Round Wood
Through the Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes Biodiversity Partnership, Round Wood has been declared a Local Wildlife Site due to the value of the habitat and its biodiversity within the local area. Like many other local woodlands, Round Wood lost a large number of its mature trees during the 1990 storm from which it has now recovered well.
Round Wood is at the western end of High Wycombe and has been isolated from the wide countryside due to post war development in the area. Previously it was part of a much greater network of woodlands known as Great Penny Knowles with the western end of the site a farmers field.
The site is now mixed deciduous woodland with pockets of chalk grassland and scrub at the western end of the site with amenity grassland below.
Best time to visit
Enjoy a woodland walk in late April when wood anemones carpet areas of the woodland floor before the canopy becomes too dark. Look out for the first butterflies of the season such as brimstones flying along the rides and glades.
Wildlife in the area
Listen for great spotted woodpeckers drumming as they proclaim their territories and hunt for invertebrates in the nooks and crannies of decaying trees. Their cousins, the green woodpecker, can also be seen on the site. The green woodpecker are more likely to be seen on the ground looking for one of their favourite foods, ants, or flying through the trees singing their distinctive laughing song.
Within the woodland during the spring look for woodland flowers including bluebells, sweet woodruff and goldilock’s buttercup. Just as the flowers are emerging look out for St George’s mushroom an edible mushroom, which gets its name from the time of year it can normally be found, we’ll leave you to work it out!
