Monday 31st December 2012
The rain was back again today but despite the miserable conditions we ventured out for a walk. We went out hoping to find our 300th geocache of the year and we managed this at the Knightwood Oak - the largest and reportedly one of the oldest oak trees in the New Forest at about 600 years old. The ground is absolutley saturated everywhere and the forest tracks are just mud, mud more mud and puddles/small lakes. Negotiating these tracks now involves diverting through the trees and over numerous small streams!
On our trip out today we saw;
- A buzzard landing on open ground (I'm still always surprised by their large wing span)
- A group of 4 or 5 deer in a distant field - seen from the M27 on the way home.
We keep the the birds in our garden well fed and watered all year and today we saw three birds that seem to be mainly winter visitors.
- Blackcap (female) - been around for about a week now.
- Pied Wagtail - a common bird but unusual for us.
- Wren - seen very rarely in our garden.
Here are a couple of photos taken today that show just how wet and soggy things are underfoot - it wasn't really a day for photography!! Let's hope that 2013 is drier than 2012.
Sunday 30th December 2012
Today on the radio was classed as chill out Sunday as there's a bit of a lull between Christmas and New Year. It's become a tradition to visit family in Lymington around New Year and today was the chosen day, chill out Sunday! It was bright and breezy, (quite a pleasant change after all the rain we've had of late) just right to blow away a few cobwebs. We walked around the local lanes, part of the Salterns and some of the sea walls before heading into Lymington town centre to see 'Ben Ainsley's' gold postbox. On our 4.5 mile walk, nature of note included;
- Little Egrets
- Sparrowhawk (having trouble staying upright on a telegraph wire, obviously keeping an eye on something tasty!)
- Buzzard
- Canada geese (quite noisy)
- Curlews (group of about 20 in a field)
- Roe deer (6 munching quite happily out in the open fields)
- Cormorants and various water fowl
- Lots of surface water - everywhere!!
A great walk and back just in time for lunch.
