Woodland Walk

Blackbirds have been known to live up to 20 years, but the average lifespan is just 3 years as they are preyed upon by cats in our urban environment. The song “sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye, four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie” not only sounds like the blackbird call when whistled, but also it was a coded message used to recruit crew members for the notorious 18^th century pirate, Blackbeard.

Blue Tits closely link their breeding with the emergence of caterpillars on the new spring leaves of oak, birch, willow, and thorny hedges such as hawthorn and blackthorn. A pair of blue tits may have up to 9 eggs.  The record is 19! A blue tit weighs the same as a pound coin.

Great Tits (just like blue tits) rely on the emergence of caterpillars in spring – in fact parent birds can deliver more than 10,000 to their young and will fly at least 100km to collect the caterpillars. They have been known to nest in strange places such letterboxes and wall mounted ash bins!

Great spotted woodpeckers can be heard drumming on trees up to 600 times a day, in search of a female. There are several trees in Woodland Walk with prominent nest holes that have been drilled out by these birds.

The Blackcap is a distinctive greyish warbler. The top of the male’s head is black (its black cap), while the female’s is chestnut brown. It has a delightful melodious song. Blackcaps are increasingly spending the winter in the UK as a result of climate warming.

The Dunnock is a small brown and grey bird about the size of a sparrow, but it has a thinner bill. Quiet and shy, it’s often seen on its own, shuffling in a rather nervous way, often flicking its wings as it goes. Females will mate with a male and then ‘secretly’ mate with another – resulting in both males caring for the chicks.

The Nuthatch name is probably derived from its habit of jamming a seed into a crevice then hammering until it opens. Don’t confuse it with a treecreeper, which only climbs up the trunk of the tree – the Nuthatch moves both up and down. Its favourite nesting site is an old Woodpecker hole.

The Wren is a small plump bird. Its ‘cocked-up’ tail makes it very easy to identify. It nests in hollows, cavities, and open fronted nest boxes, and can lay up to 8 eggs. The male may build several nests and ‘install’ females in them thereby raising several broods at the same time.

The Chiffchaff is a small olive-brown bird which flits through trees and shrubs, with a distinctive tail-wagging movement. They have dark legs and a pale eye stripe. Listen for the song which gives it its name, no other warbler makes that chiff-chaffing tune.

Robins are loveable birds, however they are ruthless in defending their territory – and their red breast is used like a territorial flag. Young birds don’t develop a red breast in the nest to avoid being attacked by their own parents! Did you know that robins catch ants and millipedes which release a powerful chemical. The robin rubs this insecticide on its feathers to get rid of parasites.

The Common Pipistrelle is our smallest and most common bat. You will see them at dusk feeding on midges, moths, and other small insects which they find in the dark using echolocation. It only weighs 5 grams (the same as a 20p piece). Summer roosts include buildings, crevices in trees, and bat boxes. Being mammals, the young are fed on milk until they are ready to fly.

Woodland Walk contains Stag Beetles – one of the UK’s rarest creatures. They lay their eggs on rotting wood and the larvae spend several years creating tunnels through the wood which they feed on. The emerging adults can be found on summer evenings ‘bathing’ on the warm tarmac path – look out for them.

Local History

Woodland Walk was created as an access road to Wentworth Lodge (located in College Road off Woodland Avenue) – a summer residence for Viscount Portman and built in 1872.  It was acquired in 1923 and became Bournemouth Collegiate School (also named Wentworth School in the intervening years) and still operates as a private school today.

Also built around the turn of the century is Boscombe Cliff Bowling Club (formed in 1904), whose café facilities are open to the public during the bowling season.