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Waterside Natural History Society visit to Winnall Moors Nature Reserve

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Condensation on the windows and a chill in the air mean only one thing- autumn has arrived.

 

That was how it looked when we set out to visit Winnall Moors reserve near Winchester but the British weather is always full of surprises.

 

By the time we had walked a few yards the rain had started to fall and the rest of the walk became a combination of showers with a few sunshine breaks more reminiscent of April than September.

 

Winnall Moors is a small reserve close to the centre of Winchester but it is unusual in that it relies very much on the proximity of the river Itchen and the surrounding water meadows.

 

The river Itchen is a classic chalk stream and gets its water supply from aquifers near Cheriton on the Hampshire Downs.

 

This means that the water supply is relatively constant in both quality and flow at all times of the year.

 

During the 17th and 18th centuries rivers such as the Severn on the Somerset levels flooded in the winter to refresh the surrounding water meadows and ditches were dug to drain the water.

 

The river Itchen on the other hand was used to deliberately flood the surrounding meadows by controlling the flow through channels.  

 

In the early part of the year water was used to flood the land and stop it from freezing as well as feeding the young shoots of grass.

 

This allowed the grass to grow earlier than normal so two crops could be obtained in the same year.

 

The area was called floating water meadows and the men who supervised the irrigation were known as ‘drowners’;a skilful occupation in those days.

 

Nowadays these practices have been discontinued but their legacy lives on in the patchwork of channels running through the meadows of Winnall moor.

 

The reserve is surrounded by water either by the river or by wide channels and there is even a pond in the middle.

 

It was a pleasure just to stand and look at the crystal clear fast flowing water which did not even seem to bother the brown trout that were visible to us and any passing heron.

 

The water was so clear that vegetation grew as green below water as it did above.

The vegetation consisted mainly of common reeds and tussock grass. One large tussock had a wasp’s nest from which wasps busily flew in and out.

 

We quickly walked round this area.

 

Many of the flowers are past their best at this time of year but there were sea asters, comfrey and hemp agrimony still in flower.

 

A few orange balsam plants grew at the water’s edge and water forget- me- not unlike its garden relative will flower until the frosts.

A few birds braved the rain including a Cetti’s warbler with its burst of song.

 

Moorhen, Coots and Little Grebe live on the water so a few raindrops made little difference.

 

Numbers of House Martin gathered above the reserve trying to eat as many of the flying insects as possible prior to chasing the Cuckoo’s on their long migration south.

We had hoped to see Water Voles and even Otters for which the reserve is well known but they both understandably avoid Sunday mornings.

 

Wild mink have been surgically removed from the area and the Water Voles are increasing their numbers.

 

We did however see a fox near the car park zigzagging its way along the bank of a water channel looking for food; so perhaps the Water Voles are not out of the woods yet.

 

Anyone wishing to attend our meetings or even rich benefactors should contact our secretary Ron Mintrum at 023 8089 3803.

 

 

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