Back To The Woodland

After having 'discovered' through hints from neighbours this piece of ancient woodland yesterday, I went back there early this morning while the sun was out. I still cannot believe how it could take me FOUR years before going to explore this!

The spring sun was positioned high enough in the sky to light up some places in the woodland, although it will always remain fairly dark under the canopy of the trees, particularly once the leaves are back. 

This means I need to figure out with which camera settings I am happiest. I set it all manually depending on situation but sometimes there is not the time to make changes. Quite frequently I am too much in the moment I forget to adapt the settings. This happened today several times and many shots that would have been really interesting came out much too dark and no editing could make them any better.

What I also did not take into account was that at this early time in the morning I was to encounter planty of waggy tails on their morning walks.  I was quickly surrounded by 3 dogs, ignoring the voices of their owners sounding from from 3 different directions. The dogs refused to leave and decided it was a good idea to get my attention by squeezing between the camera lens and my appointed object of interest. As the dogs wouldn't leave me alone I spend a little time stroking and being with them.

But soon it all became quiet once more and I was on my own in this wonderful place. I now have a favourite spot in this woodland. The spot is located along a small stream which is full with stones and rotten pieces of wood. A perfect setting for all kinds of moss and lichen. The bluebells were already showing their purple/blue heads, there was wood sorrel with their easy recognisable trefoil leaves and other vegetation which I cannot yet name. The air was filled with the gentle, constant and calming sound of the slowly moving stream. So very peaceful, time has no meaning anymore.

One of the burled trees ... offering home to many different lifeforms.

There had been some rain and light frost. The woodland floor was covered with water drops, brightly sparkling in the sunlight.

The above lichen could possibly be Cladonia ochrochlora. If you know more or better, please do drop me a message, I'd be most interested to learn more.

And here we have this black lichen / fungus again. I have been asking around and I have also tried to find information on Google but so far to no avail. If you know what it is, I would really be most interested to find out.

And this is yet another plant I am not sure what it is. At first I thought it may be Rose Moss but I don't think this is the case. It is quite difficult to photograph with all the glittering water drops. It's leaves are somewhat see-through, very delicate. They grow near a small stream and only in one place. Again, if anyone has any idea what these are, I'd love to know.

Unfortunately, most other photographs of fungi / moss / lichen have not come out well so I'll have to see if I can get better images over the weekend.

And then there are of course the wood ants! I can spend hours watching them. They do get ever so wound up about the camera lens but it lasts only for about 10 seconds and then they realise nothing happens.  

This above photo was taken early in the morning. There have been patches in this woodland where there has been light ground frost. I noticed quite a few ants on moss. equally motionless. Perhaps they didn't survive the cold temperatures of the night. However, when I passed the same spot some 2 hours later, they had all gone.

 A bit of shadow dancing ... 

These wood ants are amazingly agile and it takes a lot to stop them from going where they want to go. In my favourite little stream is a big stone, right in the middle of it. I noticed that the stone was full with ants going about their business. The rock is surrounded by running water, and although not at all deep, the water itself would have meant death through drowning for the ant, should it fall in. I wondered how they had crossed the water to reach the stone. Ah, there it was, a row of twigs lined up (by nature) in the water. I watched them use it as a 'bridge', busily crossing back and forth.

Now here was another moment where I had lost some good snapshots due to unsuitable camera settings. I had watched this ant collect water by scraping with its front legs over the leaves of this wood sorrel. Eventually it had collected enough and it managed to move the entire 'ball' of water along the edge of this leaf. It was amazing to watch, I don't know how it did it! Another ant was waiting and it appears that there was meant to be a pass over of this water drop. Unfortunately, the other ant fell off the leaf and vanished into the darkness of the undergrowth ...

You may perhaps now understand why I loose any sense of time in this wonderful woodland. :)

When I emerged from it eventually and checked the time, I realised I had spent 3 hours in this wood! Much MUCH longer than planned - I had to jog home as other matters had to be attended urgently!

Till next time!