BUSHMOOR COPPICE

Surrounded by farmland it may be, but Bushmoor Coppice is a special place. Here Voluntary Wardens Howard Davies and Caroline Uff describe its all-the-year-round delights.

At only 2.4 hectares in size, Bushmoor Coppice may not be one of the Trust's biggest reserves, but it is certainly one of its most peaceful. Hidden away in a forgotten corner of South Shropshire, between the villages of Woolston and Bushmoor, many of the local residents do not even know of its existence. If by some chance you manage to find it (and it's not on a public footpath) you are likely to have the reserve to yourself.

Take a walk round in winter (be sure to wear wellies or boots) and you are likely to come across a Brown Hare, or a flock of Siskins feeding on the catkins of the spectacular Alder coppice. If you come in the evening you will disturb the vast army of Pheasants that roost there (not surprising as it was managed for game before the Trusts and the Shropshire Ornithological Society bought the freehold in 1977). On your way round you can look for evidence of Dormouse-nibbled nuts-Caroline has found them here in the last three winters, after no signs of their presence for about 15 years.

It is in April and May, however, that Bushmoor Coppice is at its best. The woodland floor is a mosaic of blue, white, red, yellow and green. Countless Bluebells inter-mingle with Greater Stitchwort, Red Campion, Yellow Archangel, Wood Sorrel and Wood Anemone. If you look hard enough you will also find Woodruff and the tiny Moschatel, or 'Town Hall Clock' as it is often known on account of its flowers facing in all four directions. In the marshy area between the two small streams that drain the reserve look out for Marsh Marigolds and Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage. Stand still and listen and you will hear nothing but a babble of birdsong-after a while you will recognise a Chiff-chaff, maybe the sharp clear 'pwit' of a Pied Flycatcher and the 'see-see-see' of a Goldcrest.

In summer and autumn take a picnic and spend a while looking for Broad-leaved Helleborines, which seem to appear in different places each year, or even hunt down wild raspberries. Look hard enough whilst gathering a basket full of Honey Fungus for tea and you may find a bright pink, white or yellow Slime Mould on a fallen log. At the other end of the spectrum see if you can identify the Black Polar in a hedge just outside the reserve. You may even come across us Bracken pulling, or stumble across the local primary school out on a nature ramble.

Things are never quite as they seem on the reserve. The Dormouse boxes are home to Wood Mice, Yellow-necked Mice and Copper Underwing Moths, but not Dormice (Caroline would know as she has a Dormouse licence through her work as an ecologist for the National Trust on the Long Mynd and Wenlock Edge). The bird boxes have had a Dormouse living in them, and who knows what's living in the Bat boxes we put up a few years ago, and just how did Mahonia establish itself!

Management at the site includes fencing (we do not have to chase the farmer's sheep out any more), thinning, coppicing, hedge-laying and path maintenance. Cherry thinning in the west of the wood during the last five years or so has opened up the canopy, but it has also led to an dramatic increase in Bramble. As this has been threatening to choke the Bluebells I have started a rolling programme of Bramble pulling. This winter I managed to clear about a fifth of the reserve over a 5 day period. Not to worry- I will be leaving plenty for the Dormice, and it was worth the effort to see the sea of blue again this spring.

Apart from Brambles, one of the biggest threats to the reserve is by enrichment from surrounding farmland. This is evident in the Nettle and Elder development around the edges. The isolation of the coppice from other woodlands also threatens the Dormouse population. There is plenty of good news, however, as the local farmer has just joined an Agri-Environment scheme and he is establishing wildlife corridors to the reserve. The future is looking bright for Bushmoor.