Woodland Wanderings

In my opinion, Cambridgeshire is a county of unrivalled natural beauty. I first came to Cambridgeshire for University with the intention of staying for three years but it has drawn me in and, nearly two years after graduating, I count myself as a permanent resident. The first time that I ventured away from Cambridge itself into the wild fens around it I was struck by the 
awe-inspiring nature of the skies. The skies around here are unlike any others I have seen before. The flat, low-lying nature of the topography means that great expanses of sky roll out before you. The sunsets and sunrises here are almost poetic in their beauty with their array of colours which would beat any Turner painting. They have to be seen to be believed.

A fenland sunset

The fens are just one feature of Cambridgeshire but they are incredibly special. They are a relic left of an ancient landscape which has now been all but lost. The flooded fenland once covered much of East Anglia, but it was drained centuries ago and today the remaining fragments are areas of low-lying wetland rich in biodiversity. A stroll through the fens always brings the promise of seeing a wealth of wildlife, from the Konik ponies which roam semi-wild at Wicken Fen, to the spellbinding short-eared and barn owls in the winter, to the vast array of dragonfly species which are especially abundant during the summer. The fens tell the ever-changing story of the seasons. The fens deserve, and provide rich material for, many a blog post devoted to them, which gives me a great excuse to venture out there on a regular basis from now on.

Despite the emphasis I have put on fenland, it is really just one type of landscape that makes up Cambridgeshire, a county which is now a patchwork of many different types of habitat, making it an ecologically rich and diverse place to live. In this blog we aim to show through our experiences of nature the things that make Cambridgeshire so exciting.

Cambridgeshire agricultural fields

So, a little something about us - we met when we were both undergraduates at University in Cambridge but while Andrew continued down the academic route and is now completing a PhD in Conservation Science, I moved into the corporate world. We have always been united by a love of nature and have enjoyed many days just exploring the outdoors. We recently made the decision to buy our first place together. As keen naturalists, we both dreamed of living in the countryside, where we were in short commutable distance of Cambridge but just a hop, skip and a jump away from green spaces. Happily, we found what we were looking for in a charming little village a few miles west of Cambridge. What clinched the deal for us was the rich woodland that lies out the back of the village. Having only been there a short time, we have already seen an abundance of wildlife in and around the woods, from roe deer to foxes and chaffinches to kestrels.

Our entrance to the woods

We’ve decided that one of the best ways to get to know a new home is to explore its natural spaces, and hence this blog came to be. We decided to stick to our strengths so I’ll be writing the blog and Andrew will be providing the photographs, wildlife identifications and scientific background. We are going to focus this blog on interesting places and events we find not just in our village, but in Cambridgeshire in general, as we count this whole area as our local patch.

A blackbird hiding in the trees

So, onwards with the promised wildlife adventures. There seemed to be no more appropriate a place to start than with our village woods, and no more perfect a winter’s day than today to do so. It was a cold, bright, still morning as we set out, the kind of weather that just feels perfect for birds. And we weren’t disappointed. We had only taken a few steps into the woods when we heard our first birdsong – a great tit was calling wholeheartedly from a branch high above our heads. Heading deeper into the woods it wasn’t long before our path crossed with that of blue tits, blackbirds, crows and woodpigeons. It is all too easy in our busy lives to hear and see these birds but not really take notice of them because they are relatively common. One of the aims of this blog is to take note of the fascinating behaviours of the birds with which we are used to living so closely.

Deer droppings

As we ambled further we made sure that we slowed down to take in every detail of our surroundings, besides the odd strewn piece of litter which sadly seem so inevitable even in an otherwise very clean village, we began to notice the subtleties of the woodland furniture. The ground was covered in a thick carpet of mosses and dead leaves and branches, providing perfect homes for the local insects. In the coming weeks, we’d like to look at these mosses in more detail and try to identify some of the species. As the dappled golden light that is characteristic of a clear winter’s day flooded through the trees we noticed that it had illuminated a spider’s web so that each thread shone as if it had its own source of light. This is probably something we would have missed if we had been trudging through just chatting.

The potential woodpecker nest

Now that our eyes were attuned to it, it felt as though the subtleties of the wood were becoming much more clear. As we went on our way we took note of the position of holes in the trees which appeared to be the nests of greater spotted woodpeckers, and we’ll come back to them in the spring to check whether we can catch sight of any chicks. We passed leafless ash trees with gnarled tentacles of ivy climbing up them as we came to an opening at the edge of the wood which led onto agricultural fields.

From woods to fields

Here in the heart of the ‘bread basket of Britain’ agricultural fields provide a familiar backdrop. Earlier in the year a sea of bright yellow rapeseed stretched far out into the distance from this vantage point. Now, however, the shimmering frozen ground is clear through the sparse and consistent covering of winter wheat which coats the ground. Here, too, there are clear signs that animals have been before us. Frozen solid molehills and the tell-tale little piles of deer droppings pepper the ground. I’d love to be able to tell properly which animals have been around from the signs they have left behind so one of our challenges for the year ahead is to learn how to identify more animals from their droppings and footprints. As we proceeded along the path that leads around the field we caught sight of more birds to add to our list – starlings, black-headed gulls, magpies and, perhaps most excitingly, a group of four fieldfares feeding.

Frozen molehills

After a long time wandering around the fields, remembering how much fun it is to crack the ice on the top of shallow puddles, we headed back to the woods to return home. On our way we caught sight of some movement in a thicket of the wood. There appeared to be the equivalent of a bird party taking place in there. We decided to creep in, crouch down and wait until the birds became comfortable with our presence and carried on with their business. And carry on they did. About five minutes later the bird party was back in full swing with blue tits, great tits, long-tailed tits, chaffinches and dunnocks dancing from branch to branch creating a chorus of musical calls as they went. Three squirrels even joined in with the branch hopping on the canopy high above. I could have stayed there all day and listened but, unfortunately, we didn’t have time and we headed home, feeling like we’d got to know our little patch a bit better.

A rare moment of calm for this squirrel