Sherwood Pines Forest Park
Here is a map with the main entrance to Sherwood Pines marked.
Owned by the Forestry Commission, also known as Cliptone Forest.
Access and facilities
Probably the largest area of forest open to the public in the East Midlands, being about 1200 acres in size. It has a visitor centre, cafe and toilets as well as a cycle repair man. The main access is from off the B6030 about a kilometre east of Old Clipstone. Here there is a pay and display car park, the charge being £2 per car. There is a second access road directly off the A614, here parking is free, but there are no facilities. Access is more or less unrestricted for walkers. It is one of Nottinghamshire's CROW (Countryside and Rights of Way) sites.
Three marked trails
- The White Trail — 1 mile
- The Blue Trail — 2.5 miles
- The Red Trail
The White trail is surfaced for easy access and basically goes to the Childhood Wood (a memorial to the sufferers of Mucopolysaccharidosis) and back to the visitor centre.
The Blue Trail takes the walker through a more varied habitat with different aged pines, pools and heathland.
The Red Trail is for cyclists only.
Habitat
A pine forest with areas of birch, oak, sweetchestnut and beech. There are open areas where the mature trees have been harvested.
Birds
The main bird species include common birds such as the Chaffinch, Robin, Wren, Coal Tit, Goldcrest, Blackcap, Garden Warbler and Blackbird. More localised ones include Common Crossbill, Tree Pipit and Nightjar.
The Common Crossbill is supposed to feed mainly on spruce cones, but in Nottinghamshire appears to feed largely on pine. Perhaps I don’t look enough at spruce trees. I have read however, that in Britain, Common Crossbills appear to feed on pine cones at the beginning of the year and larch in the autumn, but not very often on spruce. This surprising since 20% of the planted conifers are spruce.
It usually feeds perched on the cone itself, but can remove small cones to take elsewhere. It gets at the seed by pushing its bill in between the cone scales and using the crossed points on the end of its bill to loosen the seed, which it then scoops up with its specially shaped tongue. If the seed cannot be reached by this method then the Crossbill can rotate its head forcing the cone scales further apart causing the type of damage as in the photograph on the right. This cone was retrieved from Cumbria and not Nottinghamshire however. Squirrels and other rodents such as mice will nibble at the cone scales to cause a different type of damage.
Crossbills can be amazingly quite when feeding in the trees but will call often when they are in flight, which is the best way to pick them up. They can be seen closely when they come to the ground to drink, often from rain puddles or sometimes from the gutters of the buildings in the visitor centre.
Updated 28th August 2007Any criticisms, corrections or comments to the author Derek Huskisson
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