There are now more deer in the UK than there have been for 1,000 years.  Probably between 650,000 and 2,000,000, of which about half live in Scotland. Dormice like sleeping and can sleep for up to 7 months a year. UK woodlands are home to half the world’s flowering bluebells. There are 15,000 species of fungi, on land, in water and even on plants and animals. Swallows migrate annually to Southern Africa travelling 6,000 miles twice a year. Grey squirrels have become a problem because they were released deliberately, in 1876. Half the deer species in the UK were escapees - three of our six deer species, being Muntjac, Sika, Chinese Water Deer. Conifers have been around so long that they were dinosaur food - about 300 million years. The oldest British trees predate Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. One of the oldest is the Fortingall Yew in Scotland, estimated to be as much as 3,000 years old. Not all conifers have cones - the Juniper, for example, has fruits that are tiny, round, fleshy and berry-like.  

Last weekend, we visited our woodland for the first time since officially completing.  Although it’s May and the forecast had promised sunshine, the day dawned cold and gloomy. Undaunted, we packed up the car for the 45-minute journey and rolled into Lamberhurst around half nine in the morning. Our biggest fear was that we would have missed the bluebell peak entirely during all the wrangling over conveyancing across two counties (the boundaries between Kent and Sussex neatly bisect our wood). But we needn’t have worried – as we drove down the shared track to our new purchase, the entire woodland was a sea of blue punctuated with hard fern and last year’s brambles. It was almost painful crushing them under our boots as we made our way from the car to the central clearing, but it couldn’t be helped. Although some animals had left faint traces here and there, it only took one or two passes back and forth for us to create a blatantly visible path – I felt like a big, brutish human, moulding the land irrevocably. I hoped that our footprint would not ever be heavier than that. The seasonal creeks were full and rushing after so much recent rain. For us, having running water was one of the non-negotiable criteria for our purchase. Owning a woodland has long been our dream, but it was only recently made possible due to the inheritance of my late father, the man who taught me how to love camping and being outdoors. But these ancient English woodlands were nothing like what I grew up with in America; there is something magical about the stillness in that sea of unearthly blue. I am certain that my father would approve – though as a keen fly fisherman, he would be disappointed to learn that the creeks dry up in the heat of summer and no trout could survive there. The first thing we did was to dig out a large firepit and ring it with stones we’d brought from home. Everything was quite damp, but our son, aged nine and an enthusiastic Cub Scout, helped us to coax a blaze from his ferro rod, and sawed his first logs. The warmth was welcome, and we used our Storm Kettle (a kind gift from Ruth at woodlands.co.uk) to make hot chocolate. A pair of fallow deer – clearly surprised to see us – bolted past, and the canopy was full of birdsong. I didn’t want to leave when other chores and obligations eventually called us away – the sun had come out, making the bluebells glow, and there was no place I’d rather be. Our next step is to build a compostable toilet so that we can camp overnight. We’ll let you know how that goes!  

The native bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scipta, is also known as the common bluebell, the wood bell, the fairy flower and sometimes the wild hyacinth.  It is protected in the U.K. under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981.  In a single (ancient) woodland, millions of bulbs may be found and they give rise to carpets of flowers usually in April or May.  They take advantage of the sunlight before the canopy of leaves fully develops and reduces the incident light at ground level. Read more...

Spring brings a variety of blue flowered plants such as bluebells, hyacinths and squills in our woodlands, parks and gardens.  Bluebells are ‘easily’ recognisable. However, there are different types of bluebells. The bluebell that is native to the UK has the Latin or Linnaean name of Hyacinthoides non scripta.  The Spanish bluebell (H. hispanica) is also to be found, and this hybridises with the native form,  giving rise to intermediate types. The native bluebell has deep blue and scented flowers that hang from an elegantly arching stem. It is found in abundance in many deciduous woodlands and hedgerows across the UK, though it is unusual or rarer in parts of East Anglia and Scotland.  The capacity of the Spanish Bluebell to hybridise with the native form has been seen as a threat to the native Bluebell - but now another concern has been ‘identified’. Read more...

You may well have heard that bees are in trouble. Domestic honeybee hives seem to die more often than they used to, and some of our wild bees have disappeared altogether; for example, three of the UK’s twenty seven bumblebee species have gone extinct. The big, long-term driver of declines has been farming intensification; where once we had plentiful hay-meadows and chalk downland, rich with flowers, we now have flower-free monocultures of wheat or silage grass. Pesticide use is also contributing to the problem, particularly new generations of systemic, persistent insecticides called neonicotinoids that get into nectar and pollen of both flowering crops and wildflowers. Read more...

The official Latin name of the wood anemone is Anemone nemorosa but it is also known under many different and much more romantic sounding names – windflower, thimbleweed, wind crowfoot, smell fox or the helmet flower. These common names convey the affection in which this little woodland flower is thought of. This little perennial is referenced in many myths and legends including the anenome flower springing up where Aphrodite’s tears fell as she wept over the death of her lover, Adonis. The flowers are predominantly white but the petals can be tinged with pink or purple tones with a red stem. A similar plant is the buttercup anemone which has yellow colouring. The underground creeping habit ensures colonisation of the woodland floor forming large clumps in shaded and damp areas. Read more...

Back in 2006 (and 2007), the blog posted information about the Natural History Museum Bluebell Survey. https://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/flora-and-fauna/recording-your-bluebells/ https://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/flora-and-fauna/bluebell-survey-2007/ This is an ongoing project, apart from studying the distribution of native and spanish bluebells (and the hybrids, which now may be more common than their Spanish 'parent') - the project is also looking at the flowering time of the bluebell (in relation to climate change / variability).  Full details of the project  (and lots of information about bluebells) can be found at the NHM website. Read more...

The second instalment to "my wood" has, like Spring,  this year - sprung rather too soon. I’ve been away for most of the last week starting work on a new area of woodland in Norfolk that I hope to be able to bring to market in the early summer. So after nearly a week of absence , I hurried across the field as the light rose on Saturday morning accompanied by Stig who seemed even happier than me, tail wagging frantically in the bitter frost. Despite some savagely cold dawns, a couple of weeks of unseasonably warm weather has transformed the woodland.  It has been more of a boom than a Spring bloom this year. My hornbeam is in leaf, the hawthorn is in blossom, Read more...