A cold, breezy day, but thankfully fine, saw 5 of us commence our walk through the beautiful Middleton Woods, seen today in all their glory as they put on their annual spring display of bluebells. In certain areas greater stitchwort was starting to flower in amongst the bluebells and given another week or two to develop fully, will complement the blues perfectly. 26 species in total were seen in flower with wood sorrel being in evidence along with wood anenomes, opposite leaved golden saxifrage, pendulous sedge, wild arum and dog's mercury. Fringe cups were also noted and there was evidence of new fronds on 4 ferns - broad buckler, male and female and bracken.
Comment was made by us all on the wonderful variation in green apparent at this time of year, some of the beech appearing to have an almost translucent quality. We also remarked on the amazing shapes that the trunks of various trees produced adding a further dimension to the woodland canopy.
Bird song was heard throughout, a robin greeting us on arrival before we had even passed through the entrance gate. Chiffchaffs and nuthatch in particular were heard. A wren was spotted by Sue Z as well as a jay which posed beautifully for us at the end of a branch enabling us to get an excellent view. I think though the sighting of the day were treecreepers. The first one was seen by Alice and as we all watched its progress up the trunk in search of food, it stopped near the top and proceeded to tap repeatedly at the bark. None of us had witnessed this behaviour before and were fascinated wondering what it was it had found. Our nexr sighting was high up in a beech but as it flew off Sue Z saw it enter a crevice low down in a tree not far from where we were standing. Our patient wait to see it emerge was however in vain and we left unrewarded.
An excellent visit to this amazing woodland which looked so beautiful with its lovely haze of blue threaded through the emerging greens. Magical.
Sally Tetlow