The Boys

 

Change is afoot in the forest. No matter how stuffed our weather is the wheel still turns, and as we fast approach rutting season the deer are on the move, the stags are getting frisky and you're beginning to hear their barking echoing through the stands. This morning as we followed Fletchers Water near Queen Bower (site of a Medieval hunting lodge) we crossed a group of seven or so youngish looking stags engaged in boisterous activity; who disappeared off single file across Fletchers Green when they realised they were being watched, periodically pausing to look back and ensure we weren't following.

Gone but not forgotten

There's lots to be learn from a landscape, the lumps, bumps, dips and lines all tell stories, although some things you'd never guess. Take this line of deciduous trees cutting across a forest lawn, their linear nature is quite incongruous for their surroundings. They may represent an old boundary or something, the ground looks undisturbed with uniform vegetation, there are cows grazing here now. Unless you'd known this area of the forest 10 years ago you'd never guess that until 2011 the trees marked the course of one of the forests longest straightest drains, Fletchers Water. Back in 2010 there was a near ruler straight drain through here, at roughly 2m wide, with sheer sides 1m or so deep and flanked by dense carr/hedgerow shrub Fletchers Water ran straight for more than a mile until it merged with Highland Water some way above Bolderford Bridge. Today you'd really never know, even I could doubt my own memory, so good a job was done. Today Fletchers Water meanders again along it's pre-Victorian course amongst the oaks and thorn along the edge of Fletchers Thorns; it's now shallower, broad in places, narrower in others, and flanked by diverse flora.

Here's a post I made in 2011 when the work began

A river ran through it

Fletcher's Water once ran through here, one of the longest sections of straightened 'drain' in the forest, it's restored course now meandering just out of frame on the right. I'd not walked this way for quite a while until recently, and wow, what a transformation. The stream now meanders quietly through growing diversity, itself transformed from sterile to fecund with increasing variety in aquatic and wetland flora. As I say, Fletcher's Water was the straightest of drains, but also its woodland environs were choked with willow and spiky thicket, that too has been improved. Cleared of a lot of the invasive willow and thicket, the woodland has been opened up, it feels more balanced and can now develop through natural agency. And it all looks good too.

Old ways

We'd not walked along Black Water, between Black Water Bridge and the Vinney Ridge ford, for an age.  It's section of stream which had never been straightened and has a wild feel to it; its woodland environs are dense with flora in the summer and waterlogged during the winter, making it hard to traverse.  Even this early in the season the woodland is tricky.  Below the ford Black Water used to be a straight drain, turning into Fletchers Water at the Rhinefield Bridge, another straight drain, a really straight drain, though about a decade ago they began remodelling sections of it.  Now, some years on, they've completely remodelled the stream from the Vinney Ridge ford all the way to Highland Water. I'd say it's the most remodelled stream in the forest to date (as the stream above Black Water Bridge all the way to its upper reaches has been restored), and for the most part it looks better for it. Now it meanders again, following through its older course, and like the other restored streams in the forest it's a considerably more diverse environment. It'll take some years more before it completely naturalises, and the stream side paths consolidate. A lovely bit of the forest.

Fletchers Water, new bridge

The lower section of Black Water (from the ford at Vinney Ridge) and the whole extent of Fletchers Water from the Ornamental Drive to where it joins Highland Water, is the most extensively restored water course in the forest. Fletchers Water was previously one of the straightest sections of stream in the forest, bare gavel and scoured sides. Now though it winds and meanders, with it's environs showing increased biodiversity by the year. It's source is right up in the northern part of the forest around Stoney Cross, and changes it's name several times on it's journey (Bratley Water, Blackensford Brook, Black Water and finally Fletchers Water or Brook). It's possibly the longest stream in the forest, with many tributaries and subsequently carries a huge volume of water from an extensive area of the forest in the wet season. Just beyond Fletchers Thorns there has been a ford which has been impassible (even to wading) through most of the wet season (something you needed to factor in on any walk during that season, as when impassible it required a lengthy diversion), though since my last foray this way, a splendid new bridge has been built which alleviates that need.  A nice sympathetic design too.

Slow Worm

I've seen a fair few Slow Worms (Anguis fragilis) this year, most of them with their tales intact too! (they often will shed them to escape a predator) They're carnivorous lizards (not snakes, as many people think) living off worms, slugs and bugs, and can live up to 30 years in the wild. Weirdly, they appear stubby when stationary, though extend to double their size when on the move. It's nice to see them, and nice to know their number are on the increase, bucking the current trend for our county's wild species. This little one didn't appear too bothered by my interest, though I'm sure it was happy for me to bugger off.