Bilberry Wood

Wether Fell
Wether Fell, seen from the causey stone path behind the Wensleydale Creamery. Gayle Beck at the foot of the slope in the foreground. A Roman road runs along the top of the fell.

I’m reading David Joy’s 2019 book Discover Your Woods, Trees in the Dales so this afternoon I had a walk around Bilberry Wood here as Nethergill Farm. There are pines, larches and firs but the only broadleaved species that I notice is rowan.

birch
Birch, Goat Gap Cafe, Newby, 4/9/20

Rushes and sphagnum moss grow in the damper areas, with heather and polytrichum mosses on drier hummocks.

At the more exposed western corner of the wood, a swathe of pines has been flattened, the fallen trees revealing that they were shallow rooted.

The only bird that I notice is a wren, flitting about amongst the ground vegetation and it appears that a wren spotted my iPhone which I’d set to take a time-lapse sequence, flashing on the screen for a single frame.

Bumblebee on Devil’s-Bit Scabious

There are ferns, bracken and a few brambles but the ground layer consists predominantly of various kinds of mosses. Tormentil straggles around, dotting the ground with its four-petalled yellow flowers.

stile
Squeeze stile on the causey stone path, between Gayle and Hawes church.

There are a few fungi and, as the name of the wood suggests, plenty of bilberry.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.