Wild at Hull: A walk in the woods

Friday, 22 May 2015

A walk in the woods

The morning was overcast, but mild and not windy. I headed up to North Cliffe woods, which looked beautiful with carpets of Bluebells and drifts of Greater Stitchwort. Bugle was in bloom too. A Garden Warbler sung well hidden in a tall oak and I only got fleeting views of this and another individual later in the morning. I noticed little holes on the path, and then surprised a mole on the path itself, which tried to run away from me as fast as its short legs took him, which was surprisingly fast. The dry, compacted ground on the path appeared to have prevented it from going underground, but it finally disappeared in the long grass at the side of the path. It was my second live mole ever!
Near the heath area a male Whitethroat was in full song and I heard the call of a Great Spotted Woodpecker.
A couple of brief sunny spells brought some butterflies out, including two Peacocks, a Speckled wood and a Large white and Green-veined white.
I walked inside the woods, where the most remarkable bird sightings were a Marsh Tit, a female
Blackcap with nest material and the laugh of a Green Woodpecker. A humming noise alerted me to the presence of an active honeybee hive inside a dead tree. A pair of robins were very agitated, but I couldn't spot the source of their distress. I was hoping for a mustelid, but failed to see any signs.
I returned to the heath area. As I sat down on a bench for lunch a distant male cuckoo called three times, what a great sound. A Buzzard soared over the heath, while a Carrion Crow had me under surveillance the whole time I sat there. A lovely trip to the woods.