Walk combined both facts and foolishness

High Woods Preservation Society president Alan Malpass delights in staging one of his popular conducted walks in the 87-acre wildlife habitat at this time of year.

It is an opportunity for him to blend in with his splendidly informative commentary on Nature’s wonders the odd mischievous falsehood.

But which is fact and which is fiction when Nature is so perverse?

Walkers on Saturday, April 2 were blessed with fine Spring weather, a rich variety of bird-song and the first spring flowers. Wood anemones were in abundance and wood sorrell was there to be enjoyed by the walkers, thanks to Alan’s sharp eyes and deep knowledge of his subject.

Brimstone butterflies were flitting about. The group had a delightful sighting of a pair of colourful jays; spied two greater spotted woodpeckers and glimpsed newts and a frog in the small pond on the woodland’s wet heath.

All this was indisputable. But was it a fact that bats like those cramming a hole in a tree adopt their version of driving on the left-hand side of the road to avoid congestion? And could it be true that male starlings have a blue colour-spot beside their beaks and females pink?

Could it be possible that a butterfly’s sense of smell is so acute that one could home in on its elder/buckthorn food source in the woods from as far away as Little Common roundabout?

All this and much more was teasingly offered by the president as the group passed from one woodland point of interest to another. By the time the group completed its circuit and regained the car park none of the walkers was able to separate fact from fiction.

The fact is that all the foregoing are true. References to a rare Himalayan butterfly and a spurious crepuscular sparrow were figments of April imagination.

• Alan Malpass’ next conducted walk on behalf of High Woods Preservation Society will be in quest of spring flowers on May 7.