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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/12/woodland-spring-birds-flowers-insects
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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Woodland springs into urgent new life Woodland springs into urgent new life | |
| (4 months later) | |
| The trees are still bare but spring flowers are emerging through the leaf litter of the woodland floor. White, star-like wood anemones, yellow lesser celandines and the green blades of bluebell plants are scattered in the pools of morning sunshine. A few native bluebell flower heads are beginning to unfurl, raising their blue-mauve trumpets as the light streams down through the skeletal canopy above. | The trees are still bare but spring flowers are emerging through the leaf litter of the woodland floor. White, star-like wood anemones, yellow lesser celandines and the green blades of bluebell plants are scattered in the pools of morning sunshine. A few native bluebell flower heads are beginning to unfurl, raising their blue-mauve trumpets as the light streams down through the skeletal canopy above. |
| These early spring flowers are in a race against time to propagate before the trees burst into life again and the wood below returns to relative darkness. A bold wren announces my presence from a log with a panicked series of rapid-fire “chicks”, its tail flicking up and down. | These early spring flowers are in a race against time to propagate before the trees burst into life again and the wood below returns to relative darkness. A bold wren announces my presence from a log with a panicked series of rapid-fire “chicks”, its tail flicking up and down. |
| Bending down and looking closely, I can see that the ground is bustling with activity. Delicate spiders run among the leaves, craneflies flit around like fairies, and small black flies settle on the bright yellow flowers. A large dark-edged bee-fly whirrs past and settles on a celandine flower, where it will use its long, black needle-like proboscis to take the nectar. | Bending down and looking closely, I can see that the ground is bustling with activity. Delicate spiders run among the leaves, craneflies flit around like fairies, and small black flies settle on the bright yellow flowers. A large dark-edged bee-fly whirrs past and settles on a celandine flower, where it will use its long, black needle-like proboscis to take the nectar. |
| It may look cuddly, with its body covered in “furry” ginger bristles, but this bee-mimicking insect’s offspring are parasitical. The adult female Bombylius major sprays her eggs over mining bee nests, and the growing larvae feed on the host bee grubs. The species are linked together in an embrace of life and death in their fairytale habitat. | It may look cuddly, with its body covered in “furry” ginger bristles, but this bee-mimicking insect’s offspring are parasitical. The adult female Bombylius major sprays her eggs over mining bee nests, and the growing larvae feed on the host bee grubs. The species are linked together in an embrace of life and death in their fairytale habitat. |
| This Low Weald woodland common provided local people with somewhere to feed their pigs and cattle, as well as raw materials, such as coppiced hazel, to sustain their way of life for hundreds of years. The restored 19th-century brick-moulding shed and kiln, which made constructive use of the same heavy clay that I’ve been struggling through, and the nearby furnace pond, which powered iron-working in the 1500s, are both relics of a more industrial past. | This Low Weald woodland common provided local people with somewhere to feed their pigs and cattle, as well as raw materials, such as coppiced hazel, to sustain their way of life for hundreds of years. The restored 19th-century brick-moulding shed and kiln, which made constructive use of the same heavy clay that I’ve been struggling through, and the nearby furnace pond, which powered iron-working in the 1500s, are both relics of a more industrial past. |
| A blackcap’s tuneful warble carries through the undergrowth. I watch the twisted branches and see the small grey bird, with its velvet-black cap, hop about, looking for food. Any day now, the reserve will also ring with the territorial songs of the nightingales that return here to breed. | A blackcap’s tuneful warble carries through the undergrowth. I watch the twisted branches and see the small grey bird, with its velvet-black cap, hop about, looking for food. Any day now, the reserve will also ring with the territorial songs of the nightingales that return here to breed. |
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