16. NWT Foxley Wood

The Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Foxley Wood is a place we have visited many times, but this is the first visit since we started our challenge. The largest remaining area of ancient woodland in Norfolk, it has an amazing array plant and pollinator species, including ancient woodland indicator species.

It was one of these species that we had come to see in its full glory today: native English bluebells. The walk is always boggy and wet underfoot, but if you can persevere, it is well worth the effort. Little clumps of blue nodding heads herald what lies ahead, along with other pretty wildflowers, such as cuckoo flower and water avens, with its delicate flowers atop tall sinewy stems, their yellow anthers just visible under a cloak of dark red sepals. Then there are the showy blossoms of various trees in the Rosaceae family, pink and white clusters irresistible to bees and their allies. More blue and purple blooms came from the upright flower spikes of bugle. As the blue tide began to swell, the bluebells were joined by greater stitchwort, tiny white flowers with five bifurcated petals. An out-of-place red campion stood tall and proud to be different above the sea of blue. Reaching the pinnacle of the ocean swamping the ground, hugging the trees, the fragrance of English bluebells is almost too much, but subtle enough that I could have happily stood forever in that sea, listening to the choir of woodland birds, breathing in the smell and gazing at all of those individual blue heads melting into one huge blue wave.

Water avens	Great tit
Red campion	Bugle and water avens

Canoeing and fungi at Foxley

It's been a while since my last post; the start of the new school year has been a little on the hectic side! I am happy though - our wild flower meadow has worked, I just need to take some photos for a proper update on it soon. For now though, here are my wildlife outings we managed in September - two in one day!

An early start on a Sunday morning... at 6:00 am some friends and I decided to go on a 'River Bure Otter Spotting' trail with the Canoe Man. Unfortunately, the otters stayed well out of our way, but the river at this time of day was beautiful; an ethereal mist rose from the surface in the early morning sunlight and wraith-like herons merged with the mist until their movements betrayed them. An occasional kingfisher would dart in front of the boat, showing off its neon plumage, bright compared with the rising mist. Long tailed tits 'see see seed' to each other in the branches around us, giving a constant chorus to the still air.

Later the same day, to a completely different habitat, we took a trip to Foxley Woods. The ancient woodland that, in spring, is carpeted with fragrant swathes of bluebells, becomes a heaven for fungi in autumn. Fungi are my least competent kingdom when it comes to identification, but their shapes, textures and colours fascinate me, even if I won't ever master the tricks of identifying them.

Spectacular rustgill?

Paxillus?

Agaricus sp.?

Also below us, in the mud of the passed rains, were huge deer footprints - far too large to be roe, I think, they must be the work of a red deer. The stride length between prints was incredibly large. Above us, charms of gold finches flitted from tree to tree chattering their charming musical calls. Marsh tits, blue tits and great tits were also busy feeding from hidden insects in the tree canopy. A great spotted woodpecker betrayed itself by its loud genial call from the top of a pine tree.

In the sunnier spots of the wood were some late butterflies and dragonflies; common darter dragonflies and speckled wood butterflies alighting on living and dead leaves in bright shafts of sunlight.

Foxley Bluebells

This time last year, I was really sad - I had managed to miss the overwhelming displays of bluebells in Foxley Woods by a week. This year, I made sure I didn't miss them; I visited once a week for the last three weeks, seeing the bluebells and indicator flower species at varying stages.

We first visited on 19th April. The blue of the knodding heads was just starting to emerge and the intoxicating sweet smell was only evident at point blank range. Wood anemones and wood sorrel were in full bloom, their open white/pink faces all the more obvious amongst the blue and green of the woodland floor.

Our walk had the sound track of chiff chaffs and was painted the blue of bluebells, the white and pink of wood anemones and wood sorrel and the yellow of the few remaining primroses.

When I returned the following weekend, the blue was all the more intense for the overcast sky and little sunlight penetrating the woodland. The bluebells were now at the stage where you could walk around a corner and be hit by a wave of their perfume, smelling almost like nothing else.

Our last visit, on 4th May, saw the bluebells at their showiest. It was the busiest we had ever seen the woods. Usually, ours is one of only two or three cars in the carpark, but today, it was overflowing, as it probably had been all weekend. A sure sign that the flowers were in full bloom and calling to all those who could hear them.

The blue was now so intense that I kept having to double-take the woodland floor, such an alien colour to be surrounding us in all directions - surely it should all be a greeny brown, not such a rich and showy colour!? The sunlight hitting the floor did not bleach them out, as expected, but made the contrast to the dark and mossy trees all the more apparent, and made the bluebells stand out all the more, not that they needed any help.

This has to be one of my favourite and most treasured wildlife spectacles. One that I am determined not to miss again.