Wednesday 20th May 2026 9:00 a.m.
Viv goes on the Snail Trail in Jubilee Stone Wood
Snails, Trails and Willow Warblers
Standing tall near the top of Jubilee Stone Wood is the Jubilee Stone, which proudly displays a roll call of many of the significant royal events of almost 200 years. If you walk south east from the Jubilee Stone (away from the view) along the gladed bridle path towards the road, you will find yourself on the recently named Snail Trail. Or, should I sadly say, the recently deceased Snail Trail. Since the beginning of spring walking this particular path has given rise to a regular crushing sound, a bit like walking over a path of Crunchy Nut flakes.
This is not new to this path at this time of year however there has been a noticeable increase in volume and crunch - with regular comments from walkers who have spotted the number of pieces of variously coloured snail shells distributed along the path. Needless to say these are gradually being crushed down by the number of walkers and dogs and yet a day later more empty pieces of shell appear.
Which brings us to the lovely Song Thrush – whose beautifully tuneful song is a highlight of these woods. It just so happens that one of the favourite meals of the Song Thrush is a snail and they are well known for using any handy rock or tree root as an anvil, to bash the poor snail left and right until the shell falls away and the succulent meal is ready to eat. It is no coincidence that there has been a notable increase in Song Thrush numbers this spring but I really can’t say whether more snails has meant more Song Thrushes or the other way around. But one thing I did want to investigate is whether Song Thrushes are the only thrushes that do this. Blackbirds, which have a very similar song to the Song Thrush but with much less repetition, are also in the Thrush family and we also have very good numbers of these. The male blackbirds standing off to one another in the daftest of places – middle of the road, on busy paths or half way up a tree – are proof that fighting for territory or for a female is a busy Blackbird activity in BET woodlands this year. So do our good numbers of Blackbirds add to the numbers of snail shells on the path? Well, the BBC Wildlife Magazine is definitive on this. They say that, almost always, it’s just a Song Thrush thing. Blackbirds sometimes try but without the same success – so Blackbirds tend to go for the snails that can be prised open instead. So there we have it – without Song Thrushes we wouldn’t have our Crunchy Nut flakes footpath.
But I can’t sign off without mentioning another highlight of this late spring. We are well into our bird surveys for the year, with only one breeding bird survey left to do, and a bonus has been the Willow Warbler picked up, once again, near the Jubilee Stone. 
In this case you need to head in the opposite direction to the Snail Trail, down the rocky path. As soon as you have gone 20 or so paces from the Jubilee Stone you may be lucky to hear a song which is very similar to a Blackcap but just isn’t quite. In fact the Willow Warbler has a particularly cascading fluty song which has been ringing out from this position for over a month now. I’m excited to wonder whether there is any chance of breeding in the woods as this is not a regular visitor for us. Despite their name they do apparently like woodland and scrub so there is definitely hope. Plus Warblers are known for singing even in the midst of breeding. If you are lucky to spot the shy Willow Warbler (which we haven’t yet) then it will have a very similar appearance to a Chiff Chaff, including the supercilium (stripe above the eye), the olive-green colour and the small size and brisk flitting movement. So it is often only the song which allows us to tell them apart. I loved this comment from Google : ‘If it says its name and flips its tail, it's a Chiffchaff; if it sings a sweet, falling song and has pale legs, it's a Willow Warbler’.