Monday, March 24, 2008

A Walk in Royden Woods


Royden Woods is an area within the New Forest managed by the Hampshire Wildlife Trust. This afternoon we decided to go and investigate. As soon as we got into the car it started to rain! We began our walk in drizzle, so none of us had our cameras ready when we saw several large stags just off the footpath. We saw and heard some green Woodpeckers and then we took a muddy side track down to a little stream. We soon joined another wider track leading down towards Royden Manor. Primroses were growing along the ditches on both sides. We came out of the woods onto heathland and by this time the sun was shining and we began to feel rather warm. Walking back into the woods we discovered a little waterfall and a hidden pond. It will be a great place to watch dragonflies a bit later on. It was a very pleasnt walk and we look forward to going back a bit later in the year as the woods are known to have a wide variety of plants and butterflies.

2 comments:

Sandpiper (Lin) said...

Everything is so beautiful and fully into spring there! I've never heard of Green Woodpecker, so I did a search. What a beautiful birds they are.

Kathryn and Ari said...

I'm with sandpiper: I've never heard of a green woodpecker. I'll go see if I can find some images, too!