June in an Essex Wood

I had planned to visit my wood quite early this morning, for the June visit of my ’12 Months in an Essex Wood’ project. When I drew the curtains, though, it was dull and overcast, so I thought I’d put it off, and maybe go next week.

HOWEVER by 1.00pm the sun was shining and it was a beautiful afternoon, so I changed my mind and went!

The wood seemed very shaded, and cool and quiet, and very, very green. 

The entrance to the wood

The sun came through the leaves in splashes and patches

The leaf canopy is really quite thick now . . .

. . . and the blue bells and the white stitchwort are long gone. In their place bracken has grown up,  blackberry brambles – some of them in flower – ground elder, and that sticky trailing plant that I think is called cleavers. The elder trees are flowering . . .

Elder tree flowering above the curling bracken fronds

. . .and in the more open places there are lots of red campions still, and also foxgloves – some in rather strange places . . .

Foxglove!

Last month the wood was loud with bird song. This month, partly because it was the afternoon I expect, it was much quieter. Rooks called intermittently. A blackbird had a burst of song, and the wood pigeons cooed away high up in the branches. I heard a green woodpecker’s wild laughing a few times, and I saw a beautiful jay. There were a lot of young squirrels running around amongst the trees.  The stream on the boundary of the wood was flowing fast. but the big pond that I painted in March is almost completely overgrown with reed mace and yellow flag irises.

And my ‘findings’ from the wood this month?

FEATHERS!