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Just as the angler sits on the river bank with no thought of catching a fish the nature lover goes for a walk in the countryside with no thought of seeing anything special or even knowing where they are going.
Such was the case when the Waterside Natural History Society went to Eyeworth Pond; inspired no doubt by a scene from ‘The last of the summer wine’.
It did help, of course, that the weather was a warm, balmy summer’s day.
These days you never know whether it is late summer, early autumn, or a second spring but who cares when the sun is shining.
Eyeworth Pond is a manmade lake in the New forest at Fritham which is reached by travelling for some distance along a narrow forest road so you are allowed to hope for a quiet peaceful day.
There was however a few cars in the car park by the pond and several more in the village car park when we arrived.
We decided to walk in a north easterly direction for a while before turning back and retracing our steps to the car park for lunch.
It is not always possible to go on a circular route and we were to go on a similar path to the North West after lunch.
The grass on the downs has turned from green to brown to white but on the heaths of the forest the predominant colour is the pink of the heather and this is very noticeable at present.
There are three types of heather.
The true heather or ling, which is the most common, is noticeable by the small dots of light pink flowers.
This is interspersed by the Cross leaved heath which has larger bell shaped flowers of a light pink colour clustered at the top of the stem.
It is called cross leaved because the leaves are grouped in fours around the stem.
The third is the Bell heather which is a darker red colour and the bell like flowers are separated in spikes up the stem.
All three were seen on our walk from Eyeworth pond.
We noticed a family of Redstarts as we set off from the pond.
These are easily recognised by their rusty red hind quarters and their habit of flying down from the lower branches of a bush to pick up food from the ground.
The mandarin ducks which are usually present on the pond were all female or juveniles which are rather drab in colour.
Other birds included nuthatch, song thrush, marsh tit, long tailed tit and quite a number of swallows.
There were a few butterflies.
The Painted lady butterflies seem to have dispersed since the plague numbers of a few weeks ago but the Large White and Small White have been particularly abundant this year.
Good news for butterflies - not so good for cabbages.
However the season is defined there is no doubt that the berries think it is autumn.
The red berries of Rowan or Mountain Ash are prolific, as are the Crab Apples and the black Sloe berries on the blackthorn.
Hawthorn berries and Blackberries were also seen.
The blackberries seem to fruit and flower at the same time so are always attractive to the butterflies.
The walk after lunch was mainly through old mixed woodland with several dead trees, butchers broom and pollarded holly trees.
It is very pleasant to stroll through cool woodland on a hot summer’s day with the dappled sunshine settingoff the shades of green on the forest floor and solitary deer walking unhurried in the distance.
We were in for a shock when we returned to the car park however as cars were parked all over the roadsides and every available space. Obviously we were not the only people enjoying the countryside.
The next outdoor meeting is to Pigbush.
Meet at the Oak Road car park Dibden Purlieu at 10am on 20th September 2009.
Non members welcome at no charge.
The next indoor meeting is a talk on Moths by Simon Curzon.
Meet at St Andrews Centre, Beaulieu Road, Dibden Purlieu at 7.30pm on 28th September 2009.
Non members welcome at a charge of £2.
Contact the secretary on 023 8089 3803 for membership details.
Any comments to mharrison67@btinternet.com |
