Day 6 - South Uist - 17/5/2018

Another quiet day, and with a large number of birds already bagged this holiday, it proved to be fairly low key. There were reports of rare birds in the area, but nothing had been specifically pinned down. So in the end we stuck to sites we had seen previously this week, in the hope of catching something different.
The day was sunnier than those before, but being Scotland wasn't too warm. We started off at Stinky Bay where we had seen the ICELAND GULL previously, but despite there being lots of birds present nothing was different to what we had seen before. WADERS were present in large numbers sifting through the mass of seaweed washed up on the rocks.

EIDERS were present in large numbers on the coast. Here being photobombed by a TURNSTONE.

We looked at Loch Mor, again didn't see much, then headed down to South Uist.

 

We went to the Hebridean Jewellery, mudflats, but didn't see anything much there either. We went to North Bay where we saw a PEREGRINE flying over the many birds, not really out for the hunt, just flying over and therefore not bothering any of the many WADERS feeding in the bay. Two GREY SEALS were present slightly offshore, their faces more pointed than the dog-faced HARBOUR SEALS, as always a joy to find. I like SEALS.

We went to more locations, beautiful areas of moorland and lochs, Loch Druidibeg, Loch Sgioport, and despite seeing several WHITE TAILED EAGLES, nothing much else was found.

 

We travelled to Loch Eynort, where we saw the SEALS  a couple of days ago. This visit proved to be better because this time around we were able to park up and have extensive views of the Loch. In view were an amazing three species of DIVER. The usual GREAT NORTHERN, fairly common RED THROATED, and rarest of all a BLACK THROATED, all within a scope view, an amazing sight, and one that would be hard to replicate as all three birds were in their breeding plumage finery. I can't think of many places in the UK where that would happen.

The BLACK THROATED DIVER was to provide further interest. A playful SEAL kept jumping out of the water by the DIVER - just for fun he wasn't going to eat it. The DIVER in turn kept, well, diving, to get away from the SEAL, as only it knew how. When the SEAL left the bird alone, the DIVER still kept ducking its head under the water to check to see if  the SEAL was still there. He seemed shook up, didn't dive for a while afterwards. It proved to be a nice episode of the holiday.

We walked up the Loch, through an area of woodland, young and recently planted, which was one man's vision to reforest an area that was an ecological desert. Nothing new was seen but it provided a lovely location to enjoy, as have so many on the trip.

 



Loch Eynort

 

We carried on to Stoneybridge an area of long white beaches and turquoise water which the Uists seemed to specialise in. Amazingly, Phil, the group leader, managed to catch a pod of BOTTLE-NOSED DOLPHINS swimming just off shore, they were moving fast, but we were all able to spot the animals as they crested the waves, a remarkable sight.

 



BOTTLE NOSED DOLPHIN country

 

RINGED PLOVERS were present in huge numbers on the machair, the ploughed fields and short grassland provided the perfect habitat for the birds.

 

 

We went on to Peter's Port, which although didn't really have too many birds, was picturesque.

 

All the mess of a fishing port

 

 

Peter's Port

It seems churlish to call today a quiet day, when we have seen so much, but really with such a high quality offering of sightings so far this week it did feel not quite as much of a high as the other days. That said we did see a lot and had experiences that I will keep with me for a long time, so I can't complain.

Day 5 - North Uist and Berensey - 16/5/2018

With the first four days providing so many great birds and great birding locations, things kind of went off the boil. The Uist islands though good for birds, maybe doesn't have the strength of habitats for a week's birding.
The day started off more sunny than yesterday, with less cloud about, it was almost summery. We headed north, through the old main road, known as Peatland Road. We weren't too lucky with birds, but did bag a GREENSHANK on one of the lochans. This bird could have been possibly either a migrant or breeding bird, the latter very rare in the UK.

We arrived at a set of lochs and spied a pair of RED THROATED DIVERS. These birds nest in the many mini lochans that carpet the highlands of Scotland, flying out to sea or larger lochs to feed on fish. A flyover DIVER provivd some consternation amongst the pair, and they emitted  a ghostly wail over the moorlands, a really haunting sound, one that really blends into and makes the landscape.

GOLDEN EAGLE country - seen drifting on thermals along the ridges. Today we saw four GOLDEN EAGLES, five SEA EAGLES, four SHORT EARED OWLS and four HEN HARRIERS.

 



With its favourite host species - the MEADOW  PIPIT - so abundant in  the area there were loads of CUCKOOS about. This male, on the left, was being seen off by a PIPIT

 

 

 

We carried on to Port Nan Long, where we had a stop, and you can see from the photos it was very picturesque. Luckily - in nature watching it all depends on luck - we had excellent views of a dog OTTER. It was initially seen slinking through the shoreline boulders. It swam out to see and could be seen underwater in the unpolluted clear blue water. We watched it for a while before it swam out of view round the bend of the coast.

 

 

We crossed the causeway to Berensey, a small island to the north of the Uists, small and pretty.

 



 

 

We had lunch overlooking the bay where a few HARBOUR SEALS were lounging around on rocks, catching up on some sleep. The HARBOUR SEALS have more dog like faces than the GREY SEALS, which we saw somewhere else.

 



Borve, main town of Brensey

 

Berensey was a small island, with one road, linking Eaast Beach and West Beach. Both were stunning locations with white sand that ran for miles, turquoise water and nobody around. A few LITTLE TERNS were seen at both beaches,

 

Typical machair landscape.

 

West Beach, Berensey



After this we took a slow journey back to Benbecula, and didn't see too much on the way.
So maybe the quietest of the  days on the holiday, but one that was still very good, with some good wildlife and some beautiful locations. With some of these beaches it might be worthwhile to turn up in August, sit on the beach all day and maybe brave a paddle in the sea.

Day 4 - Sea Watching - 15/5/2018

Another dull grey day, wet and drizzly as we started off. We headed north, and on the way stopped off on the coast at a place descriptively called Stinky Bay. Looking out from the minibus an ICELAND GULL was spotted amongst all the HERRING GULLS feeding on the sea weed. To those interested in bird watching GULLS are always a niche interest. They all look the same and have about a hundred different plumages for each species. The ICELAND GULL was slightly smaller than a HERRING with white wings - no black tips. Later in the day another white winged gull was seen, but it turned out to be an albino COMMON GULL, judged so by its bill colour.

ICELAND GULL

 

From Stinky Bay we headed up to Balranald, this time to do some sea watching. This area is well known for its passage of SKUAS, a family of birds which specialises in pirating food off other sea bird species.

On the entrance road we looked for CORNCRAKES again, but we were only able to just hear one. We passed through all the crofting landscape to the headland - which is called Aird an Runair. Initially there was a mist which prevented any good views but while we enjoyed a coffee it dissipated.

On the walk to the sea watching spot, just off shore was a large rock that held a GLAUCOUS GULL,  a massive GULL, amazingly pure white, which distinguished it from the other GULL species present.

As we continued our way to the sea watching spot a large BONXIE flew over. Also known as a Great Skua, they are massive birds and not very similar to other SKUA species which are mostly thin and tern like.
We settled ourselves in for the sea watch. Sea watching, like GULL watching, is another niche form of birdwatching - as many people loath it as love it. It mainly consists of seeing little specs on the horizon and confidently identifying them as a species of bird. It can be infuriating, and in some occasions nothing is ever seen. Having grown up in the centre of the country, far from the sea, I was more used to  watching reservoirs. Suffolk coast seems to be quite barren and doesn't attract to many sea birds either.
However, on this occasion we were able to  have some good views. From the off there was a shout of 'POMARINE SKUA!' and said bird drifted over the beach showing itself in all its glory. Much more butch than an ARCTIC SKUA it also had a tea-spoon shaped tail. An absolutely brilliant view, once in a life time seeing it so close. We saw eight POMS altogether, including one on the mid horizon, and six specs on the far horizon, which is the usual sighting for such a bird.
We saw lots of GANNETS, flocks of MANX SHEARWATERS out some distance, DIVERS, AUKS, a couple of FULMARS and plenty of ARCTIC SKUAS. For a couple of hours sea watching I'll take that.

Typical Uist landscape: lochs, moorland and mountains

 



In the afternoon we took the Commtitee road, a kind of old peat diggers road, that ran through some beautiful countryside. We saw two HARRIERS, one a brief view, the other of a young male sky dancing, an evocative name for its display flight. We had some great views.
There were a couple of pairs of STONECHAT seen in the general landscape, but they weren't as common as on the Suffolk heaths, just here and there.
We moved on and had a coffee at Grenitote an area of extensive mud flats, where not much was seen except the odd WADER.

A Ewe guiding her lambs across the mudflats

 

From there it was decided to end the days birdwatching, one that happened to be extra special.

Well, what more can I say, everything today superseded my expectations. Apart from looking for CORNCRAKES, I was really unsure what else we would see on the holiday, but this blew my expectations apart. It was a great day's bird watching, one worth going on holiday for.

Day 3 - South Uist & Eriksay - 14/5/2018

The fine weather we had so far on the trip gave up for today as the sun was replaced with low cloud and drizzle. After breakfast as we were packing our day stuff into the van, I  heard the famous STARLING that mimics the call of the CORNCRAKE, that scratchy atmospheric sound, as it sat on the hotel roof. STARLINGS were everywhere in huge numbers in the Uists, often nesting in stone walls where buildings weren't present, a nice sight to see if shamefully not one that happens down south anymore.

 

 

So the first target of the morning was a RING NECKED DUCK, located at some loch on South Uist. We had a look but didn't find it, but we did encounter a WHOOPER SWAN, with a further six seen in flight. These birds will be migrants moving north from their wintering grounds down south. The small lochs which literally litter the island landscape were often home to small numbers of SHOVELLER, GADWALL, TUFTED DUCK, TEAL and occasionally WIGEON, as they would be down south.
We went to another coastal location, this one called Ardivachar, where apart from the usual WADERS and DUCKS, a PEREGRINE FALCON flew over no doubt on the look out for a tasty meal.
We headed over to the Hebridean Jewwllery an area that overlooked some mud flats. On the mud were a few waders including lots of GREY PLOVERS in their silver back and black chested summer finery, a KNOT and two PINK FOOTED GEESE, late in returning to their breeding grounds.

There were a few WHIMBREL about and seen most days on the Islands, all feeding on the machair. They were more common than CURLEWS. See the eye stripe and bent - rather than curved - bill.

 



From there we travelled through South Uist all the way down to its most southerly point, and then across a causeway to Eriksay. We stopped at the ferry terminal, and had brief views of a ROCK PIPIT, and a Hebridean WREN, slightly larger than the main land types.
We passed a cemetery which attracted a flock of 10 TWITE, the cemetery had unkempt grass, which held daisies and dandelions, their seeds the perfect food for the TWITE.

 TWITE - your ultimate little brown job

 

We would see TWITE many times on the holiday, but mainly in pairs and mainly in flight.

 Views from where we had lunch, Eriksay.

 

We left Eriksay and drove up South Uist to Loch Eynort. From here we saw a Golden Eagle, distant, so we moved along the valley to find it, where we encountered another one, typically on the ridge crest and being mobbed by RAVENS.

GOLDEN EAGLE country

We went down to Lock Eynort proper, a large sea loch. From there we saw a large number of HARBOUR SEALS loafing on the rocks. They were on the whole very lazy, just lying there enjoying the breeze, but then you would get a boisterous one leaping from the water like some kind of dolphin. It was a joy to watch.

Loch Eynort

 

Other than the SEALS there was an immature RED THROATED DIVER, the first of the trip, strange when you consider how much habitat there is for them - lonely moorland pools near to the coast, perfect landscape for nesting.

 



 Nesting LAPWING

 

We continued up South Uist. The grassland seen from the van were full of WADERS. We saw some SNIPE, which are probably very common, they are just so harder to see than the other waders.

 

SNIPE

 

We finished the day at Rubha Ardvule, a stunning location, absolutely full of birds, although there wasn't anything unusual. We had a coffee there and after that returned to the hotel.

 







 

 

So another day full of birds if one not as hot as the previous days. That's really a mark of the quality of the holiday so far when a day as good as today could still be a bit disappointing.

Day 2 - PHALAROPES and CORNCRAKES - 13/5/2018

You can see the tiny PHALOROPE just above the SWAN'S head

 



Sunday was the second day of the holiday and the first proper on the Uist islands. We set off fairly early and were driving through North Uist when a shout came:

'Phalarope!'

the mini bus screeched to a standstill.

There was a beautiful RED NECKED PHALOROPE, tiny, swimming out in the middle of the water. It was a female, because in a role reversal for birds, the females are more brightly coloured.  It had a white patch under the bill, with a red throat. Amazingly a second bird arrived and after a brief struggle the original ran out winner. This record is the first returning bird of the year to the islands and a great, and lucky, find. The bird is an extremely rare breeding bird in the UK and always tricky to find on migration.

As we watched the birds we saw a SHORT EARED OWL flying over the back fields and a HEN HARRIER a bit further back. Today we saw three SHORT EARED OWLS and two HEN HARRIERS. We often got good views but they were mainly always seen from the mini bus, flying over an area of rough grass. The Uist Islands with their moorland landscape and lack of shooting estates are perfect for those species of birds and they were seen daily on the holiday.

Balranald was the target of the day, an RSPB reserve based round a headland in western North Uist. Its one of those reserves that blends into the countryside, not managed too intensively for wildlife, more in the traditional crofting way. As we approached the reserve we stopped every so often to look for CORNCRAKES, our target bird for the holiday, and as we did so we witnessed the sheer numbers of WADERS that were breeding in the wet grassland areas. It really was staggering with LAPWING, REDSHANK and OYSTERCATCHERS all there in large numbers.

 



There were already  LAPWING chicks around at the moment, but we didn't see any CORNCRAKES on the approach. After the cold March the vegetation was a lot lower than it should be, not providing enough cover for the CORNCRAKES to lurk in. Yellow iris leaves were appearing in the wet areas which the CORNCRAKES love, those untidy areas that used to be part of farms down south and which are now unfortunately gone.

LAPWING chick

 

As we came to the reserve centre, a group of people were seen behind the visitor centre building. Rushing out we were told they had just seen a CORNCRAKE, but it had just disappeared. Getting cameras and scopes in position we waited and were rewarded when a CORNCRAKE poked its head out of some cover.

 It then continued to walk out in the open in a small grassy field.

It then went and spent some time amongst some lobster pots and a cattle pen, maybe looking for a nesting area. The bird was a female. Nearby two male CORNCRKES were calling although we didn't see them. The call is reminiscent of its Latin name 'crex crex' like a scratchy frog sound, it was very atmospheric.

 

 

The CORNCRAKE then spent the next hour or so moving around in the open while we watched ten metres away.

 

  

Phil the tour leader said this was the best views he had ever had of the species, most years people get a brief view of a head moving through cover, or something similar, not one strutting its stuff out in the open. It was really a one in a life time view.

This was of course my first ever sighting of the species, because as a bird it is restricted to the Isles of Scotland. The kind of habitat they desire, overgrown damp places do not just exist anymore in England, farms are just too sterile down here, everything is so tidy.

At  the same time a CORN BUNTING was singing from a post above the CORNCRAKE. Now these birds used to be common but are another casualty of the race to intensify as much land as possible into agriculture. They are now so rare that this remnant populations is considered a distinctive part of the crofting landscape and initiatives are in place to protect them.

After indulging in the CORNCRAKE we moved on further down the headland to look for another rare bird, this time a SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER. The bird was reported online the day before, and as we were in the area became a target bird... ah the wonders of modern technology.

As we drove down we passed ancient crofting in the landscape, ploughing up the sandy fields, which created good habitat for waders including many, many RINGED PLOVERS, they absolutely loved this habitat and were found everywhere it was found in large numbers.

 

 

WHEATEARS on one of the ploughed fields

 

We walked down to the coast and amongst the sea weed strewn rocks were hundreds of WADERS, consisting mainly of DUNLIN, TURNSTONES and SANDERLING, all looking splendid in their summer plumage, with a couple of PURPLE SANDPIPERS amongst them.

 

The TURNSTONE had the most glorious summer plumage, looking like a harlequin

 

We caught the SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER, standing out mainly because it was tiny - it was little stint size - and was in a pool right in front of us. It was fairly unusual in having no stand out summer plumage. It was very aggressive to the other waders, often chasing them off if they came too close. If this bird was in Norfolk or Suffolk there would have been huge queues to see this bird, but out here in North Uist...Just us. Anyway, another brown job from America and a life tick.

 

 

 

Three BAR TAILED GODWITS were in the area, and whilst we were watching them a dark morph ARCTIC SKUA flew over. This would be the first of a few we would see on the holiday, they would spend the time roaming up and down the coast, looking for some easy prey, never in too particular a hurry.

With some good birds under the belt, there were still enough hours in the day to catch some more. In particular there was a group of DOTTEREL hanging around. We parked up next to an area of cattle grazed machair, as usual full of RINGED PLOVERS. As we walked around a bit, two LITTLE TERNS flew over - rare nesting birds here - and eventually caught sight of a DOTTEREL. Beautiful birds, they are plovers that nest right on the tops of the highest mountains in Scotland. The bird might have been spooked by us and flew off to another area of the field where we found a second bird. A great sighting.

That was it for the day and we returned to the hotel.

Wow that was a bird filled day, full of some amazing once in a life time views. This is why I took this holiday for the chance of seeing things I wouldn't on my own and it proved worth it after today. And there were still some days left.



 











Day 1 - Boat of Garten to Benbecula - 12/5/2018

The first proper day of the holiday saw me getting picked up from the B&B at eight o'clock. A mini bus full of eight people awaited me. We sped along to Inverness, then down Loch Ness, the most famous loch in the world, through the highlands to Skye. As we entered the Western part of Scotland, the species of crow changed from CARRION to HOODED, the same size bird just with a grey body. They were also a lot rarer than our carrion ones.
The landscape was stunning, but after centuries of heavy grazing were completely lifeless as nothing can grow there, there was nothing for any creature to eat. As stewards of the natural world mankind has done a terrible job.

We went over the Skye bridge and took our first stop on the island. COMMON SANDPIPERS were on the rocky shoreline, a bird we would see most days, usually always on rocks, distinctively flicking their tales.
We continued along to an area of clear fell on a hill which was naturally regenerating with native tree species. From there we had distant views of two GOLDEN EAGLES, a WHITE TAILED EAGLE, and some RAVENS. We would see EAGLES most days, mostly always like this, distant specs on a far ridge riding the thermals but never really coming in close. It was a shame but there was nothing we could really do about it, and it was still an impressive sight.
We carried on through Skye to the ferry terminal for the Uist Islands at Uig. Out in the harbour there were several pairs of EIDER, and also the first BLACK GUILLEMOTS of the trip.

Adult summer plumaged GREAT NORTHERN DIVER

 



We caught sight of a GREAT NORTHERN DIVER, and this was my first ever sighting of one in summer plumage. I thought this was a great sight, as it was an absolutely stunning bird, but I didn't realise they would actually be relatively common, that I would see several every day in various stages of age and plumage. That was one of the highlights of the holiday.
The ferry crossing ended up taking around two hours, embarking and disembarking, and was relatively calm, although there was still a strong wind. The usual Scottish seabirds were present in small numbers on the sea, usually in ones or twos. This included the auks: PUFFINS, RAZORBILLS and GUILLEMOTS, birds often loafing on the water before being spooked into flight by the ferry. Also flying through were GANNETS, KITTIWAKES, ARCTIC TERNS, with SHAGS nearer to land.

From the ferry terminal we travelled down to the hotel at Benbecula, called the Black Isle Hotel. Although we didn't stop on the way, we could see the Island landscape was one of low moorland and rough grassland drained by many, many lochs. On some were RED BREASTED MERGANSER, a new bird for the year for me, and quite commonly found throughout the island.
The hotel was very nice and comfortable. Just down from there was a path to the beach, a beautiful strip of white sand and turquoise water, which if it wasn't so cold could have been from the Caribbean. Most evenings after the days' excursions but before dinner I would go down there and mentally unwind. I was usually the only person there.

Holiday - 11/5-19/5/2018 - Introduction & Travel

Over the course of a week in mid May I took a holiday in Scotland. The hours spent working a menial job finally came together to mean something - thanks ASDA. I chose a touring group holiday -  considering I  didn't have the time to explore Scotland on my own, and I chose the company of Heatherlea to go with.The holiday was called Outer Hebrides In Spring, and was based in the Uist Islands in the Outer Hebrides.
Last year I booked a holiday with Heatherlea, based in the Cairngorms. It was called Eagles, Divers and Dotterels, and it delivered on that count as I saw all those species. We climbed into the Cairngorms, went over to Mull, and saw target Scottish birds in the area. You can check that out in my blog for that holiday - 7/22/17 - 7/24/17. So I decided to stay loyal and go with that company this time around, because I couldn't be bothered to check the other companies.
Its always a shot in the dark doing this kind of holiday, you don't really know who you're going to share a hliday with, and you don't really know what birds you'll see. So with those points in mind I set off on my holiday full of trepidation, taking the long step up to Scotland.

Travel
The difficult part - the travelling. Is everything going to work or will I be stuck in hell trying to find a route through late trains and cancellations.
I left home at 8 in the morning, caught the 9:09 train over to London Liverpool Street, took the tube to King's Cross, where I caught the 12 train to Aviemore. It all worked like clockwork, something I didn't really expect to happen, I mean things working on time in 21st century Britain, who would have thought?

 

King's Cross Station

 

Some of the problems with independent travel is you can't leave the luggage with someone while you get a coffee, no, you have to stay with them, and that probably means standing around as you wait for your train to arrive which can be tedious.

The train to Aviemore took seven and a half hours, and it really felt that long. Animal wise I saw a few HARES, some RED KITES, and as it became more rugged as we went further north some ROE DEER and a pair of GOOSANDER. Sights from the train included a distant Lindisfarne and the centre of Newcastle as the train travelled through.

After magazines, books, walking up and down the aisle, coffee, etc. I finally arrived into Aviemore, a small station in the Cairngorms. I took a taxi to the B&B in the Boat of Garten, called the Boat House. When I told the taxi driver I was a bird watcher, he replied 'Ah, a twitcher' and talked very enthusiastically about the local birds, if not with quite the expertise.

The B&B was nice and cosy, but I was knackered so went to bed early ready for tomorrow and for my holiday proper to start.

 

Here is a disclaimer: I don't write about people - I don't know how, so there won't be anything written about members of the holiday. Its all about the birds.





Hazelwood Marshes & North Warren - 9/5/2018

A quick visit over to Coastal Suffolk, for a little birding. Met up with my brother and we walked the Sailor's Path, a track which leads from Snape to Aldeburgh, passing through heathland, wood and fen until we got to Hazelwood Marshes. Hazelwood Marshes is an area that was formerly grazing marsh that became inundated by water from the river estuary around four years ago.
When we arrived there the tide was out, but there were plenty of AVOCET, which may be nesting, considering the way they saw off passing CROWS; OYSTERCATCHERS and BLACK TAILED GODWITS were also present. A nice male RUFF was seen within one flock of GODWITS, looking splendid in its breeding season finery: a white head and ruff, with tortoiseshell plumage everywhere else. There also were a four or five CURLEWS about, but no REDSHANK, which was surprising. Where the reserve path met the Sailor's Path a NIGHTINGALE was singing its unmistakable, beautiful song. I saw it briefly, the motion of a moving twig.
We moved onto North Warren, a reserve just down the road. It is a typical Suffolk coastal reserve having a myriad of contrasting habitats within its borders, ranging from grazing marsh, to heath, to woodland, to reedbed. The grazing marshes were quiet, just one pair each of GADWALL and SHOVELLER, with the usual LAPWING, but no REDSHANK again. In the ditchside reeds were the usual WARBLERS and REED BUNTINGS.
Part of the reserve path runs along a disused railway line, now overgrown with scrub and great for warblers, including a nice pair of GARDEN WARBLERS. LINNETS were everywhere as well as WHITETHROATS. An amazing sight was a WHIMBREL feeding in one of the heathy fields, miles from its usual habitat, but unmistakable with its slim build and its "bent" bill.
The path led to the reedbed, which is quite large if not as big as those at Minsmere and Warbleswick, further up the coast. We counted five HOBBIES overhead, large and swift like, they would catch insect in the air and eat them on the wing, a great sight as they careered through the air.
The path eventually made its way out of the reserve, through Thorpeness golf course, into Thorpeness itself and passed the Meare, a boating lake.
So a good days birding, if unspectacular. I haven't been to North Warren in ages, so its always good to have a look in, even if its not a birding hot spot outside of winter. Sometimes its just easier to go see stuff at Minsmere, I guess.

BLUEBELLS in Spring Wood, Ipswich - 2/5/2018

 

 

Spring Wood, an area of ancient forest on the edge of Ipswich is a great place for BLUEBELLS. A place where for millennia drifts of the flower have carpeted the woodland floor every Spring. This is one of nature's spectacle that marks out on the natural calendar as it peaks for only a short time. Being close to Ipswich there are records of the wood going back hundreds of years, and it is probably older than that. As its name suggests springs well out from the wood creating little streams in the forest. There aren't any old trees, but lots of hazel coppice which allows enough light through for BLUEBELLS to grow.

 

 

It is a beautiful area to visit, except it isn't peaceful - the A14 runs right next to the wood. The wood is part of one large area of excellent habitats which provides a green cushion for the southern area of town against the A14.



A couple of years ago the area was in the news, as they wanted to build a housing development on an area called Kiln Meadows. This is an area of rough grassland which abuts on to Spring Wood, it protects the wood from nearby housing development, allowing it to preserve some wildness.
If the development had got the go-ahead then not only would Kiln Meadows be destroyed but Spring Wood would have withered and died, sandwiched between a housing development and the A14. A wood that had stood for millennia would be destroyed for a little bit of money.

 

The noise of cars destroyed any bird song, but there was a singing WHITETHROAT in Kiln Meadow.

The wood is well managed, by charity conservation charities, like Greenways a group I worked with several years ago when I was out of work. This has kept the area so good, and the BLUEBELLS are a testament to this. Its often easy to think that a lot of our wilder areas just are, but they are often heavily managed for wildlife, but in such a way that is so unobtrusive to visitors.

BLUEBELL drifts occur no where else in the world, they grow here in such profusion because of the Atlantic climate.

Coppicing is the woodland management system that allows the BLUEBELLS to grow. It is the process of cutting hazel trees down a to stump. The tree doesn't die but shoots of new growth occur next year. The new shoots are more spindly and so let in more light. This results in more light coming through the woodland canopy allowing woodland plants to grow without cutting down the trees.

 WILD GARLIC grows in the wet areas by the streams, rub their leaves together and you get the smell of garlic.

 

 

 

Apart from the BLUEBELLS, there were WILD GARLIC, YELLOW ARCHANGEL (like a stinging nettle with yellow flowers), STICHWORT and COWSLIP.

 

 The coppice stools were guarded by sticks to stop deers from eating the new shoots.

 

 COWSLIPS were growing sporadically on Kiln Meadows.
 

After an hour photographing I left the woods and had to re-enter the concrete human world. It is amazing that places like this still exist especially so close to urban areas like Ipswich, and they've thrived. Maybe this is how human civilisation can be judged, how we look after our natural landscape, as well as all the other stuff which we have created.

Anyway this wildlife spectacle is only at its best for another week or so, so hurry up and visit your nearest wood, its worth it.