Spring Comes Flooding in

Thought I'd do a bit of a photo-Blog for a change. This weekend began well, fell apart with a spectacular bang on Saturday evening and then picked itself up nicely yesterday.

After the storms had crossed over on Saturday evening, it looked wonderfully spring like out there. How wrong could I have been. Popping down to the Somerset Levels to do a spot of wildlife watching, it became evident that everywhere was flooded, many roads too. So I rang a friend and we met up for a walk along the North Dorset Trailway. Until recently I spent every weekend in North Dorset so this used to be a regular walk for me. But since August and splitting up with Thelma, I'd not been back. So very nice to revisit of an old stomping ground.

But as you can see from the following photos, and video, it was a bit wet !!

On the drive to the Trailway the River Stour had burst it's banks at King's Mill

Ahhahh it's good to be back in Dorset.... even if my sartorial elegance isn't obvious. This is a repeat of a photo last June in warmer weather - see here.

Just because it was an arty shot.

In drier times, one can walk to this style and along the riverbank, a haven for Otter, Kingfisher and Banded Damoiselle

Where this tree is, is the bank. In the summer the river is usually 10 feet below here

We took a detour off the Trailway and walked to Fiddleford Mill. I'm so glad we did, otherwise we'd not have spied these snowdrops, They were a bit battered after the flood, but a welcome sign of the coming spring

Water pounding through the mill race

Another arty shot, an old door. Taken because of the colours

I was surprised there were so few birds about taking advantage of the flooding. Carrion Crow, Woodpigeon and Buzzard were common, as were Fieldfare and Redwing. smattering of Great, blue and Long-Tailed Tit, and a couple of lovely male Bullfinches at Fiddleford. Dunnock, Robin and Blackbird but no waders, and apart from this Kestrel on a post in the floodwater, nothing else of note.

But the sun began to set and time to go home. The fence is where the riverbank normally is, and where the Kestrel was, on the bend.

Finally a video taken from the sluice gates at Fiddleford Mill on my camera of the flooding. Where these people are walking is the higher river bank. about a 20 foot drop to the river below. hopefully they knew what they were doing.

Finally on the way home, just to revisit old haunts, we popped up to Bulbarrow Hill. It was good to be back there, made all the more so by the 4 Ravens seen tumbling and playing the wind. I'm going to have to move down there, much too good a place to avoid. No wonder Thomas Hardy wrote such descriptive novels.... now then Tess, is that job still going as Mayor of Casterbridge?

2 Post Trailway Day

A man about to tackle the trailway......

Following on from Snowgoosey's report of the Barn Owl near the S&D Trailway;

http://snowgoosey.blogspot.com/2008/06/evening-on-a-walk.html

Border and his latest squeeze, decided to go for a walk this morning and a bit of a recce. I've posted a walk along here before in March. However this is the first time we've walked from Sturminster Newton to Shillingstone, as this part was only opened up a few weeks ago. About 3 miles each way. Don't worry I'll not describe the walk, which I tend to find involves one foot in front of another, in a fairly regular forward motion. Maybe best just to let the photos do the talking of some highlights seen (as ever enlarge for a better view).

Left : Water Figwort, Right : Marsh Thistle

Left : Goatsbeard, Right : Comphrey

Male, left and female right Banded Damioselle

Left : Peacock larvae on nettle, and Right : "False Oil Beetle"
Oedemera nobilis (note the enlarged hind Femora, only found on males)

Left : Common Blue Damselfly and Right : the Hover-Fly Erisyrphus beleatus on Agrimony

Latest Squeeze

I have to say the 3 hours or so we took to walk the 6 miles was a great way to sharpen the appetite for luncheon. Most noticeable were that Chiffchaffs were still in good song, but there were very few butterflies around. I saw three during the whole walk, a very tatty Red Admiral, a Large White and a brown job. I also located the Barn Owl spot, so one evening in the not too distant future, I may be seen there. The one other notable was a female Yellowhammer carrying feed, followed by a singing Male further on which flew into a wheat field. Great summer birds.

So it's been a busy old weekend blogging wise, that's 1 posting yesterday and 2 today. I need a rest and a cup of tea. Mind you we did stop for a half a shandy at the Saxon Inn Child Oakford on the way back. Seemed churlish not to as we were passing.

Badgers on the line

Opened the bedroom window this morning and lay back and listened to the "Dawn Chorus" while drinking a cup of tea, can there be a better way to wake up? Don't think it was appreciated by the other half, bit cold apparently, shut that window.

So even though it was only 7am and frosty, we decided to pop over to Sturminster Newton to walk the newly opened Trailway to Fiddleford Bridge. This is being opened section by section by Dorset Council, and follows the old Somerset and Dorset railway line, closed in 1967. We've been meaning to do this for ages and wish I'd done this before, as the birdlife was amazing, nothing rare, just an awful lot of, Wren, Dunnock, Gt and Blue Tit, Robin, Blackbird, Fieldfare, Redwing, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, 3 Buzzards, 2 Treecreepers and a Gt Spotted Woodpecker drumming in the woods on the hill. At the sewerage works good numbers of Pied and a couple of Grey Wagtails, and walking back 2 Skylarks singing.

But this weekend is fast becoming Badger weekend. Last night driving down, I had a fabulous view of one as it scuttled ahead of me in a very narrow lane near Wincanton. I slowed to a crawl, but as it had no where to go, the headlights gave me a perfect ring-side-rear-view of a speeding badger for about a minute before it headed under a gate. Later in the evening Andrew Cooper's Natural World programme was on Badgers. Over the last 6 month or so I've been hearing from Andrew of the exploits of these Badgers so seeing the finished article was eagerly anticipated, and well worth the wait. The interior sett shots were stunning and revealed behaviour never seen before in a sett.

But today, we do things differently in Dorset. As the badgers dig, we put up roadblocks apparently?!?! At the far end of the Trailway was a sign stating "be careful active Badger Sett". The badgers are digging up the compacted hardcore and causing much damage to the surface so they're now "protected". Or are we the one's being protected?