Wildlife

Birchanger Wood is home to many species and details of some of the surveys that have been undertaken are on the Trust’s website.

The flora of the woodland floor is exceptionally rich. Birchanger Wood is one of the finest in Essex for the wood anemone, and much of it is carpeted with English bluebells. Altogether, 126 species of trees, flowers and grasses have been identified, including the rare golden saxifrage, but many of these are under threat from trampling and it is important for walkers to keep to the paths. Particularly in the autumn, there are many different fungi, for example, the ink cap, the poisonous fly agaric with its white-spotted red cap, and bracket fungi on some of the dead wood.

Because of its location between gardens and farmland, birds from various habitats can be seen around the Wood. The many dead trees, for example, provide a good home for the three species of woodpecker: the green woodpecker, the great spotted and the small, lesser spotted woodpecker.

Moth trapping has shown the Wood to be rich in moth species. The abundance of dead wood, from felled and dead trees, provides an important habitat for many invertebrates, such as beetle larvae in the autumn. Stag beetles have been seen and the Trust is always interested if anyone finds any other unusual species in the Wood.