Wood Anenomies

Sunday afternoon is a good time to visit Norsey Wood. It's a little too early for bluebells, but I'm here for the carpet of white, the wood anenomies. A couple of years ago I walked these woods almost every day.  Now, not so much, but the paths remain familiar - most of the time.

The first few are near the start of the trail - out of the car park toward the exit and second left.  They are such delicate flowers, so I tried to get closer in.

This is about as good as it gets with the current lens.  Following round the trail, the wood changes, there is a 'dead area' where there are many fallen trees.  This is not so managed as the rest of the wood.  I wonder, would primaeval forest look like this? 

Of course, humans get involved, so it cannot be entirely primeval.

At this time of year, the wood is waking after its winter sleep.  The large trees have, no doubt, started, but are not showing leaf yet.  The younger once get a head start. 

There is new (to me) coppicing on the easy access path, at the end of the trail.  While I had been walking around, I had been thinking that not much had changed in the last 45 years or so that I have been visiting the wood.  One thing that most definitely has is the dead hedging.

Recent path through coppiced area blocked by dead hedging.

Much older dead hedging protecting what may once have been coppiced.

 

A bit batty / overnight & next day with a grandchild

On the evening of the 21st, a little before dusk, we gathered with some other Norsey Wood enthusiasts to see is we could hear and see some bats.  There was a brief introduction (https://www.norseywoodsociety.uk/bats-more-info) which included the number of different species of bat that visit the wood.  If memory serves it was 16, 9 are listed here https://www.norseywoodsociety.uk/batsofessex. Three different site were proposed, and the bat detectors (a device which picks up their high frequency calls and translates them into something we can hear)  were handed out.  The most common visitors call at 45kHz and 55kHz.  So the detection frequencies were set accordingly.  We made our way through the gathering gloom of a later summer's evening to the first location by the pond.  We waited, mostly quietly, although our low frequency chat is not going to distract the bats from feeding.  Eventually we saw a bat or two flitting around the treetops and some beeps came out of a few detectors. It was a windy night; the previous couple of days had been warmer and stiller. At the next two locations, there was absolutely nothing. Walking back, I tried to take an atmospheric picture - not much luck there either.

It meant a late night for the infant school aged grandchild, so next morning we were up lateish.  He enjoys the indoor crazy golf at Hackers, so no surprise that we went there towards the end of the morning.  He's getting rather too good at it now, but was upset that he didn't get a hole-in-one.  

Then back home, so that we could drive to his favourite restaurant - McDonald's.  It is a strange place.  I ordered on the big screen and took my table number indicator, which now includes some sort of detection tag, so the servers know where to go without having to walk around the whole place.  McDonald's is consistent, if it is anything.  It always fails, just a little, to meet my already low expectations.  Our order number never did appear on the 'Preparing' screen.  When the food arrived, the sauces that I had ordered on the screen were missing.  The food, though, was quite edible.  The lunchtime experience was set to get worse.  We drove across Festival Leisure and walked up the stairs to Sprinkles.  We waited some time to be seated.  We were handed menus and told that we could order on the website, or at the counter.  The paper menus and the web menus don't match - not even close.  I went to the counter and was told that they are too busy to take orders and I must use the online system.  It seats about 100, perhaps 150, there were only 3 tables in use.  I tried on the web page again, but could not even find the option he had chosen, then we left.  I have visited Sprinkles twice in my life.  Both times I found the staff unhelpful and the ordering process confusing.  I've promised myself - never again.  In the cinema foyer, there is an ice cream bar - we ordered there and got what we wanted in a couple of minutes.

Then, back home, and it was soon time for him to leave.  On balance, we had had a good 20+ hours.

Bird Song

30 March 2024

The alarm sounded at 5:40, way too early when you normally wake up at about 8:00.  We have to be in Norsey Woods for the Bird song walk at 6:30.  It doesn't help that the freezer suffered a minor malfunction, but we got there.  Binoculars and phone app to hand to identify the birds from their song and if possible to see them as well.  

The guides and the other enthusiasts put us to shame with their knowledge and easy identification.  It will take me a long time to be that proficient.  The app (Merlin) identifies birds in real time, allowing me to watch the bird come up, just as the song starts.  It is very helpful.  We walked around for about two hours, and I am slowly getting used to locating birds with binoculars, that's another skill I have to learn.

There is a great-spotted woodpecker at the top of this tree - you'll have to trust me because I only had my phone with me, and even zoomed in it is just a blob.

The sound of the birds was amazing, and I remembered an incident from school life.  One of the teachers in junior school asked if someone could get up early to record the dawn chorus.  A boy called Andrew volunteered, and was very enthusiastic.  Unfortunately, he couldn't get up early, so we never did hear the dawn chorus from his house.

From our house, it was amazing, but I was never an early riser, so probably missed the best of it.

Today's walk in the woods, and the birds we heard, was very impressive, but I suspect it would have been better 50+ years ago.

We definitely heard Chiffchaff, Robin, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Wood-pigeon and the sound of woodpeckers pecking.  We also disturbed a Muntjac.

Norsey Wood Tree Identification Walk

These are my notes from today's Tree Identification walk.

Ash - one of the trees I recognise, it was covered before I got started

Hazel - one of the trees I recognise, it was covered before I got started

Oak (sessile), acorn has no stork, leaf has a stork. straight trunk
Oak (English) acorn stork, leaf no stalk

Field maple, paired leaves, Ridge branches, palm like leaves oldest at Downham church (St Marys)
Sycamore (maple family) red stork

- black spots{tar spots} fungus
- dormice feed on it honeydew aphids

Sweet chestnut (bought here by the Romans?) alternate leaf

- coppiced - useful timber. Fissures are stretch marks. Pale blotches are lichen.
- pollarding - cutting above ground

Broom prefers acidic soil (in pea family) root nodules fix nitrogen

Gorse (which we didn't see) has spines

Birch heart shaped leaf, uneven teeth, catkin tree males long, female tiny flower

- hermaphrodite
- pioneer tree - quick to colonise

Hawthorn lobed leaf variable - single seeded. 1 stigma

- rose family
- bark platelets flake off

Midland hawthorn (which we didn't see) - ancient woodland - berry is 2 seeded. 2 stigma

Laburnum elder rose

Laburnum wayfaring tree

Blackthorn - spines but less on older trees - sloes

Spindle tree pink flowers, orange berries. Very poisonous. Lichens grow on branches

Elder leaf smell, flowers and fruits - insects & starlings Wart on stem (20ft tall) jelly ear fungus golden yellow

Holly, less spiny as it gets older

Fungus russula, the red is washed out by the rain

Hornbeam dropping branches, similar to beech, rough, serrated, curled, raised pronounced vein. Hairs in axel point veins meet stem, bracts with seeds - finches squirrels, dormice
-bark smooth very dense timber, used for cogs in flour mills

Common Buckthorn food plant for brimstone butterfly
Leaves in small groups

Goat willow    Early sulphur yellow catkins, Fissured trunk with starbursts
Leaves - rough upper, wavy edge, greyish underneath, oval, almost round
brittle twigs

Aspen (poplar) succouring young heart shaped, goes circular
Flattened stalk of leaf - leaf trembles

Cherry (wild) very serrated, leaves in clusters (rosette), gnarly stork, grooved stalk. Black glands near leaf bottom Bark grey rings around trunk

Rowan (mountain ash) 7–8 pairs of serrated leaflets. Flat head of white flowers

Darters dragon fly

Proper Saturday

Last weekend, on Saturday morning, we got up at a reasonable time and headed to Norsey woods with Brody. The aim was to get him exercised so that he would walk around peacefully. We walked around the made up paths, throwing the ball. He ran and ran, we met other dogs, but he was only interested in the ball. By the time we were ready for the guided walk through the woods to see what it is like in winter, Brody was ready for his next walk. He did not understand why he had to stay on the lead. A small boy was playing with a stick, Brody thought it was an invitation to play. He took the stick and the little boy cried, but it eventually leads to him being teased for the rest of the walk. After 3 hours in the woods, Jo and I were ready for lunch and a rest. Brody was just ready for lunch, dinner and tomorrow's breakfast.
With little to do until the evening, we took it easy for a few hours. By 6.30 we were ready to get on the coach. We had been given tickets to see the Mousetrap at the Cliffs Pavilion. No wonder it has been running since the 1950s, it is a very good play. I did not guess the murderer, but I did enjoy the show. The only downside was the seats at the cliffs that were very uncomfortable.
It was a proper Saturday, the sort of Saturday I can't do that often. It also added 1 to our count of 25 things -the Mousetrap is iconic enough to count as more than just a play.

Still Sunny Sunday

This one I have been doing for ages. It helps the arm to stretch upwards and straighten. I use my son's 'pull-ups' bar and a scarf borrowed from my daughter. I can do these movements quite easily, and quite fast, but the purpose for me is stretching, so I have to be careful to be sure that I do that, and don't try to pull one arm off with the other!
There is progress to report. This week I have been able to wash my hair with my right hand, and this morning sitting in bed, I reached for my cup of tea, retrieved it and drank it - all using my right arm and hand. So the pain is worth it.

After the AGM at church, which followed on from a slightly shortened service, I watched the Bahrain Grand Prix - read my thoughts here.

Then it was off to Norsey Woods to see the bluebells. Last year we went after the may bank holiday, on a quite day, today, being surprisingly sunny the car park was full, and there were lots of people in the wood. Unfortunately the bluebells were not quite as impressive. Norsey is a managed coppiced wood, and the open spaces that gave such good views were more grown and the view more restricted. In any case I love this time of year when all the new growth is occurring. I'll write some more about that visit, and store it on the other blog, with some more pictures. Here's a clump to be going on with:

Field of Blue

Our walk around Norsey wood on Tuesday is on the other blog. Click the link on the title.