A Pembrokeshire bluebell wood

A weekend away in Pembrokeshire to catch up with friends and it is reasonable to suggest that the date was timed to coincide with the display of bluebells in Coed Tŷ Canol National Nature Reserve. I had last visited the Tŷ Canol woodlands at the end of March 2015  and this was my first visit in the month of May. Saturday dawned to a forecast of high wind and clear skies, sigh, nevertheless I had time for a recce to Tŷ Canol and ascertained that the woods were as atmospheric as ever, most of the sessile oaks were in leaf and bluebells were in flower, the harsh lighting and wind meant any meaningful photography was limited to recording the ground flora.

Enchanters nightshade, wood sorrel, hard fern, buckler fern and  bluebells.

On Sunday I persuaded Nic that we should visit Tŷ Canol on the journey home, coincidentally the weather was more photographically promising with lighter winds, showers, over head cloud with breaks for sunshine. The weather was amenable to making images of woodland in contrasting lighting with the quiet light of overhead cloud and intermittent sunshine allowing sunlit dappled woodland.

A far better appreciation and insight was gained into the habitats within Tŷ Canol with flora in leaf/flower denoting associations with deep shade, water logged ground, flushes and dry soils. The lichen and bryophyte communities for which Tŷ Canol is renowned for were once again pondered and once again a mental note made to make the effort to investigate these further. Nic summed up Tŷ Canol  perfectly in describing it as a 'special place' and 'nourishment for the soul'.

A local bluebell wood

Let me state that I am no phenologist with detailed records of weather/nature events, my observations stem from consulting a photographic archive, memory and empirical observations, leaving some margin for large errors. So with those caveats in place, thus far the 2017 bluebell carpets in the woodlands of the Wye Valley and Forest of Dean seem below par. Instead of a synchronised mass of flowering there has been a staggered roll out of bluebell flowering in the woods I have visited. The bluebell plants also seem smaller in stature too.

Illustration of the patchy flowering of bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) in 2017

The weather may be factor being dominated by high pressure after a relatively dry winter, so lots of sunshine, little rainfall, cold air from the north and east, wildly fluctuating temperatures with some hard frosts when the wind drops and clear skies etc etc. Or it may just be the foraging activity of the resident population of wild boar, trampling by deer or something else. On the plus side some tree species are leaf flushing earlier providing some relief in a woodland image with a leaf canopy instead of sky lined bare tree branches against a blown out sky.

After some unfruitful photographic outings, it was time to put aside the quest for new bluebell woods and instead satiate my bluebell carpet fix, by visiting a wood that produces a consistent display of bluebells irrespective of weather. The wood favours evening photography with the main bluebell carpet concentrated on an exposed north-westerly aspect slope, susceptible to westerly winds funnelled through a valley. On my visit it was an easterly wind that eased during my visit.

Aesthetically a case can be made for cloud and rain providing the best photographic weather for conveying the depth of colour, in lieu of rain: dappled sunshine falling through a developing tree canopy, illuminating tree trunks and the woodland floor conveys an uplifting vision of spring in my humble opinion.

It was a rewarding photography trip, although the aroma of bluebells and the chorus of birdsong a reminder of the limitations of photography in capturing the atmosphere of a landscape.