Waxwing

Waxwing
"To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour."

From "Auguries of Innocence"

by William Blake

Thursday 24 September 2020

Snitterfield Bushes



I've tried making the size of print a little larger as I am aware it is quite small on my blog posts.  I hope it works!

I've tried to change the background colour again to a light blue but all that happens is this time is that it highlights the words in blue so I've given up on that idea! I suspect I may have to change the template to one with background colour.




Last Saturday D and I visited Snitterfield Bushes, a Warwickshire Wildlife Trust Reserve, a few miles North of Stratford upon Avon.  We've visited just once before.  It was a relief to find it was quiet and peaceful - we saw just a few other families during the whole visit all of whom were in the distance.


Snitterfield Bushes, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI),  is an area of damp woodland covering 50 hectares with grassy rides and glades, ditches, pond and wet flushes.  It once formed part of a much larger area of semi-natural woodland.  It was a forest for many centuries with the wood being used as timber and common pasture areas.  Ridge and Furrow plough markings are visible in some areas.  The site was used as an airfield in World War 2 and some of the paths are made up of the old concrete runways.  The area was clear felled in the 1940's but since then the site has been returned to its current appearance.

The woodland is composed mainly of ash, oak, silver birch and field maple with a shrub layer of wild privet, wayfaring tree, dogwood and Midland hawthorn.  

  • 250 species of plant have been recorded
  • 60 species of bird recorded
  • 28 butterfly species
  • 260 species of macro moth
  • 89 hoverfly species
  • 177 species of beetle including glow worms
  • Red and Fallow Deer occur



Common Darter?






White Bryony berry "necklaces"


I do love autumn and there were many signs on this walk from various berries, to seedheads and toadstools.








Common Fleabane



It looks a good year for Hawthorn berries






Seat with a view



Sloes galore, Rose Hips and Acorns









The next few photos from the walk were taken by my son.





Speckled Wood - we saw several on the walk and also a few unidentified "whites!





There were bat boxes everywhere





On the way back we stopped off briefly in the village of Bearley as I wanted to take a photo of the church.

St Mary's has a 12th century nave and the chancel is 13th or 14th century. There was some rebuilding in 1875 and the brick tower was added in 1830.




The church was open but if you read the small print only for private prayer or funerals.  I was almost tempted to go in though as there is a 15th century font.  Perhaps one day in the future.



Timber framed cottage opposite



The remaining photos are by my son.





Hedgehog Crossing! 😀




We drove through Henley in Arden on our way back home - it was teeming with people and there was a huge queue outside Henley Ices so no icecream stop!  D took these colourful pots and baskets photos from the car.







I am still not over happy with the quality of the uploaded images in the blog post although they may be slightly better in the gallery.  However, I am not very technically minded so have no idea how to change it.  When I used to compose a post in html I was given a choice of photo size having uploading each one but that option seems to have disappeared. I might do a test post using old blogger, if still available,  and upload one photo I have used in new blogger posts to compare.


Oops! I have a horrible feeling that somehow the print size has gone smaller again over the course of the post! Apologies if it has! 😠


D and I hope to go back to Snitterfield when the autumn colours appear as long as we can still travel!

I do hope everyone is staying safe and well.




Photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera


Photos taken by my son with the Canon Bridge SX50 bridge camera.



10 comments:

Rustic Pumpkin said...

A lovely time out, and it must be wonderful to be getting out on some different walks. So many super things to see, both flora and fauna, at Snitterfield Bushes.

Edward Evans said...

The Clover pic taken by your son looks like ZigZag Clover, something more interesting than plain Red Clover. :)

Ragged Robin said...

Rustic Pumpkin - Thanks so much. It was good to walk somewhere new or at least somewhere we haven't been for a few years. It is a nice little reserve about 40/45 minutes away. Thanks for dm on twitter re: gap again between end of post and comments section. I have edited and hope it looks better. I must remember to check each time as I have no idea why it is happening!

Edward Evans - Thanks so much. That is so interesting re: ZigZag Clover - thank you. Off to google and check my wild flower books now.

Midmarsh John said...

You do find the most interesting wildlife / natural places to visit. Although most of the Lincolnshire Wolds are designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty there seem to be few places easily accessible for the general public, even less when you have a dog.
P.S. Photos look fine when enlarged.

Simon Douglas Thompson said...

Lovely walk, lovely place, definitely looks like a female common darter to me!

Bovey Belle said...

What a peaceful place to wander. I am tentatively looking forward to some new walks when we move. I always see what is around the area of the houses we are viewing.

Ragged Robin said...

Midmarsh John - Thanks so much. Sorry to hear there are few places easily accessible for you in Lincolnshire. Thanks too for saying photos enlarged look ok perhaps I am just looking for problems!

Simon Douglas Thompson - Thanks so much Simon.

Bovey Belle - Thanks so much. I think the nearby area is very important when you are buying a new house. You need to have places where you can walk etc.

Millymollymandy said...

I just love that cottage at the end, so chocolate boxy! I think that is a common darter but possibly a newly emerged one, as it looks like a male but the red colouring is faint. But I am no expert! 😄 Looks a lovely place to walk through and lots of things of interest with the emerging fungi and all the berries.

Pretty sure you have to change your template to change colour, although I think some templates have a choice of colour. It’s been a long time since I went through the templates though!

Again I am on my iPad but going to look at the text size now on my desktop. xx

Millymollymandy said...

Yup, photos still look good in the gallery on my iMac, and I like the text size, though I realised I was still on Control + for your blog as the text seemed huge, hahaha!

Ragged Robin said...

Millymollymandy - Thanks so much. Possibly a female common darter I think they have more muted colours. I think you are right about changing template to change background colour. Glad the photos look ok for you. lol! I bet it did look large text!!! I might dry highlighting at end of draft post next time and changing it all in one go.