The woodland trail at Loch Gruinart is one of my favourite places to walk and there’s always something to see, even in winter. Right now the snowdrops are coming out in force and daffodil shoots are just showing through the leafless trees.
The winter branches also make it easier to spot some of the smaller woodland creatures like goldcrests and treecreepers. But although the trees are without leaf it’s not to say that they are bare. Along the trail it’s easy to see lots of lichen, lungwort and fungi.
This type of lichen is also known as old man’s beard, beard lichen or tree’s dandruff and it literally covers some of the trees near the viewing area.
Just further along from the lichen heavy trees there are some great areas of lungwort.
Lungwort is a great indicator of ancient woodland but has shown a general trend of decline in the last 100 years or so. It is named lungwort due to its apparent similarity in appearance to lungs and historically it was believed that medical conditions concerning the respiratory system could be treated using it.
If you’re walking through the woodland trail and have good eyes you might be able to spot the wood mouse store hidden just past the greatest area of lichen and lungwort.
Can you see it yet?
It’s definitely worth keeping your eyes open for. Sometimes it’s hard to know whether to look up or down in the woods but it’s often a good idea to keep checking your surroundings at ground level as you never know what might be lying amongst the leaves.
Just the other day Mary found this old roe deer antler lying camouflaged on the ground. At the moment the roe deer bucks have velvety antlers but later in the year they will shed them to make way to grow new ones. (See Mary’s blog about ‘the antler calendar’ for more information.)
If you need to shelter from any of the adverse weather spells we’ve been experiencing here recently there are two hides along the trail and recently I’ve been getting really good views of shoveller, Greenland white fronted geese, grey heron and pintail. There are sighting books and information boards inside both the hides and your input into the sightings book is always greatly appreciated.