Sunshine and flowers

It has been the ideal weather for observing the beauty of spring wildflowers lately (well, apart from Storm Hannah...).

On Good Friday we headed out from Stanmore in Winchester, walking along part of the Clarendon Way, then up to Sparsholt and back via Crab Wood. A good loop taking in ancient trackways and woodland, with great butterfly spotting opportunities - holly blues, orange tips, brimstone, speckled wood, small tortoiseshell and comma. And the bluebells in Crab Wood (a SSSI on the western edge of Winchester, adjacent to Farley Mount Country Park) were looking great. Still not at their peak, but enough to carry the sweet scent in the air. I really don't think I could live anywhere else in the world - missing out on the bluebell spectacle is unacceptable!

On Tuesday I was lucky enough to do some volunteering through work, counting snakes-head fritillary plants at North Meadow by the pretty village of Cricklade, north of Swindon. These beautiful plants are only found on a handful of sites across the country, and need careful and traditional management of the floodplain meadows, being cut for hay then grazed. It seemed to be a good year for them, making them easier to spot. An idyllic day!

Catching up

It's been a bit of a busy few weeks I'm afraid, so apologies for the delayed post. I've now moved to Winchester, so have been getting to know the area. I've also managed a few nice walks in between unpacking!

Before I left Salisbury, I squeezed in a trip along the Clarendon Way through Clarendon Park. The ancient woodland was looking very green - lots of fresh shoots contrasting nicely against the ancient dead wood and gnarled oaks and beeches. Red kites and skylark flew overhead and the hedgerows were alive with birdsong.

Having unpacked, we treated ourselves to a day at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard - beautiful sunshine and a relaxed potter among the various sites, including getting the boat across to the Gosport Submarine Museum.

Next was a busy weekend of socialising - a walk for a birthday near Wilton Windmill mid-Wiltshire in wonderful sunshine and balmy temperatures, followed by a long and intrepid couple of walks through the New Forest for Mothers Day. Navigating in the Forest is always tricky - the map doesn't help too much, as people have created numerous paths as it is all open access. So trying not to get stuck on the wrong side of a stream is important - unfortunately, attempts to find a way across resulted in a scramble and then realising we were stuck on an island, then having to head up towards the main road and route march to the pub for lunch. Annoying but we were on time in the end! Our afternoon walk through conifer plantation - and recently-cleared areas being restored to heathland - also featured our first cuckoo being heard - very very early!

Last weekend we had friends visiting so we showed them a few sites in the area - starting with a lovely afternoon stroll along the Itchen Navigation from ST Cross south to Otterbourne and back. Lots of blossom on the trees, fresh green leaves on the bankside trees, lots of bird life, and of course, numerous posh gardens to admire!

Then the Sunday saw us walking through the watermeadows into town via Winchester College and Wolvesey Castle (or rather, the ruins of this 12th century palace for the Bishop of Winchester), admiring the blossom and the beautiful buildings.

Our final afternoon featured a lovely loop through Farley Mount Country Park on the outskirts of Winchester, with its mosaic of ancient woodland, scrub and chalk grassland. Although a tad too early for the flowers, the oil beetles were emerging en mass - they were literally all over the footpaths, with several having been squashed. For a declining species that relies on solitary bees, who in turn need flower-rich grassland to survive, this was a shame. Great to see so many of them though!

Late exploration

It seems a bit late to be exploring a new part of the area, when I'm about to move away from it. And it's also funny how these things happen - we were completely lacking in inspiration for somewhere to walk on Sunday, and resorted to looking at the TripAdvisor Top 10 New Forest pubs. Oddly, several weren't really in the Forest at all, and thus we ended up parking at the Rose and Thistle in Rockbourne for a most delightful loop.

Next to Damerham and Martin, Rockbourne is a beautiful little village in Cranborne Chase. Our route took us via the pretty church and patches of ancient woodland carpeted with the fresh green leaves of bluebells, across fields with wonderful views, connecting to the also-pretty church in Whitsbury. Needing to be back at the pub for lunch, we then walked through more ancient woodland and ancient trackways, with primroses and the odd wood anemone in flower, before returning to Rockbourne. It's a great place to walk as there are lots of short connecting paths, so you can make a route to sort your needs. And in a few weeks' time, it will be beautiful with the wildflowers. Walking back through Rockbourne along the road meant we could admire the small winterbourne up close. It doesn't flow during the summer, as groundwater levels in the chalk bedrock drop, but it flows long enough for the water crowfoot to flower. And in fact, it was already flowering - very early, but a joy to see it doing so well in the crystal-clear waters, when in other rivers it is declining.

Alas, the pub was fully booked, and the one in Whitsbury was also rammed. This is how we ended up in The Bat and Ball in Breamore, in the edge of the Avon Valley. Also rammed, they found us a tiny table for our lovely roast, giving us time to plan our afternoon. We had time for a quick walk, and as the sun was shining, we headed up to Castle Hill in Woodgreen. We've been here before - it has amazing views across the wide, flat River Avon floodplain, and given the enormous amount of rain we've had with the storms, it was looking rather soggy!

We walked through Godshill Enclosure listening to the spring birdsong, looping down and up to pass out of the enclosure and into some lovely ancient woodland, criss-crossed with streams. Walking along an old trackway, we had a great view down the valley to a herd of female fallow deer. We then followed the Avon Valley Path through part of the village before heading back to the car, admiring the sun shining through the clouds down onto the floodplain again. A lovely way to end the day.

Slippy-slidey

And so the unpredictable spring weather begins - heavy showers, blustery gales, bright sunshine - hard to keep up!

And of course it's typical that when you have a birthday outing planned in, the forecast is dire. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be, and managed to complete our lovely loop in north Wiltshire.

We started off in the village of Ford, north of Chippenham. We headed north, along ancient trackways, up steep and very slippery slopes (thanks to all that rain and the clay soil), and would have had lovely views across the By Brook (tributary of the Bristol Avon river) valley if not for the poor weather. Our mid-way stop was in the pretty village of Castle Combe - usually, I only come here for something car-related due to the racing track, so it made a change to admire the lovely honey-coloured cottages along the high street.

Our return route to the pub at Ford for our delicious lunch was along the valley ridge, having crossed the By Brook along an ancient clapper bridge earlier. A very slippery (only two falls, thankfully not me) and wet walk but lovely terrain, lots of variety and probably some great views!

I'm making the most of exploring Wiltshire and Cranborne Chase as I'm moving to Winchester in a couple of weeks, whereby the blog will have a re-branding! However, the walks will still continue, just exploring further east perhaps.

Conflicted

Oh I've been so conflicted these past few days - the stunning weather has meant some spectacular walks but it's really far too warm for this time of year. A taste of things to come and more than slightly depressing. Instead, I'll focus on a fab weekend of wildlife watching.

First up was my (ashamedly) first visit to Martin Down this year - as the sun was shining, we obviously needed to head high for the views, so we ended up on top of Pentridge Hill, outside of the NNR. The hazy sun picked out all of the ancient earthworks on the slopes of the Hill - a very heavily used part of the world at one time.

Our circular route descended to join an ancient trackway, having passed through the pretty village of Pentridge. The sun was getting lower in the sky, casting long shadows from the trees and hedgerows. In the adjacent field, we spotted a good number of roe deer feeding - we watched each other for a while, so we could clearly see males (bucks) with their short antlers as well as females (does). They live in small groups in winter, but as they head towards the rut in the summer (as opposed to the autumn for red deer), they become more solitary. The females give birth in January, and although the light was a bit dim in this field, I was certain I could make out some smaller deer lying on the ground - perhaps this year's fawns.



Heading back towards the NNR, and approaching the other side of the ancient Bokerley Dyke earthwork, we had an encounter with some sort of raptor. Again, light was difficult, but it looked to be bigger than a buzzard, mostly white underneath, with pale buff wings on top. It quartered the ground in lazy flaps across the field, catching something and tearing into it ferociously on the ground. It didn't look heavy enough to be an owl, and the head shape wasn't as blunt. We are told it could have been a female hen harrier, but it seems to be completely the wrong colouration. We are stumped - perhaps a new species?!!

The following day, we headed back to one of our favourite haunts, the Lymington and Keyhaven Marshes Nature Reserve on the New Forest coast. A stunning day, with amazing views across to the Isle of Wight and along the coast. but our attentions were fixed on the copious bird life. At this time of year you get a strange mix - of winter migrants about to head off to their breeding grounds, such as the brent geese, as well as the spring breeders getting ready for the forthcoming season. progress towards Lymington (our lunch stop) was slow consequently.

Birds seen include: lots of teal (barely any seen on our last visit - must be an influx of breeders), some wigeon (not as many as last time - numbers boosted by winter migrants from Scandinavia), pintail, little egret, avocet, shelduck, bar-tailed godwit, redshank, dunlin, lots of black-headed gulls getting nosily ready to breed, displaying male lapwing, more than a few brent geese, oyster catcher, and probably many others I've forgotten about. In particular, one male lapwing gave a spectacular display over our heads for many minutes, tumbling acrobatically in the air, alternately showing gleaming white belly against glossy green-black back, all the while accompanied by it's other-worldly bubbling song.

Alas - or perhaps for the good - the weather has broken slightly, and we're back to more normal conditions. However, spring is clearly on the way for the birds, so hopefully many more encounters to come.

Change is in the air

Rather than a post about specific places I've been to over the last couple of weeks (which have been scant and relatively unremarkable!), this is more about the feeling in the air at the moment - spring is on the way!

I've noticed the birds getting more feisty - male blackbirds chasing rivals away, robins making themselves more visible perching in the garden where they've been absent for ages, male sparrows flitting about. And of course the birdsong is just getting going - when I got back from skiing a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the mornings and evenings were no longer almost silent. The weak but pretty song of the dunnock singing from the undergrowth, song thrushes piping up with their repetitive notes. Even a crow was getting very agitated the other day!

Coupled with lesser celandines and snowdrops, and the early blooms of blackthorn, buds on the trees, my first sighting of a brimstone butterfly (as they overwinter among ivy on the woodland floor), early bumblebees sipping from early-flowering plants, spring is definitely on its way. It's an exciting time of year - things are waking up. What wildlife encounters will I have over the coming months?!

Here and there

It's been a bit of a hectic few weeks, what with my birthday celebrations, and travelling with work, hence the delay in posting!

My birthday was a civilised affair, with the lovely circuit from Fovant Badges down to Broadchalke on the Saturday. I've posted about it before - although the weather was a bit gloomy for pics, it still has some amazing views.

The Sunday saw a group of us converge on a pub in Beckhampton for a walk to Windmill Hill. Beckhampton is in the World Heritage Site containing Avebury stone circle. I'd not been to Windmill Hill before, and the route took us passed some standing stones and other lumps and bumps in the ground, before reaching this Neolithic causewayed enclosure, apparently the largest in Britain. The view from the top across this ancient landscape - now mostly agricultural - were very pretty but again, the anticyclonic gloom permeated the day.

Then last Sunday, with a hankering for birdwatching, we opted to potter around Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve, before following the Avon Valley Path to Ringwood for lunch. Surprisingly close, and although the route followed a stream behind an industrial estate, it was very pretty, and might feature in a future painting. We attempted to continue the path the other side of Ringwood, and were partially successful - the fields were extremely boggy, but we did make it as far as a lovely stretch right next to the wide, sweeping River Avon, before bog-factor increased massively.





Now is a great time to visit the reserve, which is internationally important for overwintering and breeding wildfowl. Its woodland is also great for other species of birds, many of which we watched at close quarters on feeders, including siskins, gold finch, chaffinch, nuthatch, robin, blackbird, great tit, blue tit and a dunnock scuttling around below the feeders accompanied by a very fat squirrel! We also disturbed a twitcher photographing a treecreeper with an enormous lens - with a bright white breast, they skulk close to the branches (hence the name), picking out insects (that's the treecreeper, not the twitcher).

 On the lakes we were very pleased to encounter goosander in the dying embers of the day, aptly viewed from the Goosander Hide. However, there was a slight complaint at the good-sized flock of lapwing circling in and landing, when they should apparently have been landing by the Lapwing Hide (which we didn't have time to get to)! Goosander are one of the saw-billed ducks, specialising in fish, with their fine, toothed beaks. At this time of year, mixed flocks of males and females gather, preparing for the breeding season ahead.

We also saw copious tufted ducks, a possible goldeneye, little grebe, great crested grebe, wigeon, pochard, gadwall, teal, and of course cormorant. We did not stick around to fruitlessly peer at the trees by one of the hides with the twitchers - we had noticed the carparks were full. this was due to the spotting of a yellow-browed warbler, normally found in Asia, so a bit of course. They're usually doomed to die, having landed exhausted, and now pursued by crowds of enormous lenses and scopes attached to camouflaged-twitchers anxious to tick it off their list. Very sad.

Finally, work has taken me to Kendal and Lincoln this week, with brief opportunities to explore. I did manage a lovely little walk at Sizergh Fell, only a short way from the glamourous Kendal Travelodge, and an evening foray up to see the beautiful Lincoln Cathedral.

A more sedate week now beckons thankfully!