Oak woodland hosts not only magnificent trees but also rich understorey vegetation, stocked with tiny gems. The canopy is translucent at this time of year in fresh pale green and tawny-tinted newly opening leaves, allowing light through. Delicate woodland wildflowers take advantage of the season to grow and bloom before the thickening leaves throw them into shadow.

The mist of bluebell flowers is particularly spectacular, maybe glimpsed in passing but better appreciated when happened upon walking through the wood. These flowers are not only stunning, but the evocative scent and the soundscape of insects and birdsong all join together to create a perfect spring woodland dream.

Folklore has it that if you pick a bluebell, you will be led astray by fairies and wander, lost, forever. I’m not sure that wandering in a bluebell wood sounds like a particularly bad fate! Patches of dainty white wood sorrel flowers hold their pink-veined heads up above the drooping leaves. The strange little ‘town hall clock’ flowerheads of moschatel throw a pale green flush in shady corners. Lingering wood anemones tremble in a slight breeze, shining in the dappled light. Ferns such as broad buckler fern, male fern and glossy hart’s tongue uncurl their croziers, while older trees may carry their own gardens of polypody, mosses and hanging lichens along their branches. These are truly magical places! 

The absolute glory of a May oakwood, though, is the birdsong. The complex ecology of the habitat makes it a magnet for warblers, migrating here to take advantage of the spring crop of small moth caterpillars.

More than 200 species of moth larvae feed on oak leaves, in astronomical numbers. On a still day you can actually hear them munching through the foliage. Among the most abundant are green tortrix moth – in some years they can be so numerous as to almost strip a tree of its leaves. Fortunately, oak trees are able to respond by producing a second crop of leaves, known as ‘lammas growth’. The bonanza of caterpillars feed broods of blue tits, great tits and coal tits, as well as oakwood specialists such as common redstart, pied flycatcher and wood warbler and the less-fussy blackcap, chiffchaff and willow warbler.

Here in Shropshire, we’re lucky to have sessile oak woods which are particularly favoured by wood warblers, pied flycatchers and redstarts. Large trees with good nesting holes are sought by the latter two, with wood warblers nesting on the ground. If you want to venture out to find them, look for woodland southwest of a line drawn from Oswestry to Bridgnorth, such as Llynclys, Bwyltai Wood and Craig Sychtyn in the north and Clunton Coppice in the south.

Hawkstone Park, the Wrekin and the ancient woodland of the Ercall are all also worth a try. I like to listen to recordings of these new-for-the-year migrants to refresh my memory:

• wood warblers have a metallic, trilling song likened to a spinning coin on a marble slab
• pied flycatchers sound loud and melodic, with brief repeated phrases changing pitch, common redstarts have a brief high-pitched song starting with sweet warbling notes and ending in a jangle of more metallic notes.

Get out early to hear the full woodland chorus, picking out these new arrivals from the more familiar wrens, robins, blackbirds and thrushes, and have your heart lifted. You’ll walk all day with spring in your step. 

If you’re not set on seeing restarts, there are plenty more woods to explore, carpeted with bluebells and ringing with birdsong - Earl’s Hill and Hope Valley are beautiful at this time of year. Best of all is to find a local woodland and make it a regular haunt, watch the changes through the year as you get to know it and make it your own.

Every wood, and every tree in it, has its own character!