After all that birdwatching, today’s main activity was looking at trees in the marvellous setting of Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire. The biggest discovery of the day was not a specific tree but the fact that the arboretum has an interactive online map which allows pinpointing of particular specimens.

We were able to find an example of the Sorbus vilmorinii we planted in our garden a couple of years ago and get an idea of what it might grow like over the next ten or so years. Fortunately the answer to that was fairly much as expected although by that point we might want to think about trimming it down a bit at the top. We didn’t manage to find some of the other trees we were looking for but, on our next visit we will do our homework in advance and prepare more detailed maps to help us track down the specimens on the ground.