Canal boat

At a time when most people are out exercising their pooper scoopers the Waterside Natural history society set out to visit Basingstoke Canal.

 

Why go all the way to Basingstoke! You may ask. Well ‘because it’s there’ is one reply but also the canal supports two thirds of the countries damselfly and dragonfly species as well as a rich variety of flora so should be well worth a visit.

The canal offers a walk of 32 miles but when you look at every flower, bird, butterfly, and anything that moves, as we do, a walk of 4-5 miles can take all day.

 

We started our walk from the car park at Crookham Wharf and travelled northwards along the canal to Tundry pond before turning back and walking over the fields to our starting point.

The weather forecast for the day was quite promising with warm sunny weather but it turned out to be rather windy with a fair amount of cloud. This makes for a good walk but is not good weather to see dragonflies.

 

The only dragonfly that we caught even a glimpse of was a southern hawker. We did see common blue and blue tailed damselflies and several red eyed damselflies at intervals along the route but only if they were resting on vegetation along the bank.

If we were disappointed by the dragonflies it was certainly made up for by the great variety of wildflowers. The most striking of these at the moment are the loosestrifes. The yellow loosestrife and purple loosestrife are both flowering at their best at the moment but the only things they have in common is their name and the fact that they are a herb used for the cure of dysentery.

 

Purple Loosestrife

Purple loosestrife- Lythrum salicaria- is in a class of its own and has a four sided stem with flowers of six narrow petals. There are three types of flower with different length stamens and stigma which can only be pollinated from one of the other types so precluding self pollination.

 

Yellow loosestrife- Lysimachia vulgaris- is actually a member of the primrose family and is more closely related to creeping jenny than purple loosestrife. Loosestrife is a name derived from Lysimachus a Greek king of Sicily. It is considered a pernicious weed in some countries but can be eradicated using biological control from one of the several beetles that feed on the plant.

Creeping Jenny was also seen in some profusion along the tow path. It can be confused with yellow pimpernel when looking at drawings or photos but when seen in real life they are easily distinguished.

Birds were not abundant along the canal but when we stopped for lunch at Tundry pond we were treated to an aerial display from swallows, house and sand martins, swifts, buzzards and two hobbies.

 

A common tern was seen skimming the water during our lunch, a bird normally found off the coast, so it was pleasant to see it so far inland.

The birds were not the only aerial display either as when we returned along the road to the car park a Lancaster bomber flew overhead accompanied by a Spitfire and a Hurricane-a fitting flypast to the end of a memorable walk.

 

It may also have had something to do with the Farmborough air show a couple of miles away but who is to know!

Any comments on the above, good or bad, please e-mail mharrison67@btinternet.com