Exploring Worcester Woods

Nick Cripps

Summer's Lease

JUNE

JUNE is the month of long days, warm evenings and dusk-time walks. Spring time flowers have gone over and are developing seeds. Meadow grasses are releasing high levels of pollen much to the despair of the hay-fever sufferer.

FLOWERS

Hedge Woundwort is a very undistinguished herb with dull mauve flowers and drab nettle-like leaves. But do not judge on looks alone! The remarkable woundwort has excellent healing qualities and its antiseptic leaves can be used in a poultice. In Saxon times the word ‘wort' meant to heal.

Red Campion flowers from mid-May to October in large drifts inside the coppiced areas of Warndon Wood. Cow-wheat is a pallid, pale-yellow-mouthed flower. Growing in Perry Wood's heath land, it appears to shelter around the solitary oaks. Folk lore has it that pregnant women ate cow-wheat to ensure their child be male!

The sprawling shrub Woody Nightshade, called Bittersweet, prefers semi-shade and damp conditions. It has a revered history, the berries of bittersweet being found in the tomb of Tutankhamen fashioned into a necklace.

The Dog Rose, our unofficial 'English rose', is in bloom. The flower, large and scented, is usually white with a flush of pink. Also occasionally in the meadows is the stocky-stemmed plant Agrimony - its stem a rod of bright-yellow flowers.

Goat's Beard or Jack-go-to-bed-at-Noon, is a fascinating plant of the meadows. Its single yellow flower opens each morning, but promptly shuts again at midday, before the full heat of the afternoon sun. Like the dandelion, goats’ beard develops a white and fluffy seed-clock.

The yellow-flowered Ragwort is the food plant of the cinnabar moth caterpillar. The wasp-coloured, yellow-and-black, caterpillar often invades it in large numbers. Ragwort is a common weed of grazing land and is highly poisonous to livestock.

The Mini Meadow at Nunnery Wood is a sanctuary and nectar source for feeding butterflies and moths. Flowers like Ox-eyed Daisy, Lesser Knapweed, and Spiny Restharrow and all flourish there. The purple-pink Self Heal and pink-petalled Meadow Cranesbill also grow easily amongst the grasses.

Around County Hall pools Yellow Flag is prominent. So too, is Greater Spearwort, a yellow-petalled flower with the look of the buttercup. Growing in small clumps on the dry grass edges is Water Mint. This highly aromatic herb produces reddish pom-pom-like flowers in July.

The familiar Bulrush edges the pools and acts as cover for the breeding bird life. The water cascade between County Hall’s two pools, is a tangle of yellow Water-lilies. The lilies with their large green floating leaves, are sometimes called Brandy bottles because of their distinctive fruit pods.

BIRDS

June is a family-raising month. Thrushes and robins will be into their second broods - usually more successful than the first because of the increased leaf cover. The warblers and Pied Flycatcher will be feeding their first brood. The last summer arrival, the Spotted Flycatcher - recognised by its complete absence of spots - will be incubating high up in its ivy-clad nest.

As the month progresses most songbirds grow gradually quieter, and the Dawn Chorus peters into a pale echo of early May. Cuckoos are scarce, but still heard. Listen too, for the Yellow Hammer calling from the tops of the denser hedgerows.

BUTTERFLIES

June is surprisingly a poor month for butterflies as many species are between broods. By early summer the orange-coloured Large Skipper, a small, yet thickset butterfly, has emerged - although it’s easily overlooked or dismissed as a moth.

The commonest butterfly is surprisingly the Meadow Brown and not a ‘white’. This brown butterfly, with orange wing patches, is fond of open grassland and bramble. Huge numbers of meadow browns will be flying through to September.

Individual Marbled White butterflies have been recorded in Perry Wood. The marbled white is a species that rarely travels far from its localised colonies within the County, so consequently it is an infrequent visitor to the Park.

MOTHS

Not all moths are 'night flying butterflies'! The Cinnabar Moth with its strikingly pink wings, and the Six-spot Burnet, both fly the meadows by day, preferring to settle in the longer grasses. Mallard and Chaser Dragonfly - watersedge.gif - 20631 Bytes

Mallard and Chaser Dragonfly - watersedge.gif - 20631 Bytes

DRAGONFLIES

With more than 90% of still-water habitats lost in the British Isles since the war, the ponds and pools of Nunnery are vital for dragonfly and damselfly populations. Dragonflies associate with water and spend their formative years submerged as larvae. They emerge to fly in spring or summer. Dragonflies are reputed to be the fastest insects on the wing and certainly they are strong fliers, continually patrolling the pools for insect food. Nunnery Wood has 10 species recorded to date.

The Azure Damselfly, the Common Blue, and the Blue-tailed are the first damselflies to emerge, and will fly until August. All three are relatively weak fliers and will be concentrated mostly at the water's edge.

The robust Broad-bodied Chaser is the first dragonfly on the wing. The male of the species is stocky, and vivid blue in colour. The female in contrast, is brown with yellow markings and keeps largely out of sight. The Chaser perches on vegetation, making continual sorties for food or to defend its territory. Like all dragonflies it is best seen on warm, sunny days.

BATS

Both May and June are months when bats are active. The combination of plentiful insects and warm evenings, provide ample meals for this opportunist feeder. The most common British bat, the Pipistrelle, can consume some 3,500 insects in a single night, feeding on midges, craneflies, moths, and aphids. Bats are a natural nocturnal ‘insecticide’ and an ideal alternative to artificial garden pesticides! They are completely harmless to man and even help our environment!

Flying tonight in Worcestershire and around the Woods are: the Brown Long-eared Bat, the Pipistrelle, the Noctule Bat - our largest species, and Daubenton's Bat - often called the water bat. The Daubenton's bat has an affinity for water gnats and midges, and is commonly seen swooping low over the pools. Each bat species has its own preferred roosting site and many are attracted to houses, farm buildings, or hollow woodland trees.

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