Had a long relaxing walk round Ninewells wood today, went through to the other side which is owned by the Welsh version of the Forestry Commission. They did some felling earlier in the year, no replanting as yet. You can now see across the Wye valley and back into England, at least I think that is the direction.

I then skirted round and back up to the watch tower, this is somewhat more visible at this time of year as the surrounding vegetation has died back a bit. I am not really sure about its origin and purpose. I have been told it was to keep an eye on Napoleonic prisoners of war who were being kept in the vicinity.

On my way back to our bit of Ninewells wood I saw a Goldcrest, I have seen this bird once before up there so it is not a new species. It was not that obliging in the photograph department. So this is the best I got.

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I took a couple of shots of our bit of wood, looking across it, from this angle it looks more like woodland. From other angles it still looks quite open and heath like.

I had a quick look into the well to see if there was any water in it, which there was. It was three quarters full, however my ‘pond’ which is close by has not had any water in it since last Spring. The water table seems to bear little relationship to the amount of rain we have had.

Then as I returned from the vicinity of the well to the path I spotted a small Broom plant.  This is the Planta Genista which was worn by Geofrey  of Anjou and was the origin of the Plantagenets.  I have not seen Broom before in our wood or indeed anywhere else in Ninewels wood. This plant is obviously 2/3 years old but would have been difficult to spot when the surrounding vegetation was green, but now everything else is brown it stands out. I wonder if its flowers will be yellow or if it is more of a ‘garden’ variety and might have brown or even purple coloured flowers, I will keep an eye on it next year now I know its there. I will add it to the species list for Ninewells wood.

Other birds I saw today were Blue, Coal, Great and Long-tailed Tits, Robin (always see Robins) Carrion Crow, Magpie,  Blackbird, Wren and Hedge Sparrow. So nothing out of the ordinary apart from the Goldcrest.