I discovered Wendover Wood on the interent by chance. The wood's website has next to no information concerning possible flora and fauna and an internet search for a detailed list was lacking but for a single, and rather neglected blog called Walk Among Flowers.
The (last) entry dated 21st June 2011 details a walk that takes in the wood and suggest that it is mostly a mixture of Beech and Fir, the above shots of Scots Pine and Beech mast were taken in and around the car park and whilst the two species are common it doesn't paint the full picture.
After a coffee at the decent but soon to be busy café we elected to try and find the designated Firecrest Walk (one of the few species mentioned on the website). My son confidently lead us in the right direction...Or so he thought and we end up on the Hill Fort Trail. As we went along I took a picture of all the tree types that I saw after the Scots Pine and Beech so quickly I recorded Yew, Holly, Ash, Spruce...
...Horse Chestnut, Lime, Hazel, Hawthorn...
...Pendunculate Oak, Box, Alder and Ash.
A lot of the spruce trees had copious amounts of resin issuing from wounds, I gathered token amounts from several trees for a forthcoming project which I need a bit of pine pitch glue for.
From a distance this non-coniferous tree in full leaf had me puzzling, but closer examination revealed a specimen covered in a big Ivy growth.
The website suggested that there would be the chance to see the surrounding countryside and this slightly misty view was near the site of the Boddington hill fort.
It is hard to visualise the true extent of this ancient site but it took some time to traverse it, and whilst there's not much to signify the areas former usage there was a tantalising glimpse of the mount that surrounded it towards the back end. Imagine camping on such a historic site.
When discussing what time to leave home I'd come up with the earliest suggestion which I argued was necessary to have a decent chunk of time to walk before dinner. We did this route quite quickly and as we headed back found a path the join the Firecrest walk which we had originally aimed for.
Having seen plenty of tree types on the first walk we saw or heard little sign of any animals and birds, the Firecrest walk was different. Initially the trees were mostly Beech but gave way to a mixture and we stopped to look at the bird activity high up in the canopy.
We saw Blue, Coal and Great Tits, Nuthatches, Treecreepers and what we are fairly sure were Firecrests. Being high up you barely get a flash of the crest to distinguish them from Goldcrests but we had several encounters and have had to assume we've successfully seen Firecrests.
Whilst straining our necks we could also here a gruff Corvid like call a way away, it turned out to be a small unkindness of Ravens (one of the collective noun names). I only had the idea to try and capture it on my camera once most had left but one is better than none. Click on the above image with the volume up. Despite their size and number we only briefly saw one fly away.
It was whilst scoping for the Ravens that I noticed that the trees in front of me weren't Spruces, they were actually Balsam Firs which brings the tree list up to thirteen.
Note the little horizontal blisters which, if you pierce, are full of resin which has a smell sort of similar to honey. You can see that a couple have burst a while ago. there's a very good blog post on the tree resin's medicinal property by Paul Kirtley here).
It wasn't all about trees and birds. We also saw lot of Bracken, Travellers Joy, Brambles, Arum, Nettles, Cleavers, Clematis, Wood Sorrel, Broom, Gorse and even a lone Herb Robert flower. And to top it off, some Elder leaves out.
Having visited to see what the wood was like I consider the fact that I am lagging behind my family taking pics to be a successful visit, much like the first picture in this blog actually. We stopped at the now heaving café for a bite and got out of the carpark before hitting the next price band by eight minutes.
If you visit and will be heading eastbound down the A41 then turn left not right out of the one way exit road because by the time my sat nav caught up I had, shall we say, the scenic route.
As a place to visit will be a guaranteed return in warmer and more verdant months as any trees I missed will be betrayed to me by their leaves (I didn't see any Birch or Willows for instance) and the blog I mentioned earlier listed many interesting plants and flowers in and around the locality with the Wildlife Trust run Aston Clinton Ragpits nature reserve boasting many orchid and butterfly species close by.
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