Over a thousand years of coppicing and the clearing of conifers after the storms of 1987 have made Blean Woods, near Canterbury, a rich habitat for wildlife, with five waymarked trails taking you through open glades, mature oak woodlands and heathland. In spring, listen for the drumming and high-pitched trilling of the rare lesser spotted woodpecker, and the wondrous sound of nightingales letting rip from the hedgerows. In summer, you could spot up to 30 species of butterflies, including the rare heath fritillary, as well as damselflies and dragonflies. Stay until dusk to watch nightjars darting through the air to catch their supper. Primroses, bluebells, lily of the valley, wood anemones and orchids put in appearances over the year.
Burntollet is a newly planted woodland, part of an ambitious strategy to increase native tree cover in Northern Ireland. As the young trees grow (there are plans to plant 43,000), they will buffer the long established woods of Ness country park, parts of which date back to the 1600s, protecting and extending a habitat rich in red squirrels, kestrels, buzzards, sparrowhawks and badgers. Visit Burntollet in summer to enjoy a forest of flowers. A huge meadow has been sown with meadow buttercup, yellow rattle, bird's foot trefoil, red campion, ox-eye daisy and ragged robin, interspersed with clover, barley and oats, to invite in wildlife. Oaks Wood, a mile down the road, will give you an idea of how Burntollet should look in 10 years. Here the canopy has already closed over.
Brede High Woods, outside Hastings, is a complex of ancient woodlands (some continuously wooded since 1600), modern plantations, fields, heaths, wetlands and wide, sunny rides or paths. There are wild boars in the woods and on warm summer days fallow deer lie up in the bracken. Watch out for the rutting bucks in autumn. The patient visitor may be rewarded with sightings of woodmice and weasels, as well as badgers after dark. The ancient woodlands are home to bluebells, wood anemones and primroses, plus the rarer green hellebore and wild service trees. Bird watchers should look out for spotted fly-catchers, woodcocks, turtle doves and buzzards. Invertebrate lovers should keep their eyes peeled for glow worms and the heath speedwell flea beetle, once thought to be extinct in the UK.
Spanning a deep ravine, Scar and Castlebeck Woods, 10km (six miles) north-west of Scarborough, are a remarkable remnant of the oak forests that once covered the North Yorkshire moors. As well as the wooded areas, which boast some of Britain's largest examples of rare hay-scented buckler fern and where you'll be hard pushed to find a non-native tree, there are also marshy areas, open heathland, and moorland covered with bracken, heather and bilberry. Head to the open flushes on the west side of Jugger Howe beck to see purple moor grass, devil's bit scabious (an important source of nectar for late-flying butterflies and bees), lousewort, common sedge and heath spotted orchid. Look out for the brimstone butterfly – this is as far northeast as you will see it – and follow the river to spot trout, kingfisher and heron. You may even see the fossilised footprints of dinosaurs, which were first noted here by the Victorians.
Most of the tree cover in this horseshoe-shaped wood in Penicuik was planted in the 19th century, although some veteran beeches may predate this; and the area is dominated by oak, beech, ash and sycamore, along with pine, yew, spruce, willow and alder. Sadly, garden escapees from the nearby Ladywood estate, particularly few-flowered leek and leopard's bane threaten to overtake the native flora in some areas – ignore them and enjoy the swathes of wild garlic, dog's mercury, butterbur and opposite-leaved golden saxifrage found in the wetter areas, and the grasses, buckler ferns, wood sorrel, pignut, violets, moschatel and sanicle in drier parts. Wander alongside Loan burn and the North Esk river for a chance of seeing pipistrelle bats (which should just be emerging from hibernation), otters, grey wagtails, dippers and herons.
This is one of the largest oak woods in Wales, though birch also predominates, and there are ash trees dotted along the deep gullies that cut through the site. Since livestock grazing ended in 1992, bramble, bracken and bilberry have become more vigorous, while the upper margins are home to young birch, rowan, oak, bracken, heather and gorse. The site, which is one of five valleyside woodlands in the area, was bought by the Woodland Trust thanks to a legacy from a birdwatcher. Between April and September you may see and hear tree pipits, whose population has been in decline in Europe for 25 years; pied flycatchers arriving from west Africa; redstarts (they have bright orange-red tails) and wood warblers.
A walk through Beckmickle Ing, on the border of the Lake District national park near Kendal, should reward the light-footed visitor with sightings of roe deer, great spotted woodpeckers, otters, dippers, common sandpipers and, if you are very lucky, red squirrels. The oak-dominated canopy also includes ash, alder, cherry, beech and elm, while the under-storey is home to hazel, holly, hawthorn and goat willow. The river Kent, which runs through the wood, holds nationally important populations of white-clawed crayfish, the only species of crayfish native to the British Isles, and the endangered freshwater pearl mussel. The extremely poisonous hemlock water-dropwort, also known as dead man's fingers, grows among the ferns and rushes on the riverbank.
Tread softly and you could just be rewarded with a sighting of the endangered red squirrel. Telltale signs include stripped pine cones underfoot and, overhead, their nests, known as dreys – balls of twigs and leaves nestling in the forks between branch and tree trunk. Keep your gaze skyward to spot noisy groups of crossbill, a chunky finch that usually flies at treetop height, fluttering from cone to cone to feed. The vast majority of tree cover here consists of mature Scots pine, with a scattering of holly, hazel and juniper, and an area of semi-mature birch wood containing a few examples of rowan, willow and aspen. Where non-native trees have been cleared to make space for natural regeneration, felled logs, stumps, log piles and heaps of cuttings have been left to provide habitats for birds, small mammals, fungi and insects.
The main wildlife interest at Mere Sands near Ormskirk must be the birds. It is one of the best places in the country to spot overwintering gadwall and teal, as well as goosander, tufted duck, pintail and wigeon. More than 170 species have been seen on the site, which contains broad-leaved and conifer woodlands, lakes, wet meadows and heaths. Coppiced birch provides habitats for warblers, chiffchaff and whitethroat, while the creation of a cliff-like bank on a stream has encouraged kingfishers to breed. Other breeding species include great crested and little grebes, lapwing, sparrowhawk, treecreeper, tawny owl and redpoll. If birds aren't your thing, there are roe deer and stoats, a small population of red squirrels, 15 species of dragonfly, 200 types of fungi, and noteworthy flora such as orchids, marsh helleborine, golden dock, lesser centaury and royal fern.
Chesham Bois is made up of a number of small woods, most of which were planted in the early 1900s to supply the local furniture trade with good-quality beech, although one, Hodds Wood, can be traced back to the 13th century. In spring, listen for the drumming of the male greater spotted woodpecker and the laughing call of green woodpeckers. In summer, if you hear a squeaking from on high at dusk, it may well be young tawny owls calling for food. The adults are likely to be silently catching smaller creatures such as voles, shrews and mice. Native trees include cherry, beech, hornbeam, oak and elm, and a whitebeam that is listed as the tallest in the UK at 23 metres (75ft) high and 173cm (63in) in girth. Ash, Norway maple and sycamore species are all growing well in the lighter glades created by the felling of mature trees during storms in the early 1990s.