Print pageSeasonal highlights
Each season brings a different experience at our nature reserves. In spring, the air is filled with birdsong as they compete to establish territories and attract a mate. In summer, look out for young birds making their first venture into the outside world. Autumn brings large movements of migrating birds - some heading south to a warmer climate, others seeking refuge in the UK from the cold Arctic winter. In winter, look out for large flocks of birds gathering to feed, or flying at dusk to form large roosts to keep warm.
Spring
Nightingales, chiffchaffs, blackcaps, garden warblers, woodpeckers, treecreepers, tits (including marsh tits) and other common woodland species. Visitors in late March and early April should look out for the light orange underwing moth flying through the rides.
Summer
Birds quieten down following the breeding season and become very elusive. In the rides, butterflies such as ringlets, meadow browns and gatekeepers abound from late June. Look up around the canopy of oak trees for purple hairstreak butterflies on warm June/July evenings. Twelve species of dragonfly and damselfly occur in the woods and can be seen in the rides and around the ponds - the largest is the southern hawker.
Autumn
Autumn sees spectacular leaf change as greens turn to golds, browns, reds and yellows. In favourable years, there may be a spectacular display of fungi. The first woodcocks arrive in mid-October to spend the winter months in the wood and may be accidentally flushed from beside the visitor trail by early morning visitors.
Winter
The wood is very quiet in winter. Marsh tits are present all year round and will join the roving flocks of the more common tit species, along with goldcrests and treecreepers. Small flocks of redwings and fieldfares often use the wood, along with siskins and lesser redpolls - all winter visitors. This is the best time of year to see roe deer, often seen bounding away from you.