'The Wilderness'

The Wilderness is a strip of woodland just under a kilometre long and only fifty metres or so wide which is one of the places I will remember long after we have left Suffolk for the pleasure it has given us. There are plenty of similar little areas of woodland surrounded by large, intensive farmed fields, but this one, for reasons that aren't apparent, has more than its fair share of wildlife.

We usually approach it from the eastern end through a patch of stinging nettles and other weeds. This has been one of the best places locally for spotting dragon- and damselflies. They may favour it because it's sunny, close to several ditches and protected from the wind.

This section of the path which runs the length of the wood seems to specialise in tits - blue, great and long-tailed - which may congregate here because it surrounds....

....the larger of two ponds within the wood. Both are infested with chickweed but this one used to have a population of dragonflies - they've disappeared this year. The mass of chickweed is probably encouraged by the fertilizers which are washed off the fields which surround it.

Near its western end The Wilderness is cut by a track which splits into four on the south side and into three on the north, so we know the point as 'Seven Tracks'. Much of this field has been planted with native trees so, were we to return to The Wilderness in years to come, it would be much more extensive.

This often sunny spot is one of the places we stop and sit for coffee not least because....

....dragon- and damselflies congregate here, some basking on the warm sand of the tracks, others resting in the weeds that fringe the woodland.

The farmer raises pheasants in the area just beyond where Gill is seen looking for dragonflies, which may be why The Wilderness has been left wild. It do hope it stays this way so that this little oasis of wildlife continues to survive and, hopefully, thrive.