Wolves Wild

Broom bush in the garden of New Place at Stratford on Avon with red flowers instead of the usual yellow.

A broom bush in the garden of New Place at Stratford on Avon with the usual yellow flowers.

Anglers Walk is a riverside footpath upstream along the Avon from the centre of Stratford, running from near Clopton Bridge to the Fishermans Car Park.  It used to be surprisingly quiet for a pleasant walk so near to where there were streets heaving with tourists.

There were fishermen of course – I don’t remember ever seeing any women. There were a few local walkers (with or without dogs), and some joggers.  Along with the river itself, there were patches of woodland and stretches of open land which appeared to be left pretty much untended. One area had been the town landfill site until (I think) the 1950s. As tends to happen in areas which aren’t heavily managed, some wildlife thrived.

A few years ago, a lot of work was done to improve the area, which then became a Local Nature Reserve. The path was surfaced, with additional paths created to form circular walks. Ponds were added; reedbeds, grassland, scrub; a wildflower meadow and flood meadows. This diverse range of habitats is already attracting an increasing variety of species, though the reserve is less than three years old.

So, in addition to the reed bunting which was showing itself in the reed bed here, those with a better trained ear than me, or the Merlin app on their phones, would have been able to identify the calls of reed warblers, sedge warblers and Ceti’s warblers.

Flowers on two horse chestnuts. One, by the Severn at Bridgnorth, with the standard white candelabrums. The other was by the extensive garden behind the Shakespeare Institute at Stratford on Avon, the variant red-flowered form. The fine mature tree was possibly planted when the house was the home of the once best-selling author and self-publicist Marie Corelli.

A large red damselfly – this one was a male – resting on the vegetation by the river in the Angler’s Walk Local Nature Reserve, Stratford on Avon.

Growing in what was perhaps an especially favoured spot — in the sheltered garden of New Place in Stratford on Avon — this lupin was flowering just before the end of April.