To view a different period, click on the appropriate link in the table below.

Look out for in:
Jan/Feb	March	April	May	Jun/Jul	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec

Interesting Features to be seen in March

March is the month when the forest bursts into life. On a warm day butterflies and bumblebees emerge from winter hibernation. Butterflies you are likely to see on the main ride include tortoiseshell peacock brimstone comma Queen bumblebees spend the winter in a hole in the ground. They mate in the autumn and all the males then die. The queens move around searching for a suitable nest site such as a mouse hole. They then lay eggs in waxy cells and search for nectar and pollen to feed the young. When enough worker bees hatch out, the queen remains underground and is fed by the workers, which are sterile females. As autumn approaches, male bees will again be produced. The first bumblebees are likely to be Bombus terrestris – with two dark yellow stripes and a buff tail. Later Bombus lapidarius will appear – all black with a red tail. [Click here to see images of these bees.] Badgers will be active in the forest and quarry. At this time of year they sometimes dig up and eat young rabbits. An early migrant bird to appear will be the chiffchaff (the song spells out its name repeatedly) which can be seen hunting for insects among the bursting buds. Over the flooded pits, sand martins are often seen before the end of March. There is a colony of about 50 pairs in the sand workings. On the forest floor the parasitic toothwort appears around hazel stumps. This plant has no leaves – just a whitish flower, looking rather like a row of molars! Also emerging from the leaf litter are masses of bluebell leaves, cuckoo pint, wood anemones and dog’s mercury. In flower is the evergreen shrub, spurge laurel (Daphne laureola). The sweet scent made by its small green flowers is very pronounced at dusk, and so it is presumably pollinated by night flying insects of some kind. In the quarry, hairy violet makes a spectacular show around the old stone piles, and green woodpeckers call loudly (‘yaffle’) while searching for ants in the turf. Overhead you are likely to spot soaring birds of prey including Red Kite buzzard kestrel sparrow hawk