Nature Walk – Report
NATURE WALK - COMBE HILL WOOD - 2 November 2016
Author: Joan Williams (Accompanying images can be found in the gallery)
Our Autumn walk was to Combe Hill Wood an ancient wood owned by The Ninesquare Trust but managed by Fountain Forestry. It is 62 acres of beautiful woodland open to the general public all year round. There are several well marked trails around the woods suitable for all. Fortunately the weather was fine and sunny. We stopped for a while at one of the view points overlooking the village of Compton Dundon and the levels beyond.
There are a wide variety of trees including veteran oak and maple trees. Part of the Polden Way footpath goes through the woods. The trees looked beautiful in the Autumn sunshine, especially the beech. Near the view point is a beautifully carved wooden seat which you can sit on to admire the view.
We had hoped to find some fungi and hadn't gone far before we came across some, in fact we found lots of different varieties, from little tiny ones to quite large ones, and different colours, white, browns, yellow - really could have done with an expert to help us identify them! I have found the names of some which are - Fairies Bonnets, Shaggy Parasol, Grey Polypore, Sulphur Tuft, The Miller and Earth Fan to name just a few.
I hope to do a walk on to the levels, possibly Greylake RSPB site, in the New Year to look for over-wintering birds.
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Nature Walk - Babcary Meadows 17.5.2014
On a warm sunny Saturday afternoon 12 of us had a lovely walk at Babcary Meadows. These meadows are run by the Somerset Wildlife Trust and are about 30 acres and one of the most species rich meadows in Somerset. These meadows have been naturalised for 100 years and are cut once a year in July/August and then grazed by cattle.
Our main reason for this visit was to see the Green-veined Orchid and the Marsh Orchid and we were not disappointed, as there was an abundance of both, although the Green-veined was beginning to go over. There were also lots of other early flowers including Restharrow, Lesser Stitchwort, Yellow Rattle, Silverweed, Oxeye Daisy, Vetch, Cowslips, Bugle and a lovely single clump of the beautiful white Star of Bethlehem (known in some places as Wake-at-Noon, Sleepy Dick and Eleven o-clock lady, all referring to the late opening of the petals.) A few butterflies fluttered around – Orange Tip, Small Copper and Yellow Brimstone.
This is a lovely site to visit during the summer months especially towards the end of June early July when numerous varieties of butterflies e.g. Small Blue, Marbled White, Meadow Brown, Ringlet and Six-spot Burnet can be seen as well as lots of varieties of flowers and grasses. There is parking at the playing fields and then just a short walk down the lane to the reserve.
Nature Walk Fifehead Wood 28th April 2014
After a very wet morning we decided to go ahead with our walk to Fifehead Wood. This is a large area of woodland situated approximately 7 miles west of Shaftesbury. It is a wet wood with an extensive network of drainage ditches. There are several old pollarded willows beside the stream and some areas of old hazel coppice. It is dominated by oak and ash trees.
Pat and I had checked the walk out a week previously on a lovely warm sunny afternoon and even then it was very wet in a few places. However a small group of us decided to venture out – the rain had just stopped when we got to the wood and as we entered the wood the air was filled with bird song. We slithered along the muddy tracks and were not disappointed with the abundance of wild flowers; in particular the carpets of bluebells were absolutely stunning – the main reason for our walk. After a short while the sun came out, which added to the beauty of the woodland. With the sun shining several different butterflies appeared including Yellow Brimstone, Small White, Orange Tip, Red Admiral and Spotted Wood.
Over 16 different wild flowers were seen including Hedge Mustard, Speedwell, Early Orchid, Ground Ivy, Brooklime, Herb Robert, Bittercress, Red Campion, Bugle, Vetch, Celandine, a few late Primroses and Wood Anemones. Bumblebees were spotted buzzing around as well as several ladybirds.
One disappointment was not spotting the small flower Moschatel, which we had found the previous week. It was the first time Pat and I had seen this flower, also known locally as Good Friday plant for the early April flowers, and townhall clock after the four flowers at right angles to each other, resembling the faces of a town clock. I should add here that when we photographed this small flower, which we didn’t recognise, it was one of the nature walkers, Val Floyde, who identified it for us. Thanks go to her for her knowledge on identifying a lot of the flowers seen on our walk.
Nature Walk Swell Wood 26th March 2014
At last, after the long wet winter, I was able to arrange the first nature walk of the year. We visited Swell Wood, a RSPB woodland just outside Curry Rivel.
The ancient oaks of Swell Wood are part of a continuous strip of woodland extending some 10 miles (15 km) along the ridge from Langport to the Blackdown Hills. The woodland is managed by the RSPB to benefit dormice, woodland birds, butterflies and plants. There are two nature trails and a hide which are open all year round.
It has the largest colony of breeding grey herons in south-west England - more than 100 pairs and a small number of little egrets nest there.
We walked one of the nature trails, birds were singing a woodpecker was busy tapping away and several early flowers were seen including primroses, dog violets, celandines, wood spurge, dogs mercury, wood anemones and woodruff.A couple of different fungus were spotted –many zoned polypore – a type of bracket fungus and hairy stereum.
Along the trail we stopped at a viewpoint which looks down over the Sedgemoor reserve, which until recently was badly flooded but now there is just a small amount of water there. In the distance could be seen Burrow Mump.
The walk finished with a visit to the hide from where we saw many herons flying to and from their nests, some with twigs in their beaks obviously still in the process of building. We also saw a couple of egrets in the trees.
In the car park there were lots of birds singing and flying around including blue tits, great tits and chaffinches.
A very pleasant walk.
Nature Walk Shearwater Lake 14.11.2013
For our autumn walk we went to Shearwater Lake, which is part of the Longleat Estate. As we arrived at the car park down came the rain, but within a few minutes the sun came out, the sky cleared and it remained dry and sunny. A lot of the trees had turned to golden colours and the larches a beautiful bronze. The lake shimmered in the sunlight, a few gulls flew over and on the lake were several ducks including mallard, and a grebe. As we wandered along the track we spotted a grey wagtail, squirrels and numerous other birds flying around including woodpecker and blackbird. One member of the group saw a heron. We were surprised to see a small tortoiseshell butterfly flying around in the sunshine.
In the woodland we came across quite a lot of different types of fungus, which Pat and I have now been able to identify from photos taken. These included the common white inocybe (a pretty white toadstool with a crinkly edge), sulphur tuft, waxcap, slimy milk cap, brickcaps, and many-zoned polypore.
The highlight of the walk was seeing flashes of blue – a pair of kingfishers skirting over the water, turning and then flying back past us.
A very enjoyable walk.
Cooks Farm North Brewham - 13.8.2013
Our summer walk was a visit to Patricia Stainton’s wildlife garden and meadows on a lovely sunny afternoon. Patricia has lived there for 22 years but the records go back to the 1600’s when the farm was part of the Stourhead Estate and years ago it was famous for its cider. The farm is now primarily a nature reserve with meadows, orchards, woodland and several ponds as well as a very productive vegetable garden and more formal gardens near the farmhouse. It appears to be an ongoing project and we were shown where more wildflowers are propagated.
Wandering through the meadows we saw numerous varieties of butterflies including meadow brown, ringlet, gatekeeper, pearl-bordered fritillary, painted lady, common blue, small copper, small skipper and lots of small and large whites - the whites in particular this year seem to be everywhere! There were quite a lot of late summer flowers – betony, devil’s-bit scabious, ox-eye daisy, bird’s-foot trefoil, creeping cinquefoil, greater knapweed, marsh thistle, tufted vetch, sweet cicely, dyer’s greenweed to name just a few (I should add here that we did have some help identifying the flowers from Selina who helps Patricia with the garden generally and with the propagating, and showed us around as Patricia wasn’t able to be there). Several dragonflies and damselflies were seen around the various ponds. We also saw lots of dock leaves which appeared to have been eaten so naturally we had to investigate and on looking on the underside of the leaves we found very tiny yellow eggs, small black grubs and also what we think was the adult – a small bright green beetle, which someone thought was an oil beetle.
The walk finished back at the house where the more formal gardens were a blaze of colour and more butterflies were busy including the peacock and small tortoiseshell. A very pleasant afternoon enjoyed by all.
Garston Woods - 22 May 2013
After postponing this walk for a week because of the rain, we finally visited Garston Woods on a reasonably warm Wednesday afternoon and were not disappointed as there were still carpets of bluebells intermingled with swathes of ramsoms (wild garlic) so as we walked through the woods, one minute we had the sweet smell of the bluebells and then the pungent smell of the garlic! What is quite interesting is that on 9th May 2011 we did a walk in Park Wood, Wells for bluebells but they had all gone over; this was a couple of weeks after checking the walk out when there were lots of bluebells (17th April), the following year a walk to Duncliffe Woods on 16th April 2012 again masses of bluebells, so I think this proves that Spring this year was a month later than usual!
As we wandered we were surprised by the wide variety of wild flowers including early purple orchid, common spotted orchid, Solomon Seal, yellow archangel, bugle, blue bugle, stitchwort, toothwort, pignut, woodruff, lots of wood spurge and many more.
One of the highlights of the afternoon was seeing a slow-worm making its way slowly across the path. Unfortunately because of the cloudy conditions we did not see any butterflies. There was quite a lot of bird song and in the distance we heard a cuckoo calling.
Garston Wood is ancient woodland of 84 acres. Much of the hazel and maple coppice has been repeatedly cut and is in fact over 300 years older than the oaks that tower over it. As in the past, the hazel is still cut to provide material for hurdle fences and thatching spars. The RSPB has managed this reserve for wildlife and visitors since 1986. Established paths and rides crisscross the wood and it is well worth a visit at any time of the year, but especially in the spring as the trees are a lovely fresh green, bird song is at its best and there are lots of wild flowers to see.
Ham Wall - 15th April 2013.
Our first nature walk for some time took place on a reasonably warm spring-like afternoon. Our walk was led by John Crispin from the RSPB who took us out amongst the reed beds, not normally open to the public. The first thing we were all aware of was the amazing amount of different bird song especially the boom of a Bittern in the distance; unfortunately we didn’t see it. Among other birds heard were the Willow Warbler, Cetti’s Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Garden Warbler, Little Grebe, Water Rail and Chiffchaff; these birds are very elusive and difficult to spot. In the distance we saw a buzzard perched on a pole and it sat there until we were just about 40 metres away from it when it flew off – a lovely sight to see close up. Besides the usual birds most of us see in our gardens, e.g. Robin, Blackbird, Wren, Great and Blue Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Chaffinch and Goldfinch we also saw on the lakes a variety of water birds including Cormorant, Shoveler Duck, Tufted Duck, several Swans, Coots and Teal. While walking along we saw several species fly over including Lapwing, Marsh Harrier, Little Egret, Great White Egret, Lesser Black-back Gull and two early migrant birds – House Martin and the Swift. John was very knowledgeable on birds and explained some interesting facts on the Swift such as the fact that they virtually live on the wing, even sleeping and feeding and have no legs just claws which they use for clinging on to feed their young and nest building.
Walking back along the track one keen member of our group spotted a common toad hopping along. John pointed out several Otter runs, in some cases the spraint was still visible. There were also lots of freshwater mussel shells around, some obviously eaten by the Otters as we could see the teeth marks on the edges of the shells.
Ham Wall reserve is part of the Avalon Marshes and is 650 acres, and regular surveys of the species are done. The reserve is well managed now that the wetland restoration is complete and the reed-beds are cut regularly to keep the areas open and clear which benefits both the wildlife and visitors. The cut vegetation is turned into compost and John showed us where this takes place. The compost has been well tested and is found to have many properties of an excellent compost, with good water retention qualities, pH value of 6.91, and is completely organic and Peat Free.
Westhay - 30th March 2012
As the weather during the week had been so lovely I decided to do a walk to Westhay Moor; because of the short notice only a few walkers were able to come. Westhay Moor is part of the mystical Avalon Marshes within the Somerset Levels and Moors – a mosaic of wetlands, lakes and reed beds, well worth a visit any time of the year, with plenty of information boards around and fairly flat ground. There is plenty of car parking with some spaces for people with disabilities near the main hide.
It was a beautiful warm sunny afternoon; lots of bird song could be heard, including the Cetti’s warbler, water rail, blackbirds and numerous other birds; long-tailed tits were busy flying around the tops of the trees. In total there are six hides on the reserve and during the afternoon we visited three of them. From the first hide we saw several coots and two beautiful swans – obviously a pair; as we sat watching they started mating – something not often seen! In the third hide we saw a coot’s nest just a few feet away from the hide in the reeds, very well hidden and a little further away a greylag goose’s nest. We kept hearing the flapping of wings and suddenly saw swans flying overhead.
After leaving the third hide on the other side of the track we spotted a great-crested grebe, a moorhen, a pair of Canada Geese and a flock of lapwing flew over. Walking further along the track we spotted high in the top of a birch tree another bird which we believe was a redpoll. What did surprise us was seeing lots of clumps of beautiful daffodils amongst the reeds – as good as any seen in gardens! A few early butterflies were spotted – the yellow brimstone, peacock, dark veined white and a speckled wood. Several spring flowers were also seen including celandines and the blue bugle.
Duncliffe Wood - 16.4.2012
Our bluebell walk was at Duncliffe Wood, an ancient woodland site and one of the largest areas of woodland in North Dorset. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and we set off hoping to see lots of bluebells and we certainly weren’t disappointed as we followed the woodland tracks. We were surprised also at the swathes of wood anemones such a pretty white woodland flower, contrasting with the blue of the bluebells and yellow of celandines. There were so many wild flowers to spot including the beautiful purple dog violet, primroses, wood spurge, bugle, stitchwort, dog mercury, herb bennet, a few early purple orchids and more. One of the favourites has to be the wood sorrel, a dainty white flower with clover-like leaves which was growing in small clumps in the hollows of tree stumps.
A few early butterflies were seen – orange-tipped, peacock and the wood white, also the red-tailed bumblebee feeding on pussy willow. As we wandered around lots of bird song could be heard some were recognisable such as the chaffinch, blue tit, great tit, blackbird and of course the woodpecker tapping away, but there were lots of sounds we didn’t know.
As we left the woodland after over two hours of ambling a buzzard soared overhead in the clear sky, a fitting end to a lovely afternoon walk. Duncliffe Wood is a beautiful place to visit, and certainly so lovely at this time of the year with the fresh green of the trees bursting into leaf, ferns just unfurling, spring flowers in abundance and some lovely views from higher up in the woods.