It’s Sunday morning , time for another walk along the new wild meadow planted this year by my local council. ( see the full story below ) This short walk has always been a good source of wildlife encounters, today is no exception. Less than 100 metres from my house there are a couple of foxes, just lying in the grass enjoying the early morning sun . Unfortunately one bolted into the nearby hedge, but the other fox jest chilled out completely unfazed . ( I should mention I didn’t encroach into his personal space , staying a good 50 metres away. ) Having spent a good 20 minutes watching foxy I decided it was time to continue with my walk and allow him to relax in peace and quiet.
Here’s the full story , A Walk on the Wild Side
Yippee, after what seems life a lifetime ( thirteen weeks ) it’s finally time to immerse myself back into Mother Nature and treat myself to a short walk . I can now imagine just how a bear must feel emerging from hibernation , it feels great to be outdoors again soaking up all the fresh air and sounds.
My walk today takes me along a path which runs next to Hayden brook. For most of its two miles from my house to Mouldon Hill Country Park ( where the brook joins the river Ray , a tributary of the river Thames ) the brook struggles to expand past one metres width and only has a depth of around half a metre. However as with most waterways, Hadon brook has the capacity to turn into a watery monster able to consume houses that line its normally docile banks. One such event happened in 2007 when the brook flooded some 200 houses.
To this end the brook runs through a fifty metre wide corridor with newly installed flood defence walls concealed with the ground. For most of its length the brook is also flanked on both banks by an array of bushes and trees. This makes this stretch of land a vital wildlife corridor and one of the main reasons we have such a wide variety of wildlife visiting our garden.
This vital corridor is now also the home of an experiment, carried out by our local parish council. As of February this year the grass areas won’t be mowed in future , and the whole area has been planted and seeded to create a wild meadow , ok only 10 metres deep in places but running the whole two miles. This should create the ideal habitats for many pollinating species, which in turn creates a food source further up the food chain . And the best part of this new experiment is that in the long term it’s going to save money !
REEVES MUNTJAC
The Reeves Muntjac ( Muntiacus reevesi ) is a small stocky deer , with a distinctive haunched appearance , with a rusty brown coat which turns a dull shade of grey in winter. The Muntjac was named in 1812 after John Reeves of the East India Company. This non native species originated in south east Asia and was introduced to…
ROE DEER
Roe Deer , Capreolus capreolus The roe is one of the two species of truly native deer of the British Isles, the other being the red deer. Records of them date nearly 6,000 years.. They are strongly associated with woodlands and have increased in both population and distribution with the increase in woodland planting in…
THE HIDE , WATER
The Hide , Monday 22nd May 2023 Another busy day here at the Hide with the pool central to all the action. It seems that Monday is bath day.! The appearance of the Sparrowhawk last week seems to have scared off all the blackbirds . Normally there’s at least three or four hanging around the…
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