Wakering & District
Natural History Society

Taylors Wood

Report by Barry Hale

We started our last evening walk of the summer under grey skies, heading across Wakering Common from the car park, past Millers Farm to Landwick. Having noted horseradish, fennel, and ragwort (pictured left) already, as we veered off on a track towards Taylors Wood, a swathe of Beardgrass on our right nodded to us in the gentle breeze as we passed.

A small flock (charm) of goldfinches watched us cautiously from the safe haven of a telephone wire, a kestrel hovered overhead and a small flock of lapwings flapped by at a distance. Passing an asparagus crop nearby, we reached the destination of our walk, Taylors Wood.

Planted by John Threadgold in the late 1980s, Taylors Wood comprises approximately 600 native trees in 0.6 of a hectare. The trees had been planted as ‘whips’, but had grown well (obviously well selected, planted and managed by John.)

They now formed a strong and relatively dense little wood, although a white willow specimen we encountered on entering the wood appeared to be a bit poorly. Apart from white willow, tree species in the wood include grey alder and common alder, field maple, birch, ash and oak. Bluebells are also planted.

There was no evidence of the pussmoth caterpillars as seen in previous years, but plenty of eggs of the bufftip moth laid on the leaves of a grey willow. Easy walking access to the wood was restricted largely to the perimeter, due to the density of the growth in the centre, but it still afforded an interesting and impressive view of many trees.

 

We caught a fleeting glimpse of a young whitethroat (possibly of the Lesser variety?) in the wood, and heard a couple of piping oyster catchers as we left the wood.

On reaching the seawall, John spotted a common sandpiper, then we watched a curlew flying over the creeks (its call living up to its name), followed shortly afterwards by a pair of redshank. Plants in flower along or adjacent to the sea wall included sea lavender and wild carrot.

Other species included sea wormwood, crow garlic and black medick, and John was pleased to discover and point out the relatively scarce yellowwort. We then had a mouth-watering discussion on the gastronomic merits and culinary options of samphire, having spotted a ‘crop’ growing on the saltings tantalisingly close to the seawall.

Despite vociferous requests, Richard declined to wade into the oozing mud to gather a sample for tasting purposes! Meanwhile, thanks to the sharp eyes of the ever-observant Cliff we had a close up view of a burnet moth (pictured right) on a grass stalk, plus a small skipper butterfly on a scabious plant - well spotted Cliff!

As we strolled back towards Oxenham Farm, a horse and foal kept their eye on us from their ‘paddock’ inside the seawall. Charley the dog stopped for a drink at Oxenham, and after a chatty walk back to the Common, we thanked and bade goodnight to John and Gill at Millers Farm, to return to the car park whence we started two hours previously.