A Bluebell Wood Walk Around Whitford 18th May 2017

A lake on the Downing Estate North of Whitford.

The waiting game - a Coot on its nest.

Bluebells in a wood North west of Ffriddoedd.

Interest in Maen Achwyfan.

Looking towards the Dee Estuary on the way to Coed y Garreg.

here is always someone looking to take a rest!

A Buttercup meadow on the way to Glol Wood.

Bluebells in Glol Wood.

Bluebells in Coed Pen-y-Gelli.

More Bluebells in Coed Pen-y-Gelli.

Walking through Coed Pen-y-Gelli. West of the Nature Reserve.

Orchids in the North east spur of Coed Pen-y-Gelli.

Walk stats: Distance: 8.6 mils. Climb: 640'.

Time: 5 hours 15 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.1 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.6 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn, Sue and Michel, Jim and David S.

This was the first of our Bluebell Wood walks on our local patch and with the considerably dry period we have had of late we weren't sure whether the would have survived. Thankfully they had, although many looked as though they would relish a bit of the wet stuff.

 I decided to take a few short cuts from our usual walk, but I we had lunch near Crown Wood, I realised that we were in danger of getting back to the cars a little too early! At this point I decided that we would explore Coed Pen-y-Gelli a little more than on the original planned route. This turned out to be a bonus as the Bluebells here were the best that we had seen, especially when the rays of the Sun infiltrated the trees and shone on them.

 It was good to see the Purple spotted orchids flowering in a part of Coed Pen-y-Gelli that we hadn't visited before.

 However it was after exiting Coed Pen-y-Gelli that we encountered route finding a little difficulty through a property that warned of Guard dogs and no route markers. The "stiles" weren't easy either!

 We arrived back at the car just before 15-00, having had a good walk and no more than a few drops of rain. This was very fortunate as just down the road at Halkyn they had had 20 minutes of very heavy rain.

 Birds seen or heard today included: Rook, House martin,Barn swallow, Shelduck, Mallard, Greylag, Common blackbird, Common coot, Common whitethroat, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Black-billed magpie and Common buzzard.

 After walk drinks were enjoyed at the Bluebell Inn in Halkyn, where Bluebell Bitter No.4 from Settle went down well, but the most popular drink awas a non-alcoholic ginger beer!