Jubilee Wood wildlife report so far! Spring 2023

Jubilee Wood wildlife report so far! Spring 2023

It was a slow start to spring, with cold winds & rain; the trees were not sure what to think. Nevertheless, they soon caught up! More about them on my next report! But I’m delighted to say, we now have some evergreens in the form of holly, laurel & yew.

Bird life! I have noted a pair of fieldfares gathering nest building materials from the woodland, also we have a pair of buzzards patrolling and the odd hawk! We also have a resident pair of green woodpeckers, jays and, unfortunately, magpies looking around to steal eggs and chicks + a woodcock that took up residence in the long grasses over the Winter. I will be encouraging the Committee (Tuesday crew) to leave a little more for next Winter.

Bird boxes, most of the original boxes have been used, mostly by blue tits, we do also have a couple of boxes used by Great tits. There was a wren’s nest by the main gate but this has since ended up on the floor, but I hope they managed to fledge one brood.

We have a number of early purple & common spotted orchids, I have seen some borage around the edges of the woodland, and also we have some mugwort herb!  Including many more woodland plants would take up a page or two to name them all: bluebells are starting to appear in places as if by magic!, the primrose’s are gradually getting established and we had an amazing display of cowslips; nature is gradually creeping in! Did it ever creep out?

I have not personally seen any grass snakes so far this spring, Brian assures me he has seen one around three feet long basking in the sun, not sure if Brian is a fisherman?

It looks like we have a hare living in the woodland, I have seen it around six times, not so many squirrels around? No nuts yet! And at the moment the butterflies are rather on the scarce side!

Pond life: the pond looked amazing this spring; the irises & water marigolds put on a wonderful flower display!

Sadly, the heron eats lots of frogs and the spawn, I also observed some strings of toad spawn, and perhaps we could make an effort to protect them in some way next year? I have at last spotted a king fisher! Now we have a coracle we could put a perch or two into the middle of the pond.

That’s about it for now.

Peter Loxley – Smith wildlife advisor for the woodland.