Dragonflies

A Year in the Life of a Woodland – Part 2

/ Laura Tuke / Leave a comment

Throughout 2024, I followed in person a year in the life of an ancient, broadleaved woodland in the heart of rural Dorset. I followed its progress from certain points within its bounds, and observed the beauty the woodland had to offer throughout the seasons. It was really interesting to see what goes on during each month of the year within a classic english country woodland, and to be able see the subtle differences as time went on.

Previously on my blog, I left the woodland at the end of June after six months of colourful adventures. I watched as winter transformed into a vibrant spring and moved towards the summer months. From majestic skeletal trees and the unrolling of green to carpets of blue and flashes of beautiful butterflies, the woodland showed itself to be a master of changing its finery in dramatic style. To read more, check out Part 1 on my blog!

This time I delve into the second half of 2024 amongst the trees, as summer brings tranquil days, autumn comes with a riot of colour, and the woodland slips back into its winter slumber. How will these months differ to those of the first half of the year and what can we learn as the days regress once again. Here’s part 2 of my A Year in the Life of a Woodland.

July

Summer has arrived! Stepping into the woodland, humid warmth is replaced by a refreshing cool within the shade of the tall trees. All around the undergrowth is starting to die back, with flower heads dropping their spent petals and seeds beginning to be produced. Herb robert survives on though, with nodding heads of still bright pink flowers, whilst honeysuckle hangs from the trees, giving off their heady scent, and enchanter’s nightshade and bramble flowers start to appear. Amongst all this, ferns now stand tall along open tracks and wooodland glades, lush green and stealing the summer sunlight from any plants tucked below.

Birds of the woodland are now concentrating on feeding their young or are even coming to the end of this year’s breeding season. Distant chiffchaffs and wrens sing on though, alongside woodpigeons calling, and tits communicating up in the trees. Buzzing flies can also be heard on warmer days, whilst dragonflies dance along woodland borders on silent wings. A fox slinks by through the shadows of the trees, on silent paws, at ease, only turning its head as it walks by. With the woodland now full of new life, the excitement and activity of spring is ebbing away, and we welcome the days of the more relaxed summer season.

August

The woods are returning to their quieter state once again. The days are beginning to shorten in small increments, and the first whisperings of autumn can be felt. The start of August has been interesting with the woods seeing hot days broken up with spells of grey and heavy showers. As evening sun breaks through the still lush, but battered canopy, it’s noticeable that the woodland floor is picking up pace receding now. The hint of colour from flowers is completely disappearing, whilst the green undergrowth is beginning to show the brown leaf litter layer below.

Silence blankets the woodland, broken by wind up in the tree canopy, distant bird contact calls, and noise beyond the woodland altogether. The joyful bird song of spring has long served it’s purpose, and now the time has come when summer visitors are beginning to think of moving on to warmer climes, as the first signs of autumn have arrived. Plants hang with fat seed heads, hazel trees are laden with nuts that are already being pilfered, grey squirrels can be heard alarm calling up in the trees, and jays are popping up with their rough screaming calls. It’s a time of bounty and fruitfulness, a time to celebrate what nature has given us this year, and a time to prepare for the slumber to come.

September

The first breath of chilly air has arrived and rarer dry days have an edge to them. Another change in the year is coming, as the woodland floor dies back, leaving increasing patches of last year’s leaf litter open to the air once again. In places grass is crowding out other species on woodland rides, whilst ferns begin to turn brown, like fire catching their leaves’ edges. The first holly berries are beginning to redden, hazel trees are bedecked in green nuts, ripe blackberries are already beginning to soften, and oaks are growing their iconic nuts complete with their classic cups.

The mornings are now renewed with a gentle soundtrack of calling birds in the woodland, with residents claiming territories and migrants passing through on their way. Nuthatches, wrens, goldcrests and robins are amongst this cohort, creating a bubble of bird song. The afternoons are quieter, filled with lazily buzzing insects, and the odd animal sound. This afternoon though, the woodland soundscape is broken up with the sound of a great-spotted woodpecker moving from tree to tree and tapping to find food beneath bark. 

October

Nights are drawing in, temperatures are beginning to cool, and the dampness in the air is creeping in. Trees, such as oak, hazel and ash, are beginning to show changes to the colour of their leaves, adding yellows, reds, and oranges to their palette. As the trees signal the start of changing out of their finery, the ferns covering the woodland floor below are now fully on fire, curling up and browning away. As this dying off progresses, new life is symbolised through nuts, seeds and berries, such as the first ripe holly berries, shiny and red, waiting to be eaten. To buck the trend, ivy tendrils are sprouting clusters of green balls, their late flowers that will reach their peak in November.

Most of the summer avian residents will have begun their travels to warmer climes, leaving overwintering birds moving through and residents staying put. For example, our native robins are beginning to sing strong once again, needing to defend their important territories throughout the winter. Tits can be heard beginning to travel in small feeding flocks, whilst wrens and goldcrests flit in the branches currently going solo. Mammals do not make an appearance during my visit, but there are signs of the badgers, foxes, roe deer and squirrels that call the woods home. Times are bountiful for those who can find it, but harsher days are on their way!

November

The arrival of November is accompanied by shortening day lengths and biting northerly winds. Mostly the month begins calm in the woodland with grey or sunny days. As trees continue to take in the goodness of this year’s bounty of leaves, the green of summer has been fully taken over by bright fierce colours in the canopy, with the orange of oak, yellow of hazel, gold of field maple, and red of hawthorn, amongst others. The leaves also begin to fall from on high, twirling to the ground and beginning to form a crunchy leaf litter under foot. The trees are going to go out with a riot of colour!

The soft sunlight falling through the trees marks a slowing of time and activity for wildlife. Pheasants meander amongst the trees being released from local shoots. A raucous jay echoes through the still trees. Mushrooms poke up from the leaf litter here and there creating a more ethereal quality to the woodland during this time. It finally feels like autumn has arrived just at the point when people look towards the closing of the year in a month’s time. Time to savour the last hurrah of nature!

December

The year is rolling on to its close once again and winter is fully upon us. As I step back into the woodland for one last walk of the year, a cool breeze bites my cheeks whilst cheerful sunshine falls through the trees. Now I find myself surrounded by leafless forms once again, bare, skeletal, but magnificent, especially the ancient oaks. The last few hazel leaves cling to their branches, but most trees have now shed their finery, and a new carpet of leaf litter satisfyingly crunches beneath my feet. The trees are putting nutrients back into the earth as they now lay in slumber.

Up above my head, I can hear a soft tap, tap, tap. The sound of a great-spotted woodpecker moving from tree to tree once again, and tapping for food under their barks. Birds call all around me, from angry wrens, territorial robins, and hungry blue tits, to a raven passing overhead, blackbirds on the wing, and even a nuthatch going about its business. Badgers will now be sleeping more, whilst foxes are more active, thinking about breeding once again. There is still so much life to be found out in this Dorset woodland, even if all are just trying to survive through to another year. December is rolling on and a new year beckons!

Rural Dorset vs. Urban Manchester: Magical Minibeasts

/ Laura Tuke / Leave a comment

Series in collaboration with guest writer Emma Rogan

Rolling green hills, trees sprawling across the landscape, hedgerows thick with plant and animal life, flowers growing up here and there, and rivers flowing through it all. The light of an orange sunset cast out over the city by a soaring glass tower block, the lonely lights of a crane against an evening sky, busy streets lit up for Christmas filled with music and laughter. Everyone’s idea of idyll varies, but for nature any landscape could provide a home. Let us explore.

Growing up within her family’s 250 acres of land, for naturalist Laura, rural Dorset is home. In what may be called the ‘middle of nowhere’ for an urban adventurer, Laura grew up alongside wildlife from barn owls and hares to grass snakes, damselflies, and oak trees. With parents that nurtured her to take an interest from a young age in looking after the wildlife they saw on their doorstep, this landscape has made her the conservationist and scientist she is today. Now her home provides inspiration for her photography and writing, including her Laura’s Wild World blog. Check out her blog here.

Guest for this series and wildlife enthusiast, Emma grew up in Manchester and will always be a city girl at heart. As a child she loved to watch nature documentaries and daydreamed about faraway places, but over time she fell in love with the wildlife that also calls Manchester its home. Emma has spent the past year documenting the lives of the insects, birds, squirrels and foxes that stop by her little rectangle of garden, and exploring the local woods alongside the River Mersey with her mum. Check out her page here.

In this brand new blog series, we take a look at the local wildlife that can be found in two very different home locations. Though at a contrast with each other, we will see how nature can make its home in both rural and urban landscapes, and the wealth of life that can be explored on anyone’s doorstep. At a time when it is so important that we protect and conserve the natural environment around us, let us inspire you as we take an adventure to explore a smaller side to nature.

Laura’s Countryside Minibeasts

Today was a warm and breezy day, perfect for walking through my family’s Dorset farmland in just a T-shirt and shorts. It was the kind of day though when you could feel the first breath of autumn in the air, kept at bay by the bleaching late-August sun. Pushing the cooler days to come to the back of my mind, I set out to try to see what smaller creatures I could find out in nature.

Journeying along tracks, through grass fields, over rivers, through tall maize, past a chalk ridge, and back home to my garden, my quest bore more and more fruits along the way. With every turn I got to experience a colourful and spectacular diversity of butterflies from small coppers to peacocks, got to be serenaded by grasshoppers singing their chirping tune, and to be joined by crane flies lazily hanging in the hazy golden light as I walked along on my own.

As my minibeast list grew, I stopped here and there to take a closer look, such as to gaze at beautifully banded snails hanging from nettles, or to photograph minibeasts, such as the curious looking froghoppers making maize leaves their home. I was loving it! The main highlight of my adventure though, had to be discovering a treasure trove of dragonfly and damselfly species on and around the pond in our conservation field. One minute I would see the golden-brown of an unknown dragonfly fly past me, before catching sight of common blue demoiselles dancing in the air and red-veined darters defending territories over the water. I was amazed at how many beautifully-coloured species I saw in such a short space of time!

When I set out on my minibeast adventure, I was not entirely sure what I would find at this late stage of August. Whatever I thought though, by the end I was having a really great time, seeing some cool minibeasts ranging from busy honey bees enjoying a medley of flowers to many butterflies adorning buddleia bushes like gemstones. It really brought home that you never know what you might find until you open your eyes to the world around you. I am no invertebrate expert, but I was still able to take in all the wonders this mini world had to offer. It was a great break from life, though more importantly, a game changer!

Emma’s Minibeast Hunt in the City

Unbelievably, the afternoon I’d planned to go on my Minibeast Hunt was beautifully warm and sunny with a slight breeze. This is a rarity in Manchester! I gleefully pulled on my walking boots and headed out with my other half to Fletcher Moss, a nearby park and woodland alongside the River Mersey. We spent an hour wandering through the Parsonage Gardens, down to the river (down, down, doooown by the riveeeer – any Baldur’s Gate 3 fans?), and through the woods, making a brief stop for ice cream along the way!

The Old Parsonage and it’s beautiful walled garden was left to the citizens of Manchester by Alderman Fletcher Moss in 1919, and has since become a much-loved community space which is carefully looked after by volunteers. The garden was buzzing with pollinators drawn in by the variety of flowers, the echinops was particularly popular! It’s always lovely to see bees out and about in Manchester, as bees are the symbol of our city.

We then walked down the hill and took a winding path towards the river. The first stop on our riverside walk was Simon Bridge, a green iron bridge across the River Mersey which was gifted to the people of Didsbury by Henry Simon in 1901. Plenty of bees, wasps and hoverflies flew past us as we walked, but our second stop came when we heard what we thought was the singing of a grasshopper! This necessitated ten minutes of searching and more than a few curious glances before we found the little guy sat solemnly on a blade of grass.

As we wandered on, our path took us away from the river and back up into Stenner Woods, a small area of woodland in the original Mersey Valley flood plain. It was at this point that a dragonfly decided to join us! Unfortunately, he wouldn’t stay still long enough for me to take a picture. We also came across a snail clinging to a thistle, and a ladybird nestled between the spines of a teasel, and a very hungry group of mint leaf beetles. Butterflies were noticeably absent, as we spotted only one female meadow brown butterfly during our walk. Our final stop was at a small pond area, where we saw what seemed to be hundreds of pond skaters!

I’ve been fond of bees for quite a few years (I even wrote my dissertation on bees!), but I don’t often take the time to pause and notice the other minibeasts that live in my local area. This minibeast hunt was a great opportunity to challenge myself to look closer, and I felt very lucky to gain a snapshot into the lives of these smallest of animals.

Minibeasts

When people think of animals they usually think of lions, bears or elephants, for example, forgetting the smaller less observed animals in nature. The minibeasts we walk past each day though, can be equally majestic and awe-inspiring. Butterflies in spectacular colours, weird and wonderful froghoppers, or wriggling hard-working earthworms. All play an important role in nature, but tend to go unnoticed and be underappreciated.

On both Emma and Laura’s minibeast adventures though, they found taking the time to focus on the smaller things eye opening. They might live in very different areas, but the green spaces they both have access to show an amazingly similar host of minibeasts. From grasshoppers to dragonflies, amazing minibeasts can be found anywhere. By challenging yourself to look closer at the smaller things in life, you can learn a lot, be provided with inspiration and even experience a moment of distraction and escape. Minibeasts are colourful, unusual, and awe-inspiring, so why not stop and find out what you could discover too?