Terrific walk through the RSPB Swell Wood with the family, near to Taunton. Beautiful spring day with celandine, aconites and blue-bells everywhere and warm sun shafting through the branches, all resplendent in unfolding leaves. When we return in a month or so the woods will all look so different as the canopy fills and there is a wonderful openness at the moment with so much sun getting to the forest floor. The herons were astonishingly invisible for such large birds but once in the hide you could easily se them up at the top of the canopy perched on their big messy stick nests. Amazing to see them flapping from perch to perch up in the trees and in a community of birds rather than as the familiar solitary fishermen of the levels. The harsh squark of their calls, a rather pumped up crow call, could be heard throughout the wood as you approached and after passing the binoculars from child to child we went off to explore other paths and worked hard to pretend that we couldn't see approaching ambush attacks from the boys armed with sticks.
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