Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Jackson's Coppice and Marsh Nature Reserve

We have been members of the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust for nearly four years now and although we'd visited their headquarters at The Wolseley Centre near Stafford and their Visitor Centre at Westport Lake here in the city quite a few times, we hadn't visited many of their other reserves, other than Parrot's Drumble which I wrote about - here, until earlier this year when we visited Loynton Moss which I wrote a post about a couple of months ago -  here.
 
Just over a week ago we explored another of their nature reserves which was quite close to the walled garden at Sugnall which I wrote about a couple of posts ago.   Jackson's Coppice and Marsh nature reserve is close to the village of Walk Mill, there is a small car park (it will probably take only three well parked cars) just up a lane before the Mill house and pond.  The entrance is through a wildflower meadow and there are two walks - round the marshland and in the woodland.

You pass some of the marshy areas as you cross the road to go into the coppice.  It was so peaceful up amongst the trees, birds singing and bees buzzing and the forest floor full of flowers like

Wood Anemone - a carpet of white stars under the trees

The small dainty heads of the shy Wood Sorrel

Lesser Celandine in great profusion in places


and the first signs of the bright blue of the native Bluebells given another week the flowers should be out all over the coppice

The air was warm and the sky quite blue in places

We traced our steps back to the meadow and down to the boardwalk around the marshland

 There were loads of sedge tussocks in Jackson's marsh

 A little inquisitive friend came to say hello as we sat awhile on a seat that will be a super place to watch for dragonflies in the summer.

 The alder wetland wasn't all that wet at this time of year

Most of the wetland was full of clumps of bright yellow Marsh Marigold.

26 comments:

  1. What gorgeous flowers you saw. It reminds me of a place I used to go to when I was a kid (Forge Valley, just outside Scarborough) We used to see all those flowers there too.

    Pretty soon it'll have wild garlic, no doubt. Looks perfect for it!

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    1. I love wild garlic, the vivid green of the leaves, the stark white of the flowers and the smell:)

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  2. Lovely walk Rosie and such pretty flowers too. That robin looks very friendly. Have a great weekend.
    Patricia x

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    1. When we got a little further round the walk two robins appeared but didn't linger very long:)

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  3. What a lovely trip and oh Bluebells, something to look forward to! x

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    1. Won't be long now until the bluebells are fully out - I love to see them:)

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  4. This looks a lovely place to visit at this time of year. I love the woodland flowers; the bluebells are just emerging here, too.

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    1. All of a sudden everything its blooming - all fresh and new:)

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  5. How lovely! This is one of many places I've had on the list for a while but have still not visited so I enjoyed seeing it through your blog!

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    1. It is an interesting place to visit, I think you'd enjoy it although the walks aren't very long there is a lot to see:)

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  6. I love the Wood Sorrel and will look out for that. It would be a good place for us to visit as well, having an abundance of boggy woodland!

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    1. The wood sorrel was very pretty and delicate against the larger wood anemone:)

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  7. This is just the type of place I would love to visit. The bluebells seem far more advanced than they are here.
    June

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    1. I was surprised to see some of the bluebell flowers opened up. They were all at the edge of paths that were a little more open to the light:)

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  8. A perfect place for seeing all those flowers. It must have been a lovely, peaceful walk. I'm looking forward to the bluebells appearing and thinking of places we can go to see the bluebell woods.

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    1. Although I love snowdrops in woodland I think bluebells are the most spectacular in that setting:)

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  9. Thank you for sharing your visit, I am so looking forward to the bluebells and lilac coming out.

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    1. Bluebells and lilac - the very thought of them makes me smile:)

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  10. The wood anemone are just beautiful. I have been keeping an eye out for bluebells too, but they are so late this year.

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    1. The wood anemone were gorgeous like a little starry carpet of white under the trees:)

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  11. Its lovely to be able to get out and about a bit more - this winter has gone on too long. Lovely signs of Spring in your photos Rosie xxxxx

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    1. Isn't it? They say it is going to get a little colder again!! There was a frost this morning and it hailed earlier - I do hope it gets warmer soon:)

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  12. Looks like a lovely place - I love woodland plants and the picture of the pond - it looks like all sorts of interesting things could be happening in there.

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    1. Yes, it is lovely - I'm looking forward to visiting in the summer for the dragonflies:)

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  13. This looks nice, it's lovely to finally see the wild flowers blooming. The wood anenomes are fabulous this year but no sign of bluebells so far.

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    1. There are a lot of wood anemones this year, swathes of white under the trees in several places we've walked recently - I expect it will be another week or so before we finally see bluebells:)

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