The wild cherry has now started to drop fruit onto the woodland floor and it is supplying good nutrition to birds and small mammals. See the difference in size between the ripe fruits and the stones inside! It isn't much of a meal really.
In July the canopy is as full as it can be and the amount of light reaching the floor of the woodland is very small for 90% of the woodland.
However, there are a few clearings bringing in sunlight and in these the wood grasses and dog's mercury grow very well. Several species of butterfly flit across these clearings.
On the edges of clearings the bramble continues to flower and insects of many varieties abound. Pollinating flies, butterflies, beetles and bees are among the visitors to the flowers. Here on the left is a red-tailed bumble and on the right a honey bee.
Slightly further away from the clearings new flowering species appear. Among these is the dock (left).Martagon lily (right) is now showing its ripening seed pods.
Dangling from the lower branches of trees is the climbing Old-Man's Beard or Travellers Joy (Clematis vitalba). This creeper indicates alkaline soil conditions.
Old-Man's-Beard is the name given to it due to the untidy hairy-looking white fruits seen in the autumn. Here the flowers are just beginning to open.
