Woodland - August

With our holidays and lots going on during August, I didn't get to the little woodland I'm photographing throughout the year until the very end of the month. At first glance it hasn't changed much over the last few weeks and it felt a little dark and gloomy there yesterday.

Also, it was very quiet. In the spring and early summer, it was filled with birdsong but yesterday it was very still and quiet.

The bracken at the edge of the woodland has grown and is just starting to colour.

There have been a few rainstorms (luckily for us, mostly while we were away on holiday) and the stream bed now is damp again although the stream isn't really flowing.

As well as the bracken turning colour, there were a few pale lemon coloured leaves on the hazel trees

and a few willow leaves have already fallen.

Most of the leaves are still green and firmly attached to the trees, the canopy this month was very dense letting very little of the sunlight through.

At the start of the year there was little change in the wood between my monthly visits and then in spring  everything started growing and it seemed to look different every few days. Now during summer the changes have slowed and it has looked very similar for several weeks. With autumn on its way I expect the changes to happen more rapidly as the trees turn colour and shed their leaves at varying times over the next couple of months.

I wonder if the changes are related to daylight with the fastest changes occurring around the equinoxes when the day lengths are changing most and the changes slowing down during the midwinter and the summer when there is little difference between the days.

I will watch and see, just four more visits to complete my year of pictures of the woodland.