Day 105 - In Sherwood Forest

At 9:30am on Sunday morning I was ambling through Sherwood Forest, watching jays, nuthatches and great tits flitting about in the trees. It was really quiet and the birdsong and sunshine were lovely!

As is my way, I ventured off main paths on several occasions to get away from people and dogs and explore different parts of the forest.

Along one route, there had been something sitting on a bramble leaf until I approached... a little patience and he reappeared - can you spot him?

Not terribly well positioned for a photo - and he (or she?) saw me too!

I crouched down a few feet from the tree and waited...

and sure enough, the common lizard climbed up a bit higher to sunbathe.

Below is the same photo as above, but rotated. I think it looks better this way and shows detail more clearly.

I found a birds nest on the ground beneath an oak tree. I have no idea which bird made it. It was very small and I think it must be dog hair lining it, from a dog with rather long hair! There are a couple of birds I can easily rule out, but that's as far as I get.

I know those are not sensible shoes for heading off the main tracks in a forest, but I like fresh air on my feet and I don't worry about getting mud between my toes!  My wellies live in my car and I did consider changing before I set off from the car park as I suspected it would be muddy in places, but I for once, I really didn't fancy wellies!

There were lots of bees out on the open heathy area, this one was quite large!

I saw a couple of hornets too (I love hornets!) but they didn't land anywhere I could get a clear photo.

I did get clear photos of another of my favourites, the hoppers!

I made a short video of these two as well, as they were so obliging and didn't mind me and my camera being a couple of inches away!


I mainly saw Speckled Wood butterflies and a few red admirals in the forest, but also saw this small copper

There was a Woodland Festival happening in the forest too this weekend - not hugely interesting as I'm already a member of most of the organisations present and I don't have children to enjoy the child aimed nature crafts, but it was worth a look and I did want to go along on a half hour guided walk with Luke Steer from the Ancient Tree Forum.

He took the group back in to the heathy area I'd just come from in search of the longhorn cattle. I'd walked that way purposely in search of the longhorns and they were nowhere to be seen, but when I returned with the group twenty minutes later, the herd was there, right where I'd been grasshoppering!

The walk was very interesting and it was great to hear about some of the conservation and habitat management happening in the forest as well as seeing a range of ancient trees. The best thing I learned on the walk was that there's a population of Welsh Clearwing moths in Sherwood Forest - one of the few sites they're found outside of Wales.

That small round hole on the birch below (look a little below the centre of the photo), was left by a clearwing exiting the tree :)

Here's a closer shot of it.

I can't believe it's taken me so long to visit Sherwood Forest as it's somewhere I've wanted to visit my whole life (I was a big fan of Robin Hood as a child!) and it's not that far away! What a fantastic place - somewhere I'll definitely visit again and again now!