Hi all,
Firstly apologies for not blogging recently. Things have quitened down a little now the breeding season for woodland birds draws to a close. We had a relatively good year for piedflycatcher, redstart and nuthatch nesting throughout the wood as well as for many ohter woodland birds. Our nest box scheme we have and monitor showed an increase in pied flycatcher uptake from last year with many successful nesting pairs; this goes to show how nestboxes can help make a difference to declining woodland bird species. Many of the birds will by now have (if not soon) finished feeding young away from the nest and busy gettting themselves ready for migration through moulting and growing new feathers as well as feeding on the plethora of insects that are around just now.
The woodland floor has seen the bluebells come and go, now is it's the time for the cow wheat; a parasitic yellow flowering plant that forms a carpet when in abundance and in the case for Wood of Cree a parisite of bilberry. There is also certain fungi to be seen this time of year from various hedgehog fungi, amythest decievers, bolettes to stinkhorns. There is still plenty to see and hear on our Scrubland Trail and also down at the Otter Platform; coincidently I saw an otter the other day walking along the road and ran off as soon as it saw me!
I also recommend a walk on our Barclye part of the reserve where ringlet. common blue and large heath butterflies are busy dashing through the tall grasses. Damselflies and dragonflies are also patrolling stretches of ditches and ponds that are spread over the site. You may also see adult and young barn owls hunting at dusk through the woodland pasture that have again successfully nested this year on Barclye. I'm hoping for a better second half of summer to help our recently planted 171,000 trees grow and put on plenty of growth before we probably another hard winter. Although it's a bit too soon to start thinking about that in July.
Take care for now,
Will