I have more adventures from Lickey Hills- same trip as last time, just a few different pictures. I took too many pictures that weekend that are way too nice to not use!
Lickey Hills covers 524 acres on the edge of south Birmingham, and has some pretty interesting geology that my friend Laura could tell you a lot more about in her blog. That means you get a lot of different trees depending on the soil types around- the south-west of the park is mostly deciduous trees like oaks, beeches and birch, while the eastern side is more coniferous. The southern end of the park actually counts as Ancient woodland is really important for some communities, as they house species that colonise and disperse slowly, so aren't supported in new forested areas. Ancient woodlands support flora such as bluebells- in the spring, Lickey Hills is covered in this purple flowers!
Inside a den to avoid the rain!
At the top of the park by the visitors' centre there's an awesome view across the whole of Birmingham (you can see the University of Birmingham's Old Joe!), and lots of heathland. Apparently people head up there in late summer to pick bilberries from the bushes there, although I've never been around at the right time to gather some myself. The heathland also supports common lizard and adder populations, which like to bask on hot summer days.
They always have loads of fun activities on up at the park, especially at the weekends. I'm probably most biased towards suggesting the GeoChampions (again, Laura knows more about this than I do), who look at the geology of Lickey Hills and do all sorts of fun things with that. There's volunteer work parties that clear scrub and brush too though, and kids events on- especially during holidays. There's a tai-chi group that meets on sundays by the Monument too! Basically it's a pretty cool place, and if you've been to the woods a lot, there's always new reasons to go with their events happening so often.
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