RSPB Sherwood Forest at Edwinstowe offering a series of winter wildlife walks

A series of winter wildlife walks is being held by the RSPB next month to help visitors get closer to nature and shake off the winter blues.

Sherwood Forest is home to all three of the UK’s resident woodpecker species — the Great Spotted Woodpecker, the Green Woodpecker, and the elusive Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.

The RSPB is offering guided winter walks at RSPB Sherwood Forest at Edwinstowe to find these enigmatic birds who are already active in the forest.

On Saturday (February 1) starting at 9am, the focus will be on ‘Winter Wings’, understanding the habits and strategies birds use to survive the colder months.

It will focus on how the forest sustains birdlife at this time of year, and why varieties such as Coal Tits, Nuthatches, and Dunnocks remain so active in this country when other species have long since migrated to warmer climates.

The following day (Sunday February 2) at 10.30am, attention will turn to the trees of Sherwood and how you can identify the assortment of trees when many have shed their distinctive leaves.

As well as the Ancient Oaks, Sherwood boasts a host of native trees, and our walk leader will help walkers to tell them apart, understand their unique features and to appreciate their importance to the ecology of the forest.

On Saturday February 8 at 9am there will be the forest’s Woodpecker Walk, and you can already hear the woodpecker’s unmistakeable drumming resonating through the woodland canopy, as well as the Green’s characteristic ‘laugh’ or ‘yaffle’.

If you are unable to attend on this date, another Woodpecker Walk will take place on Sunday February 23, also at 9am.

All of these events can be booked at www.visitsherwood.co.uk.

Visitors are asked to note that as with all walks to see birds in the wild, there is no guarantee that certain species will be seen.