Weekend woodland walks

.. now that's a lot of 'W's!

This weekend the weather was looking particularly good so we (my mum and I) took the dogs and visited a couple of woodlands local to us.

First we visited Covert Wood, a stone's throw away from where I live in Barham. With the willowherb and fleabane out in full flower it was a great time to look for woodland butterflies along the rides. Peacocks and tortoiseshells were plentiful and must have relatively recently emerged there colours were so vivid. Amongst them were gatekeepers, meadow browns, and ringlets, and the odd red admiral. 

As we walked along the devil's bit scabious, its flowers 'ripening' like a bunch of grapes, we caught a glimpse of black and white, almost like a white line in flight. It was a white admiral, a specialist woodland butterfly. These large butterflies are strong fliers and usually spend there time high up in the canopy but come down occasionally where you can see their colouring; black with a large white bar running across both wings and its underside a beautiful chestnut with white patterning. Their caterpillars rely on honeysuckle as a food plant although I've never been able to see one.

A little further on we saw another woodland specialist, one of the fritillary butterflies, the Silver-washed fritillary. This is a bright orange butterfly with numerous black lines, spots, and crescent markings. The male has noticeabley long dark scent scales (sex brand) used during courtship. When the wings are closed you can see the pale, almost greenish, wash of colour on the lower wing that gives the species its name. This was only the briefest of glimpses before it sped of round and high into the sweet chestnut canopy.

The next day we headed to Yockletts bank. A site well known for its orchids but at this time of year only the Broad-leaved helleborine remained in flower, the rest of the orchids having already gone over.

In the open glades of the woodland bees and butterflies were busy on the wild thyme and knapweed. Whilst in the shade of the woodland under the impressive beech trees the lords-and-ladies (Arum maculatum) were ripe with scarlet berries, a sign of the approaching autumn along with the ripening hazel nuts.

A couple of buzzards made themselves known with their mewling call and lazily soared just above the tree tops. A feather lay near a tree from where one took flight. I'm not an expert in ID but its broadness and barring suggests it is buzzard to me. A good reminder of our woodland walks.