We have our regular Saturday Walking Picnic from Abbots Well tomorrow, and I have decided to do a loop round Pitts Wood for the walk. It's a couple of weeks since I was last up there, so I thought I would wander round, and see if there was anything about. As I stopped at the crest of the ridge and looked down at the wood, I could hear a raven croaking. As I looked for the raven, two hobbies appeared, and quartered the valley looking for dragonflies, before sitting up in one of the tall pines. Meanwhile, a Dartford warbler was shouting at me from a nearby gorse bush. On into the wood to find a couple of nice groups of fungi, and a red admiral butterfly. On the way back across Hampton Ridge I managed to get a nice photo of a kestrel, then spotted a whinchat, and then a wheatear, and just as I was heading home, turned to see a whole herd of fallow bucks, grazing with the ponies. They weren't too bothered about me, so I managed to get a few decent photos. Now, if they will all just stay in place for tomorrow's guests, that will do nicely!
AuthorAll blog entries written by Nigel Owen, the walking half of Walking Picnics Archives
April 2017
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