A spring woodland trip

A forecast of heavy overnight rain with clearing skies, negligible wind and the chance of mist, was the inspiration to set the alarm clock for a dawn outing. A bluebell wood recced on an evening visit a few days before would be the destination.

Wild boar foraging

Entering the wood just before sunrise and it became apparent that a) there was no ground mist, nor indeed any other type of mist and b) a sounder of wild boar had descended en masse to forage in the bluebell carpet in the area of wood that I wanted to photograph. Sigh. There were no signs of leaves or flower stalks sans bulbs, the boar seemed interested in something else and the bluebells collateral damage. Taking stock of the situation and the overnight rain had enlivened the mosses, wetted the leaf litter and the wind was negligible, so Plan B would be a visit to a scowles woodland 10 minutes drive away and hopefully the flora would be in flower.

Ramsons carpet

On the drive to the scowles wood I passed by patches of ground mist on fields and on the walk in there was a ground mist in the meadow adjacent to the wood. No mist in the wood though and reinforcing my view that woods have their own microclimate. Nevertheless there was some nice mist filtered light over a ramsons carpet and also deeper into the wood.

The Ransoms whilst in full flower at the wood edges were only beginning to flower in some parts of the wood where beech trees had leaf flushed well before the other canopy trees of lime and ash.

In the scowles where yew forms the understorey then it's the domain of bryophyte communities and just a few vascular plants.

It did appear to my eyes that where a canopy gap allowed morning sunlight onto the woodland floor there was a noticeable increase in woodland plants.

The light all too quickly became too harsh for effective photography and the remainder was spent investigating the wood for less common plants and enjoying the chorus of bird song.

April round up of woodland trips.

Conventional wisdom suggests that March weather influences the flowering times of spring flora and the Met Office climate maps indicates that March 2018 weather wasn't the best.

Copyright https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/summaries/anomacts

Copyright https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/summaries/anomacts

I'm fairly confident that the weather in April has also been been far from optimal. So here follows some photography trip reports and phenomenological observations on leaf bud and flowering.

Blackmill woodlands SAC

Blackmill woodlands Special Area of Conservation had been on my 'to visit' list for a while, so when an opportunity to visit friends in South Wales arose a detour was made for a quick visit. The wood was sited on a valley hillside underlain by Carboniferous coal measures on the southern outcrop of the South Wales coalfield. Some of the the oaks displayed various stages of leaf bud and leaf flushing although some trees were still in winter dormancy. The SAC notification is for "Old sessile oak woods with Ilex and Blechnum in the British Isles" and all the flora boxes were ticked for that designation to hold. Other flora seen in the wood were bluebells nowhere near flowering, a solitary patch of wood anemones were in flower and so was wood sorrell and carpets of bilberry.  The grasses present were still to develop inflorescences so no positive ID was made and the bryophyte cover noted but time didn't allow further investigation.

Bilberry and contorted oaks.

The erection of exclosure fencing around the wood perimeter had reduced herbivore grazing and the presence of saplings indicated holly and rowan were naturally rejuvenating.

Fallen deadwood.

There was also a noteworthy quantity of standing and fallen deadwood present. It was an all too brief visit and a future visit will be made to investigate further.

The next wood visited was a more local one underlain by lower Devonian sandstones and mudstones. Wind and rain limited photography ambitions to a relatively sheltered area of outsized small leaved lime (tilia cordata) coppice stools suggestive of a great age and an emerging bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) carpet. The small leaved lime, sweet chestnut and oaks were just starting leaf flush.

The third wood visited was in the Wye Valley Woodlands SAC in the upper gorge and underlain by Carboniferous limestone. Heavy rain preceded the visit and the wood was relatively sheltered from a cool northerly wind, the beech trees were in leaf so the first area visited was one where mosses cover the top of a substantial limestone pillar in the gorge.

Whitebeams (Sorbus spp) were conspicuous on cliff edges and ledges with their distinctive pale upright leaf buds and flushing leaves.

Elsewhere the wildflowers in bloom included early purple orchids (Orchis mascula), bluebells, wood anemones (Anemone nemorosa), wood spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides) and ransoms (Allium ursinum) were just coming into flower.

The fourth wood visited was a local woodland underlain by Carboniferous limestones and sandstones with scowles workings. Nearly all the common flora associated with ancient woodland was present and flowering including two separate colonies of Herb Paris (Paris quadrifolia).

An outsize beech coppice stool hosted wood anemones as epiphytes.

A canopy gap allowed some light into the scowles and illuminated the epicormic branches on a beech tree.

That was April and the promise of ramsons and bluebell carpets in May.

Reflected and diffuse autumn light

Heavily shaded woodland environments benefit hugely from the illumination of an autumnal canopy that imparts 'warm' light and if a mist is rising then the light is diffused. The combination creates some very special lighting and is generally utilised for photographs of sun beams penetrating through breaks in the tree canopy.

A recent trip to a Scowles woodland was rewarded with the conditions and atmosphere for reflected and diffused lighting, that made venturing forth down into the darker realms a realistic photographic ambition. The lower perspective offers views of outsize tree roots flowing down over bedrock outcrops to form buttresses and the underside of gnarled veteran beech coppice stools with rot hollows that provide insight to their great age. The dense shade and higher humidity also creates the habitat for luxuriant mosses and bryophytes and for my aesthetic tastes the emerald greens contrasts well with the freshly fallen autumnal beech leaves. Whilst sun beams breaking through a canopy provide visual drama, it is well worth bearing in mind that the very same atmospheric conditions can be utilised to photograph more challenging subject matter.

Early autumn in a Scowles woodland.

Autumnal colour in woodlands is a personal highlight in the landscape photography calendar and it usually heralds an invigorated jet stream lining up vigorous weather systems at the UK, sigh. So it was with some relief that a calm weather forecast coincided with beech leaves starting to change colour and a trip was made to a scowles woodland in the Forest of Dean. The woodland canopy is dominated by beech with yew dominating the understorey and occasional ash, holly, hazel, wych elm, whitebeam and lime. Beech trees in the ancient woodlands I am familiar with, rarely synchronise their autumnal colour. Instead it's a gradual roll out with a spectrum of hues from green to fiery orange/red and corresponding leaf fall punctuated by heavy falls in stormy weather. The colour hues shifting from greens to full autumn colour as the days shorten and nights lengthen.

On this visit there was enough early leaf fall to enliven the floor and enough leaves remaining to maintain a closed canopy and include some of the tree crowns in a composition. Some light rainfall had wetted surfaces to saturate colours and overhead cloud provided diffuse lighting. More importantly there was almost negligible wind as the composition hinges upon the lack of movement during a long exposure.  Suffice to type that I was satisfied with the photographic reward.

Shades of green

Persistent rain and almost negligible wind provided the necessary inspiration and motivation for a late spring photography trip to a scowles woodland. Whilst I have written about the benefits of rain wetted surfaces elsewhere in this blog, an additional bonus of heavy rain is the dampening effect on the surprisingly large and diverse resident population of biting insects, that would have otherwise made photography purgatory.

The tree species tally was impressive : beech (Fagus sylvatica), oak (Quercus spp.), ash (Fraxinus excelsior), cherry (Prunus avium), rowan (Sorbus aucuparia), wych elm (Ulmus glabra), holly (Ilex aquifolium), yew (Taxus baccata, field maple (Acer campestre), hazel (Corylus avellana),  hawthorn (Crataegus spp), birch ((Betula spp.), large leaved lime (Tilia platyphyllos), small leaved lime (Tilia cordata) and wild service (Sorbus torminalis). Some trees were derelict coppice stools of considerable girth indicative of a long life span.

Having exhausted my supply of dry micro fibre towels, I made my way back to the car and chanced upon a Greater Butterfly Orchid, the first I have ever seen in a woodland and the end to a satisfying outing.

Scowles First Light

Two consecutive dawns in late April delivered heavy overnight frosts, negligible wind, cloud free eastern horizons at sunrise and low angled warm light to illuminate scowles woodland. The latitude of the Forest of Dean, modest elevation above sea level and post spring equinox, ensures the duration of first light at sunrise lasts only a few minutes.

First light provided illumination of the interior woodland and mineral workings, although the ground flora is sparse, limited to flora able to cope with deep shade cast from beech and yew trees. Given the environment and nature of light, I was reasonably happy with the images made, although another trip in a fortnight might produce more pleasing results as the sunrise azimuth will provide a better angle of first light at another scowles location.

I do enjoy the photography challenges presented by ephemeral light in a woodland environment, although with negligible wind, there are opportunities with twilight and post first light to fall back on.

Ye olde wild yew trees

I reacquainted myself with the Ancient Yew Group website when looking up info about the King yew from a recent walk and am conscious that there are a couple of local woodlands with yews that are worthy of recording. So I contacted the Ancient Yew Group (AYG) to enquire if someone experienced in recording yews could assist in recording a number of yews in the Forest of Dean and in early April I met up with Peter Norton of the AYG to guide and assist him in measuring the yews.

A rejuvenating yew with aerial roots growing inside the decaying wood and new wood being laid down. Compass for scale.

The first location has a long history of woodland management, with an association to a 12th Century Cistercian Abbey and the ground flora is indicative of ancient woodland. Within this woodland there are a number of yews growing on a steep escarpment, woodland boundary and on/along earthworks, some of the earthworks could be associated with the Cistercian monks management of the wood. Some yews on the escarpment are hollowed and fragmented, elsewhere the yews mostly appeared whole. Measurements were made of the largest yews and some exceeded the criteria of girth measurement for exceptionally significant trees in a woodland environment, as defined by Toby Hindson of the AYG. A good start to the visit.

Scowles environment 

The second woodland visited was one of the scowles and is postulated as a source of iron ore for a major iron working industry at Ariconium. The iron working activities at Ariconium have been dated to the late Iron Age with a major increase in activity in the Roman age and represent a major site of the iron industry in Britain.

Scowles bedrock outcrops

The bedrock at this scowles location is of Lower Carboniferous age with gently dipping beds of limestone and shale. The exposed outcrops appear to be intimately associated with mineral working activities and there is no sign of modern quarrying techniques i.e drill holes. Some of the bedrock outcrops also display carious weathering, that might indicate prolonged exposure to the elements. Aside from opencast and subterranean iron ore mining, limestone has historically been used as a flux for iron working, tanning, mortar, building stone, lime wash etc. although some of the limestone has dolomitised. There is a high probability for a long history of intermittent mineral working at this location, although no archaeological excavation has taken place.

Yew rooted to a quarried outcrop

The yews are mostly sited on bedrock outcrops and their morphology is varied with trees in varying states of rejuvenation; some are clearly fragments of once larger trees; others are laying down new wood to cover dead wood or close gaps in the trunk; some are sending forth new branches from what otherwise appears to be a dead tree and others are sending down aerial roots. The scowles yews at this location present a stark contrast to the yews in the woodland of the 1st visit and this was where Peter Norton's experience was needed in determining where to measure and how to categorise the trees.

The association of yews and bedrock outcrops

The tale of the tape determined slightly lower measured girth than the first location. Sadly time pressure dictated that only the largest and easily accessible yews were visited and recorded, a pity as some otherwise innocuous looking yews have interesting morphologies. Peter Norton has yet to publish his findings and it will be interesting to read his opinions.