Epping Forest

This afternoon I was in my element walking with friends in Epping Forest.

For over thirty years Epping Forest has been a favourite woodland area of mine, offering a wonderful escape from urban life. The largest public open space in the London area (12 miles from North to South), it has a long history, going back to the 12th Century when it was known as Waltham Forest and was thought to have first legally become a Royal Forest. This status gave Commoners various rights including pollarding the trees for firewood. In the 19th Century commoners revolted as landowners enclosed their land, so in 1878 the Epping Forest Act was passed to save the land from enclosures. Care of the forest was handed over to the City of London Corporation as Conservators. This act stated that they must "at all times keep Epping Forest unenclosed and unbuilt on as an open space for the recreation and enjoyment of the people". In this Act one of the privileges the commoners lost was pollarding the trees which has resulted in some growing multi- trunks from the trunk originally pollarded:




The Forest consists largely of Beeches, Hornbeams, Oaks, Silver Birches and Holly trees. However, the trees I photographed this afternoon were just ones that attracted me by their individuality- whether caused by the light or by their formation.

I first came across Hornbeams in my childhood on the Malvern Hills. I always felt the name was appropriate as they reminded me of the discarded Red Deer antlers we used to find in the Scottish deer forests. Here is a Hornbeam:


And here is the trunk of a Beech tree that I just liked for its' design:


And this Beech for the patterns made by the Ivy:


I loved the shadows of leaves on the next Beech:


And in the following group of trees it was both the individuality of the shapes of the trees together with their shadows that caught my eye:


One of the factors that makes Epping Forest so enjoyable is that it is not highly "manicured" and you constantly see trees in various states of interesting decay, which is, of course, highly valuable environmentally. Birds, insects and fungi all benefit from these trees:




And I will conclude with one of the many fallen trees, always a great attraction to children- as well as adults!

Great Crested Grebes Again...

For the last two days my Great Crested Grebe obsession has continued! Anxious that everything goes well with the hatched chick I have been regularly visiting Valentines Park. Yesterday I saw the family had vacated their nest and taken over a nearby area of algae on the lake as their new home! It was a relief to see the newborn safely nestled in the plumage of one of his parent's wings. At first I assumed this was the mother because his/her feathers were so fluffed up that he/she looked very "motherly" - but in fact both parents will carry their offspring.


The male (?) bird was like an over-enthusiastic young, inexperienced father- dashing backwards and forwards with sticks, weeds and even a plastic bag in order to create a sort of raft:




Although yesterday the algae got dispersed when the boats came out, today that did not stop him trying again to make a resting place for his family...

Occasionally he stopped his building work to give a tasty morsel to his chick:


The other parent sat watching him and attending to the chick who periodically tested out the water:



and then sensibly climbed up again onto its parent's back:

Valentines Park: More Births!

I still have a lot more I want to write about my Welsh visit, but first I am going to divert back to Ilford- where I am now- to catch up on the bird excitements in Valentines Park:

Anyone who has followed my previous posts will know how much I love the exotic Great Crested Grebes and how anxious for them I have been regarding their eggs and nest. To re-cap: they were evicted from nest no.1 by Coots (before I returned from the US); made new nest, laid four eggs, then eggs mysteriously disappeared; returned to nest, laid two eggs, then about a week later a third egg appeared. At this point I went to Wales for two weeks, so now that I am back I will continue:

On July 1st. as soon as I returned, I dropped off my case and rushed to the Park to check up on my favourite birds there. When I went to the Grebes' nest I was devastated to see that instead of the three eggs there was now only one- and no nestlings. As the third egg had been laid later than the first two, I wondered if they had hatched and then some calamity happened...however, the birds were still sitting on their one egg.



The following day, the one egg was still there and still being sat on by the attentive parents who were never far away:


Then today I went to see what had happened to the one egg. The parent sitting on the nest was very alert and restless, constantly turning and craning his/her head from side to side while the other bird hovered around.


I took a lot of photos of them and was about to leave when the nest-sitter rose off the nest. At first I was horrified to see NO egg and then euphoric to see a tiny, stripey chick on the edge of the nest and a vacated, broken egg on the other side. I only had a few seconds to take photos as very soon one of the birds got back onto the nest and settled down on top of the nestling.



It is a worry that they only have the one chick but these gallant birds have surely had enough disasters? I wish them every luck...

And now to catch up on some other Valentines Park birds:

The Heron chicks seem to have left the park for the time being- they must be exploring other lakes in the area. It is good that they have matured but like a fond parent I miss them!!

While I was away I read that the Egyptian Geese had successfully produced four ducklings/goslings? (they are actually members of both the Duck, Goose and Swan family) and were now on the Swans' island on the Boating Lake. They too have had misfortunes: their previous brood of two was lost, in one case to Crows. They had nested in the hole of an old Oak tree, before my return from the US.

So after my first visit to the Grebes I went in search of the Egyptian Geese family. There they all were on the island:




Soon the busy little ducklings scurried into the water, watched anxiously by the parent birds:




I felt really sorry for the parents as the ducklings rushed in all different directions at great speed. They reminded me of the days when I first took my then toddler daughter into Valentines Park. She was at the age my Grandmother described as "Mobile but Senseless", rapidly disappearing into the far distance... The Geese temporarily solved this problem by each looking after one pair on opposite sides of the lake!

Because of this, it was no great surprize- although no less sad- to see only three little ducklings the next day...


You know you should not get emotionally involved with birds' lives but it is hard not to when you are constantly observing them. That little Grebe is going to keep me on tenterhooks!

One last bird note: I am glad to report that the Mute Swan family on the Boating Lake is still intact, with eight Cygnets. They now look ENORMOUS!

Welsh Trees...

When I call this post "Welsh Trees" I am not meaning they are trees unique to Wales: I am staying in Wales in Manorbier, a small village on the South-West coast, dog-sitting for my friends, the artist Philip Sutton and his wife Heather , who I have written about previously (Link). They live in an idyllic setting, surrounded by rambling flowers, trees and even a meadow, now in full bloom. As if this is not enough, the sea is only a short walk from the house- a beautiful bay with exciting rock formation.

There are so many visual, brightly coloured stimulation's here - comparable to treasure chests- and my head is full of them. One moment I am swooning over the flower-filled meadow, the next over the colours and patterns of the rocks and the patterns of the waves. I will write about the bay later, but first a return to TREES!

My favourite walk is down to the sea, usually accompanied by Toby the Norfolk Terrier I am caring for. Each time my attention will be caught by a different tree- or sometimes just the same one in a different light. Poor Toby is usually very patient and often will just sit in a resigned fashion while I take countless photos- although one time he was really fed up with me and the moment I lifted up my camera gave an extraordinary, rage-full screech!

One thing I do associate very much with West Wales is dark, green woods of ivy smothered trees so I will start of with some of them:






Apart from these ivy covered one, I have been obsessed by the shapes of some Sycamore trees, both in the garden and down the lane:




(this next tree is actually an Ash)


(whereas this next one IS a Sycamore)


And again and again I photograph this Sycamore branch, as I leave and return to the house:

We can FLY! and leave our Nest...

Last Thursday I had to leave Ilford to spend nearly two weeks by the sea in Wales. This meant leaving my obsession with the Herons in Valentines Park behind me- a wrench!

However, the day before I left I was relieved to see their nest was at last empty, proving that each of the three chicks could now fly. Checking round the island I saw all three of them-in different locations- plus one adult, keeping an eye on them. They were still being aggressive to each other and to their parent, yet sometimes they fished peacefully, side-by-side .

Although they have all now fledged, I'm sure they will continue to visit their nest and hang around the island - but for how long I do not know.

Here are some images of the so-called chicks flying from tree to tree and from their nest to the water beneath them:








It does not seem long since these now mature looking birds were squawking to their parent in the nest:


And now the nest is empty...