So i guess this is the official beginning of the project Tuesday 24th July 2012. Now, i am facing a dilemma. Do i start a new species list and blog posts from today onwards or should i document what has happened over the weekend? Right, i've decided, the species list will start from TODAY but i will document the weekend just gone in this post.
Sunday (22nd) was one of the nicest days we have had for the past few weeks so in preperation for the project i decided to nip and see what was happening. At point 1 (see the map for point locations, it's located on the Belvedere fields guide page) just as i crossed the small bridge, 2 Kingfishers darted by. I had my suspicions that kingfishers were located around here, now i had proof. The only way further down stream is to turn right at the bridge and follow a vague path into dense Butterbur and Himalayan Balsam.
About 10feet further downstream sat on a tree branch that was lodged the width of the stream was one adult and one juvenile Kingfisher. Unfortunatly i did not get a glimpse at the adults lower mandible to identify the sex. The juvenile was darker than the adult and had a clear white tip to the end of its bill. When the adult left, the young stayed a while, diving into the water, presumably practising how to hunt. I got a few quick photos before leaving, as i left the adult was returning with an unfortunate Stickleback.
Right, so that was 2 days before the project began, which meant Kingfisher can't appear on my project species list. So today me and a friend decided, while the weather was scorching, to follow the stream that meanders all over these fields. To follow the stream it meant we had to be in it, an idea that evolved from us wanting to canoe along beautiful rivers, seeing the countryside from a different perspective.
We started at the the very top of Belvedere fields, about as far north as the Water Treatment plant. We wore wellies, but they soon became completly redundant as we were soon wading through water that was waist height. The sides of the stream rose about 6 feet above us, full of vegetation. The only noise was of the gentle trickle of the stream, i felt cut off from the outside world, it felt like a million miles away from the hustle of the surrounding urban jungle.
On one particular bend the sediment rose onto a shallow bank, impressed into the sediment were many Deer footprints, along with a few large Coot or Moorhen prints. I guess that they were Roe Deer, i saw one a few weeks back not far from that spot. Onwards we pressed, stopping to admire the insects and wildlife that flourished.
About halfway through our journey, a glimpse of blue and orange. no fewer than 4 Kingfishers flew ahead of us downstream, their electric blue rump shining in the sunlight. For me, the opportunity to follow this stream down and be so close to the wildlife was amazing. It was one of those days that was thoughly interesting and enjoyable. A few shots from today are below, including a stunning Comma butterfly.
Over the next few days i'll try and get together a species list, i need to organise it and get up to date, a few design aspects of the blog still need tweaking.
