Field Trip to Park Wood, April 24th 2010
Article by Barbara Crooks Photographs by John Holding
Plenty of sunshine and blue sky provided an idyllic spring day for our first field trip of the year to Park Wood, easily reached from the small village of Hutton Roof in Cumbria. Park Wood has had continuous woodland cover since medieval times and is managed today by Cumbria Wildlife Trust as part of the Hutton Roof Crags Reserve.
Birdsong filled the canopy as we wandered around the woodland paths enjoying the colour and variety of the spring flowers and identifying the insects which had become energised by the warmth of the sun.
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Woodland Flora
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Dog Violets
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We went to look at the Field Maples in the wood – they are at their northern limit here – and puzzled over the identification of several Spruce trees.
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Which Spruce?
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Common (Boot) Frog
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A young, common frog formed an attachment with Betty`s boot and, although not seen, evidence of other inhabitants of the wood was confirmed by finding an owl pellet and badger latrines – both providing a lot of interest!
Badger Latrine
After we emerged from the Wood there was still plenty of time and good weather to dip into the clear water of a nearby spring, finding signs of new life there also, such as cadis fly larvae and freshwater shrimps.
Come and join us on some of our other field trips –there is always lots of interest to discover!
