top of page
Search
  • Writer's pictureCrone

Another patch of heaven

I wrote 'The Elm Copse' but that's because it's where I found the Wych Elms - the wood is mainly made up of Ash, Oak and Sycamore with some Scots Pines.

At this point I had been sitting still and silent for 25 minutes. The birds' alarm calls had quietened.


I was so still and silent that a squirrel ran right toward me and foraged in the leaf litter just a few feet away, without noticing me. I watched a family of Blue Tits pass through overhead, swinging on the leaves.


At one point a small plane and a helicopter passed overhead very close together - so loud! The calling birds increased the volume of their calls to be heard above the disturbance!


Among the birds, I heard another (or the same) Marsh Tit (ornithologist Neil had told me that it would not be uusual to hear one here) and a Nuthatch! This bird sounds very different to the ones I am used to hearing and so I noticed the call and was able, I think, to spot the bird!


The wood has an area with a lot of Dog's Mercury. Turns out it's highly poisonous, so just as well that I didn't forage it. It also shades out rarer plants, like Oxslip.

7 views3 comments

Recent Posts

See All

3 Comments


maplekey4
Jul 23, 2022

Read about the poisonous plant. Smells bad too so it gives you warning!!

Like
maplekey4
Jul 24, 2022
Replying to

That proves you ARE good at identification 😎

Like
bottom of page