Most of the mud of the winter has dried up in Hardwick Wood with many of the paths now filled with grasses taller than me and everywhere vibrant green with mosses and foliage. I went to check on the butterfly population - certainly there are Silver-washed Fritillaries but not in abundance and they are looking fairly worn. Plenty of Whites, Red Admirals and Ringlets but didn't locate any Hairstreaks - I am sure they will be there high in the Oaks. I took a macro lens - not the best for recording flying woodland butterflies so big enlargements but hopefully gives of feel of this very beautiful and wild place.
During the Neolithlic and Bronze ages, the first farmers cleared areas in West Cambridgeshire that had been covered in prehistoric forest since the last ice age. This continued through to the Anglo-Saxon times. However the heavy boulder clay soil of this area was too difficult to farm and so some areas of the forest were left - these include my local ancient woodland, Hardwick Wood. The Domesday Book shows that the pattern of woodland fragments in 1086 looked very similar to the pattern of woods that still exist today as ancient woodlands.
When I walk deeper into Hardwick Wood I feel the pressures and worries of our times evaporate. I hope these IR pictures something of that Ancient Woodland mystery.
