A lovely walk in Russia Dock Woodland today

I went up to the Lavender Pumphouse today, through Russia Dock Woodland and back again, diverting briefly into Stave Hill Ecological Park to check out the violets.  It was the most wonderful day for a walk.  There's not much to add to that, so here are the photographs.  They were taken with my little handbag camera, and it's not really capable of long distance work, so the parakeet (almost invisible to the human eye but very noisy) is really blurred.  I had heard about them but never seen one before, so that was a lovely surprise. There was a lot of strimming and mowing going on, and everything was beautifully neat.  It was so nice to see everything looking so good that I thought I'd share the photos.  You can click on any one of them to see the bigger version>

A chilly but bright walk in the woodland and ecological park

Kingfisher in Russia Dock Woodland
Photograph by @worginfo, with thanks.

I went for a potter in Russia Dock Woodland and Stave Hill Ecological Park this afternoon, taking advantage of the bright dry day.  I saw a jay, a great spotted woodpecker (both of which flew off before I could snap them), several great tits and some busy robins and blackbirds. The usual mix of water birds were very much in evidence on Globe Pond.  There were one or two shrubs in bloom and although there very few flowers on the ground, there were some nice surprises, including some very brave violets.  And there were simply dozens of very bold squirrels!  Everything looked lovely in the low winter sunlight, the colours sharp and bright.  I went up Stave Hill and was glad to see that the graffiti has been removed from the Michael Rizzello sculpture, presumably by Southwark Council, which is great news.  My photos are below.

The beautiful photograph at the top of this post is the kingfisher taken this week by the ever excellent @worginfo (posted on her Twitter page), with many thanks for her permission to use it here.  Steve Cornish, Chair of the Friends of Russia Dock Woodland, tells me that it's a hen bird, due to its orange lower beak; the cock birds beak is black lower and upper.  Superb colours.  I wasn't lucky enough to see one today, but I shall keep looking.  It's a lovely photograph.

 

  

  

 

Some pretty snapshots from a walk across Rotherhithe

I needed some photographs of Rotherhithe village for a post that I am writing so I walked from Greenland Dock through Russia Dock Woodland, around Stave Hill and down to Surrey Water before crossing the road, walking along the former Grand Surrey Canal lock, crossing the bascule bridge, wandering down the Thames Path and finally emerging in Rotherhithe Village.  An idyllic walk on a gloriously sunny day.

The leaves are just beginning to turn and the colours in the trees today were fabulous.  The following pics are just for no better reason than I seriously enjoyed a marvellous walk across Rotherhithe.  Russia Dock Woodland is seriously lovely, and the perfect September sun showed it off perfectly.  Wonderful.

 

 

 

Wildflowers in Russia Dock Woodland

I walked across Rotherhithe from Greenland Dock to the Hilton the day before yesterday, and it was nice to see it looking so green and vibrant.  It has clearly benefited considerably from all the sun and rain.  Last year there were various areas fenced off, and although it was unclear what for, it was clear that something was being planned.  Today I walked past one of those areas and it was full of wild flowers, with a laminated page of A4 attached to the fence to say that it was designed to attract butterflies.  There were very few butterflies or bees around today, but the display of wild flowers was beautiful.

Apart from the verdant effusion, which was lovely, there were lots of people using the green to sunbathe or to watch their children play.  Around Globe Pond, various ducks, geese and coots, all with their young in tow, were foraging for leftovers provided by the numerous people who had been feeding them bread.