An early morning excursion to Chaddesley Wood today gave possibly the most abundant carpet of Bluebells that I have seen this year.
The morning after a rather grey start turned out sunny and bright and walking down the ride from the entrance the feeling of summer rather than spring was in the air with bright warm sunshine puring down onto the ride. Butterfly spotting was on the agenda but with the sunny skies photo opportunities were definitely not on the agenda as the butterflies were far too energised to stay still for long. Peacock and Orange Tip flitted along the scrub lined ride edges as we made our way to the first side track where attentions turned to the magnificent displays of Bluebells under the fresh green canopy of surrounding trees.
It's hard to capture a carpet of Blues bells with a camera, the image captured is always a pale imitation of the real thing, which is why it is always better to get out there first hand and enjoy them and of course you can't 'smell' a picture or hear the soundscape of Blackbird, Great Tit, Chiff Chaff, Wren and Blackcap that accompanied our walk through the wood.
Further into the wood we heard the unmistakable call of a Cuckoo calling close to us and possibly a second some distance away. It's an uplifting and evocative sound to hear as the call is heard less and less now with the Cuckoos decline and subsequent red list status. Now of course there is the slight matter of the way the Cuckoo decides to have it's young reared but when you are listening to the distant (or in this case close) 'Cuck coo Cuck coo' the result is delight rather than a furrowed brow lamenting the poor Reed Warblers plight at the hands of the Cuckoo.
And so back to eyes closer to the ground and to fauna that can't upset anyone where Orange Tip and Peacock here were replaced with more of an abundance of Green Veined White and Speckled Wood Butterflies - however these we no more behaved in terms of gaining a few snaps than the former at the beginning of the walk and distant glimpses and fly-bys or more accurately flutter-bys has to be settled for.
Time always seems to behave different in a woodland, it feels as though you have only been there for maybe half an hour taking in the multitudinous shades of green in the canopy, the sometimes bewildering soundscape of birdsong all around, the smells and the colours of the flowers and yet it has been three hours or more (which is why I often get stern looks when I get home). Which is good, modern life is pressurised to be so fast paced and time is always at a premium - in the woods you forget time, it takes on it's own pace and rhythm and you loose yourself (literally sometimes when you have stopped noticing the route you have been taking).
And so it was that I found it was time to leave the sun dappled rides, the leafy light green canopy with it's explosive birdsong and the bluebell carpeted woodland floor with it's colourful butterflies to be re-visited another day with different sights and sounds to be experienced as the season progresses, but that's the great thing it's always there just a couple of miles up the road from me for whenever I decide to pop out for 'just half an hour'..
(Bank & Ditch on the woodland edge)
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