Wiltshire Walks
A bit too late for Lockdown my wife purchased a GPS Wiltshire Walk App. The intention was to try to complete a couple a week over the summer holidays which would allow us to get plenty of exercise, visit hither to unseen parts of the county and hopefully forget that we weren’t going to be able to take our holiday abroad. I planned to take my camera, as always, but I had no real expectations I was just looking forward to seeing what would turn up…
Downton River Walk 22-07-2020
This was the first walk and so with some trepidation we set off having left the car in the Moot car park. The first section seemed to go around the Moot and down towards the river and from there along the river side and away across the Meadows. The Moot itself, a large grassed amphitheatre with a large pond separating the terraced seating from the stage was quite pleasant as there were lovely little nooks and crannies to explore and which held different vegetation. Peacocks, Specklies, a Red Admiral by the river and a Holly Blue or three all made it onto the day list if not the memory card. Then the reason for our trepidation transpired. The map took us to one corner of the Moot but where there should have been the start of a short section of riverside path there was a high brick wall abutting the river. After a few attempts at walking about to see if the map corrected itself we walked back through the Moot and through the town until we got back onto the yellow track.
Once back on track we walked past expensive looking houses, down farmyard tracks, across cow filled fields and down through a tiny Hamlet. There were Gatekeepers now and again in the hedge, the odd white flew along the hedge and I counted three Peacocks but all was quite quiet. In the tiny Hamlet things stated to pick up with a couple of Brimstones and then we reached the main selling point of the walk – the Mill. The river had been diverted into three different sections and first we crossed the deep channelled section which used to feed the Mill itself by walking along the top of the weir. The path carried on and we crossed the overflow section with its long but low waterfalls. The reeds and brambles grew above head height here but were alive with butterflies – all seeking out the Buddleia which was growing up through various sections of the reeds. There were so many Peacocks it was difficult to count them, at least three Red Admirals and numerous whites of various denominations including a Green-veined White that behaved for once. After crossing the final section, the river proper, where a Comma and Emperor Dragonfly both evaded my lens we strode across the meadows and found a shady spot for our lunch stop off while Whites and a Common Blue fluttered about.
The homeward stretch was pretty quiet despite the whites flying about with the only noticeable and identifiable butterflies being a Large White in one of the fields, a Red Admiral looking to lay and a Specklie on sentry duty as we left the final section of wood before crossing the broiling meadows and heading home. Still not too bad for the first walk out.
We visited the river at Downton several times through the heatwave – not for wildlife watching but for river swimming. Because of this I didn’t take my camera but I still kept my eyes open on these subsequent visits. There were whites and dragonflies but the real highlight for me was when we arrived early one morning so as to get the ‘good spot’ on the banks, the sun had yet to finish its breakfast of mist and making headway against the current was a female Goosander – that was when I wished that my camera had been in my daypack!
A riverside walk
Bit of an experiment
Better for a swim?
Have a goodun and stay safe
Wurzel
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