Dawn Chorus 2024 with Friends of Hillhouse Wood
The Dawn Chorus 2024 walk , which is taking place on Saturday 18th May, will be led by Steve Hallam. Organised by the Friends of Hillhouse Wood, this walk affords the opportunity to see Nightingales and many other brilliant dawn choristers. Steve says:
If you haven’t tried this you’ll find it a rewarding and delightful experience at a very special time for the wood’s varied birdlife.
Read last years report here to see what you might hear and/or see.
It will mean an early start, meeting at the Old Church at 3:45 am (weather permitting). You are should bring warm clothing, stout footwear, a flask of hot drink and a torch.
This walk follows on from the recent Spring Flowers Walk.
Report of the 2024 Spring flowers walk
Wouldn’t life be boring without some variation and unpredictability? You can rely on the Hillhouse Wood guided walks to provide this – even the ones that are supposed to be the same, such as the Spring flowers walk. This year’s walk was no exception, both positively and less so.
From a positive point of view, 21 people turned up, which was most heartening bearing in mind that, less positively, it was a dull and uninviting afternoon, although at least the wind had eased. However, as most of those were attending for the first time, this meant that I could roll out the usual quips.
An initial good selection
The start of the walk, down the track, usually provides an initial good selection of flowers to look and talk about. This year did not disappoint, with Garlic mustard, Cow parsley, Red campion, Greater stichwort, Yellow archangel (garden escape variety) quickly found and Lesser celandine and a few Bluebells soon encountered. New this year, never seen before, were some Wood spurge. The native and domesticated versions are not easy to distinguish – these could have been either, although their location by the track made me suspect they could be garden escapes.
Flower Rich
We didn’t see much more of note until we entered the wood. The area around the top pond is normally flower rich, and ‘delivered’ again this year. There was a particularly strong showing of Early purple orchid flower spikes, including the white variant, with Marsh marigolds, ‘proper’ Yellow archangel, Ground ivy and Bugle, with just a few Primroses still out.
As the group moved through the wood it encountered something else that made this walk different from previous ones – a lot of rain over an extended period had resulted in very muddy and slippery paths requiring careful footwork from all.
Wild Garlic Expanding
Alongside the stream at the bottom of the wood, the Wild garlic has continued to expand every year, both along the stream and up the hill. There are now considerably more plants outside the protective fence than there are within it! Turning up the hill, we walked up through the clearing caused by the 1987 storm, where the Bluebells are now arguably as impactful as anywhere in the wood. We spent some time appreciating the vista.
Missing Moschatel
We then continued along the paths to the causeway over the little stream in the centre of the wood. This is where I normally show everyone two of the specialities of the wood – Alternate-leaved Golden saxifrage and the diminutive and weird Moschatel. But this year things went badly wrong: there was only two tiny clumps of saxifrage, in a spot where they could not be easily seen. And, due to the cold season (I presume) they were not in flower. Even worse, when I went to find the Moschatel (carefully checked two days previously) I could not find it. Being tiny and green does not help, but abject failure in front of twenty expectant people is not recommended! At least they couldn’t ask for their money back.
Having given up, we continued along the path where we saw two flowers that I had not spotted before – Three-nerved sandwort and Pignut, but sadly the usual Wood sorrel was another ‘regular’ that was not yet in flower. At least the Rhododendron looked nice, and elicited much interest from those who were unfamiliar with the wood.
Pleasingly, the fates had reserved a real highlight for last (well, towards the end, anyway). I had planned to stop near the new boardwalk to tell the party that this was a good place to listen for Nightingales singing. But as we were approaching the area, a bird could clearly be heard in the Blackthorn near the path. After having spent some time appreciating its beauty, we continued to the boardwalk – to hear a second bird join in. A lovely and unexpected highlight.
Who are the Friends of Hillhouse Wood?
The Friends of Hillhouse Wood is a group of local residents who work with The Woodland Trust to look after this beautiful remnant of ancient woodland.
- Should you wish to join the Friends or renew your subscription – either with the Friends of Hillhouse Wood membership form 2023-24 or by following our new online subscription link.
- Find out more about how the Friends are organized and their constitution – Friends of Hillhouse Wood Constitution 2013.