Club 15 June 2021 morning – report
Robert organised a morning walk at Buckler’s Forest, a relatively new nature reserve courtesy of the developers building the huge housing estate on the site of the old TRL. Weather was perfect, sunny but not too warm and once we’d all arrived we looked forward to a nice gentle walk in the sunshine.
When we started our walk, there were just the six of us but we had only progressed a couple of hundred yards when we were hailed from the rear and behold there was Sharon escorted by her canine companions! A lovely surprise for us, their circuit was not as swift as usual, but the dogs ran backwards and forwards and must have attained their ten thousand steps in the first ten minutes.
I haven’t visited this site since last year’s lockdown so it was fascinating to see how the vegetation has flourished and I was impressed to see that even more new trees have been planted; indeed we met the (lone) ranger who was tending them – a mammoth and never-ending task it must be.
There are many ponds but as they’re not fed by any streams most of them had all but dried up. (I’m now writing on the 19th June so after the constant rain of yesterday, they must be full to overflowing by now!) In a couple of the deeper ones, we saw damselflies flitting around here but never there where I had focussed my camera. Fortunately Keith has had more practice so he even managed a shot of one in flight!
The flowers were the stars of the show with dog daises and dog roses for once in recent times living up to their names and flourishing in the dog days of summer. As always Robert was a fount of all knowledge, damselflies, trees, flowers …. and showed us just why Perforated St John’s Wort is so called – when you lift a leaf to the light it’s possible to see through tiny holes! If only I had read my Observer’s Guide to Wildflowers, when younger, instead of just looking at the pictures, maybe I would be leading walks also – though there again with my sense of direction, maybe not. So it’s massive thanks to Robert once again; have you the Autumnwatch walks planned?
Joan and Keith—photos from Keith