Not far from the middle of Gillingham, Dorset, there is a small piece of woodland nestled between the river Stour and the railway track.
When I was growing up Withy wood was nothing more than a forgotten slip of land with overgrown paths, a place we went to play and get up to no good!
Now I'm sure that this little patch of woodland was as much, if not more, of a wildlife haven back then as it is now, but that's not the sort of thing you notice as a 12 year old, and it certainly wasn't as accessible
as it is today.
Around 2016/17 work began to make the area available to the towns folk. Proper all weather paths were created, other smaller paths cleared, and a number of bird
and bat boxes installed. The woods are now popular with many people for walking dogs, or just a Sunday stroll. There are two entrances to the woods, the first at the west end near the sewage works
(they don't smell most of the time, honest), which has parking available in a couple of pull-ins along the side of the lane. The second entrance is at the eastern end of the woods through the fields opposite
Waitrose. This entrance is very close to the town centre and you are able to park in the public carpark behind the town library.
The eastern entrance
I decided to revisit the woods shortly after the first lockdown began in 2020, and having not been there for a fair number of years, was amazed at the diversity of birds and other wildlife I saw. I now take a trip
down there every couple of months to catch the woods through thr different seasons.
So far, on the bird front, in the woods and surrounding fields I have seen:
Blue tits
Great tits
Wrens
Grey wagtails
Tree creepers
A Green woodpecker
A Kingfisher
Dunnocks
A Lesser spotted woodpecker
Robins
A Kestrel
Mallards
Moorhens
Redwings
Long tailed tits
Chaffinches
Green Finches
Meadow pipits
Chiffchaffs
Blackbirds
Plus the usual Pigions, Crows, Sparrows, etc. etc.
Having visited at various times of the year, spring would seem to be when the birds are most abundent. They're busy making their nests and the undergrowth is less dense making them easier to spot.
It's not just birds that can be spotted in Withy wood, there is a whole range of other wildlife to be seen.
In spring time the woods are alive with many baby Squirrels running around and playing, then the summer brings all of the insects, Damselflies, Butterflies, Bees, plus the less obvious Beetles,
Shield bugs, and Spiders.
In the middle of Withy wood there is a pond, shown on the map above.
I decided to revisit the woods shortly after the first lockdown began in 2020, and having not been there for a fair number of years, was amazed at the diversity of birds and other wildlife I saw.
