Mike Dilger’s wildlife watching
In his series of great places to watch wildlife in the UK, the star of BBC One’s The One Show this month takes a look at rides – wide, sunlit woodland tracks with rich micro-habitats where plants and animals flourish.
Visit a woodland ride to spot early spring flowers
With winter reluctant to give up its vice-like grip on proceedings, woodlands can be eerily quiet in February. But if you do decide to go down to the woods today, you may be in for a big surprise. And, counterintuitively, it may well be sprung in places where trees are conspicuous by their absence – in glades or along rides.
Glades are open areas that may well initially have been created by natural processes such as fires, storms or tree falls, before then being kept clear by the action of browsing animals. Rides, by contrast, have a more anthropogenic origin. Frequently linear by design, they were originally established to allow a means of entry into the wood for harvesting timber. A key feature distinguishing a ride from a footpath is width. Crucially, rides are broad enough to create that all-important gap in the canopy above, enabling sunlight to reach the ground.
Often rides are warmer and less humid, and occasionally windier, than the surrounding woodland. The subtly different microclimate frequently results in a totally different suite of flora and fauna. In fact, so important are these open areas to the overall biodiversity of our woodlands that research has shown a greater number of species inhabit the first 10 metres of any wooded perimeter or ride-edge than live in the entire remainder of the wood itself. Rides tend to be composed of a distinct set of different micro-habitats, with a central grassy path often giving way to a herb- and shrub-rich zone, before the taller trees of the woodland ‘proper’ then predominate. Many of the plants along rides may be relics of unimproved grasslands subsequently lost from the surrounding countryside. This floristically rich herb layer will also lure in a host of sun- and nectar-loving insects, such as butterflies, bees and wasps, which are unable to
eke out a living in the adjacent dark and dank understory.
As rides require substantial management to prevent them scrubbing over, before ultimately reverting back to woodland, the most biodiverse examples tend to be situated in nature reserves owned or managed by conservation bodies. These organisations possess the expertise and resources needed to carry out the intensive mowing, cutting and grazing regime vital to ensure the rides remain open.
A sunny day will undoubtedly maximise your opportunities of seeing the widest possible range of ‘ride wildlife’ so early in the year. But before entering the wood, do take a moment to check out the site maps that can be
found at the entrances of many reserves. These usually indicate all the access routes, with rides that follow an east– west orientation often being the most productive, by virtue of warming up first and staying in the sun both later and for longer.
As a rule, the most species-rich rides have a width equal to, or greater than, the height of the adjacent canopy.
They should additionally have scalloped edges, as this maximises the amount of woodland edge and helps to create small sun-traps that are sheltered from the prevailing wind.
Ultimately, the timing of your trip will depend on what you are keenest to see. Generally speaking, birds and mammals will show best either earlier or later in the day, whereas your first butterfly of the year may only appear with the ride at its warmest. Whatever time of day you visit, you should be rewarded with your first botanical signs of spring.
Rides that run east–west are often the most productive, warming up first and staying in the sun for longer.
FIND OUT MORE How to identify spring wildflowers: discoverwildlife.com/identifyspring-wildflowers