Sunday 22 April 2012

April in Little Linford Wood

What with all the shenanigans in Wales, the Little Linford Wood blogpost for the month of April is somewhat later than planned. The following account describes a visit over the course of the weekend of 14/15 April.


At last, there were signs of new green shoots and blossom at the customary picnic bench shot by the car park. A wander up to the far end of the dry pond even produced evidence of some water (since taking this photo, there has been a week of rain, with a further week of rain to come, hurrah!).


It wouldn't be Spring in an English woodland without the obligatory picture of some Bluebells. The carpet wasn't fully in bloom, but chances are that by the time I return in May, the show will be over.


Not quite as fragrant, but definitely as obligatory, wherever there's Bluebells, there's Badger poo! And you were thinking that only humans would take the time to create toilet air freshener?


The damper parts of the wood had a wonderful spread of Cuckooflower (Lady's Smock). And it was damp, as that moss was on the south side of the tree trunks.


Throughout the site, Dog's Mercury is rising. Whilst there was no sign of Bruce Willis, I did find a 14-spot Ladybird, hunkered down amongst the new growth of leaves.


The hedgerows on the western side of the wood were nicely demonstrating the difference between Hawthorn and Blackthorn...


On the right, blossom before leaves = Blackthorn, whilst on the left, leaves before blossom = Hawthorn.


This is the view looking south from the western edge of the wood. The crop on the right is now too tall to easily spot crouching Hares, but anything stepping through the hedge would be visible for a brief instant. Unfortunately, I was out of luck in that department.


Over on the eastern side of the wood, this is the view from the car park. Beyond the oilseed crop, the line of the M1 motorway is just visible, whilst in the background, on the horizon, can be seen the wind farm at Petsoe End.

Tune in next month for an exciting episode with the working title of 'May...'.

2 comments:

holdingmoments said...

I enjoyed this visit.

I still must try and get there for myself sometime.

Imperfect and Tense said...

To access the BBOWT car park in the wood, take the track from the Little Linford to Gayhurst road at SP850457. It's rough in places, but ok if taken slowly. Once under the motorway, continue passed the farm (after you skirt around a pond, there's a bit of a rut to negotiate - again ok if taken slowly), ignoring the turn off for the industrial units. The car park is at the top of the rise, just inside the wood.