Woodland springs into urgent new life

Ebernoe Common, West Sussex These flowers are in a race against time to propagate before the trees burst into life

The trees are still bare but spring flowers are emerging through the leaf litter of the woodland floor. White, star-like wood anemones, yellow lesser celandines and the green blades of bluebell plants are scattered in the pools of morning sunshine. A few native bluebell flower heads are beginning to unfurl, raising their blue-mauve trumpets as the light streams down through the skeletal canopy above.

These early spring flowers are in a race against time to propagate before the trees burst into life again and the wood below returns to relative darkness. A bold wren announces my presence from a log with a panicked series of rapid-fire "chicks", its tail flicking up and down.