodland a bit further from the path.
Near the junction between our main ride and the footpath, there's some Holly which looks like it might have berries this winter:
Arriving in our own wood, we went to check on the fruit trees, which are doing pretty well:

It's amazing how fast they're growing once the blossoms have finished:
We're picking off the blossoms once they've finished (after the insects have made use of them). This is so that this year the trees don't put any resources into growing fruit, and increase in size and strength instead.

Much of the area near our camp is carpeted with green now:
and the coppice is growing taller and denser:
But amongst it, there are still new plants arriving, like this Bluebell and Honeysuckle:
We had a quick look in the wayleave for butterflies, but it wasn't really sunny enough. We did see the Broom is coming into flower though:
Last of all, what's this insect? I thought it was probably a wasp of some sort, do tell me if you know!
Mike

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Sean and Sarah's wood

Yesterday we went to visit our friends Sean and Sarah in their wood in West Sussex, about 60 miles from us. It's a very different wood from ours, mostly hazel coppice with dense oak standards and self-seeded ash.They've done some coppicing but haven't started thinning the standards yet, though they've been talking to the Forestry Commission to get advice on this.

Their woodland has much more clay than ours, and is a lot wetter. As a result there are many more flowers, including orchids:
violets:and primroses:
They've been making charcoal with some of the hazel they've coppiced, selling it in a local shop. Sean explained how the kilns worked
and showed us the results of the latest burn in the small kiln:There were loads of birds in their wood, and quite a bit of nest-making activity right near where we were having lunch:
They have a bird feeder up too:
which gave some great opportunities for photos of birds flying. If only the sun had been out I'd have been able to use a faster shutter and avoided the wings blurring...

Sean suggested our mystery tree might be a crab apple. This isn't something I'd considered as I'd assumed I'd have noticed the fruit. But perhaps not, so we'll keep an eye one it.

Mike

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