May 5th Foxley Wood

I was up extremely early this morning, 3:30am to be exact. It was International Dawn Chorus Day this morning and Dad and I travelled to Foxley Wood to experience it. It was still dark when we got there around 4:15am and it was dead silent. Then just before half past four, a lone skylark broke the silence. It was soon joined by song thrushes, which were the most dominant songster of this year's chorus. Never have I ever heard so many song thrushes in one place before!

Roe Deer

Slowly, more and more voices were adding their sound to this morning's dawn chorus. Robins, blackbirds, blackcaps, woodpigeons and the odd chiffchaff could be heard in the fading darkness. As it got lighter, I was able to hear goldcrests, treecreepers, the odd 'jep!' from a great spotted woodpecker, great tits, blue tits, a willow warbler, bullfinch and several high pitched calls that I'm still scratching my head over. The main cacophony occurred before the light really took hold of the day after 5:30am. We also came across a couple of roe deer and a hare crossing our path in front of us.

Bluebells

It was an interesting experience to listen to. Not one of my favourite dawn choruses over the years (nothing can really top the two misty Strumpshaw choruses I did in 2016 and 2018 in my opinion), but it was nice experience it in an ancient woodland setting all the same. However, what did made this chorus special was the breathtaking display of bluebells. Though it was hard to really appreciate it while the light was still dim, but once it was bright enough, a vast carpet of blue was appearing from out of the gloom before our vary eyes. It was truly magical and the true highlight of the morning. Within this display, I also spotted the odd white bluebell, red campion, primroses, water avens, yellow archangel, greater stitchwort, bugle and many other woodland wildflower species poking out amongst them.

Water Avens

Early Purple Orchid

There was one flower, however, that I was unable to locate amongst the bluebells and one that I was really hoping to see. Early purple orchids. Either I had walked passed them while it was still too dark to see or I was suffering from bluebell blindness, seeing only bluebells and nothing even slightly orchid like. And while I had already ticked this species off a couple of weeks ago, I really wanted to see them again with the bluebells. When we were starting to leave the main bulk of this blue carpet, I was really disappointed. When both these two plants mingle in the same place, the display gets even more impressive. But it wasn't to be. Thankfully, I didn't leave completely orchid-less. On the way back, away from all those bluebells and beside the path, we managed to spot about 5 early purple orchids, though not all in the same place.












When we came across two orchids together, side by side and looking exceptionally bigger than the other three specimens, it was at that point I decided to do something I've been thinking of doing for some time into action. Presenting! I want to film a piece about each species of orchid I find this summer, talking about each one and to document my orchid hunt in a different way. I'm not much of a talker and I tend to stumble over my words a lot and I've never really done anything like this with my camera before. I'm expecting it to be very amateurish with the camera fighting to focus on the orchid close ups, etc, but I hope it will do the job and get better the more I do this sort of thing. So let me know what you guys think? Please go easy on me!! (Also, I apologise for my dad's noises in the background. We're both new at this!)