It's still very hot and muggy but despite this we had a walk of nearly four miles this morning at Millyford Bridge near Lyndhurst. There isn't much to report on, the forest was really quiet, even the birds were silent - too hot for everyone and everything I reckon. The River Blackwater was at the lowest I think I have ever seen it. At Christmas we had a family Christmas picnic and duck race at the same point, and the water level has significantly gone down.
The River Blackwater December 2012.......
....... and the same spot today.
Taken looking back to where the last photo was taken - mid morning.
This dead tree looked quite epic against the blue sky.
We came across a man bird watching, apparently he thought he might have heard a wood warbler but I couldn't hear anything and neither could he once he had spoken to us and no doubt we had scared it right off! Shortly after this we came across this young adder on the gravel path, well to be honest we didn't find it, a couple of walkers were taking photos of it as we passed them. When we first saw the snake it was in a strike type pose with it's head up and very alert - I think this was possibly because the other walkers had two dogs that were keen to take a look (they did put the dogs back on leads). By the time we had the camera out the adder was on the move into the undergrowth.
A young adder.
The only other animals we saw were ponies, all keeping cool under the trees, I can't say I blame them, as out in the open in the sunshine it was sweltering, luckily there was a fair bit of shade along the route we took.
We had a previous walk at Millyford Bridge that I blogged about on 9th February 2013, when it was snowy and freezing, a bit different to today!
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