There are some really beautiful areas in Suffolk, mystical ancient places, places from way beyond human civilisation, places with roots that lead to something much deeper. Staveton Thicks is one of those places, a forest full of ancient gnarled trees, a place that has survived for hundreds of years despite everything going on in the land around. Somehow Staveon still lives, and not just some token little forest, this place is large. It is not a nature reserve, no one who owns it is a charity, this is part of the working countryside. Although I don't normally gush like this, and I don't want to appear all hippy-dippy, its jut so difficult to describe in words what aura this place exudes.
The trees are the stars of Staverton. Many hundreds of years old, they have been allowed to develop into their own work of art. Each specimen is made up of unique tortured shapes which writhe beneath the surface of bark giving each tree a concept of movement despite standing still.
There are two types of habitat present here, ancient woodland with its thick layers of woodland growth, and wood pasture, which is open grazed woodlands with no understorey. Wood pasture once a common habitat is now extremely rare, the best example of this habitat is found in the New Forest, where commoner livestock graze open woodland. There aren't many examples of it in Suffolk, which makes finally visiting Staveton so interesting. The one concern for this habitat is a lack of young trees present in the wood pasture. This means when these old trees do die, there aren't any younger trees to replace them.
The woodlands in winter can be very quiet. A far cry from the bustling life of Spring, woods in the colder months can feel desolate and lonely with only the odd winter THRUSH present. There was a small amount of half hearted chirping in the forest but this wasn't a good time to see woodland birds.
Beyond the forest there are some man made pools, which may have been old fish ponds for the nearby abbey. They were brimming with life, something unexpected after walking through the forest. Amongst the 40 or so TEAL present, there were singles of GADWALL and MALLARD, and bird of the day, a female HOODED MERGANSER. Yes, I had to take a double take with that, but I know this species well as one hung out in Ipswich about a year ago, a male, but it spent some time in eclipse plumage. That bird in Ipswich was ringed, but however this one today was not, whether its a genuine wild bird or an escape, who can tell, and no one will quite accept it. Aside from the ducks also present fishing in a ditch was a GREAT WHITE EGRET, which I unintentionally spooked into flight, they are just getting everywhere now, but still a surprise to see here.
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