Berkshire: Blackwater River: Shepherd's Meadow to Eversley

25 July 2016                                 OS Landranger 175 Reading & Windsor

All day

This walk is part of the Blackwater River Trail.  We started at Shepherd's Meadow, a local authority nature reserve to the east of Sandhurst (walkable from Sandhurst railway station).  This is unimproved river meadow on the north bank of the River Blackwater.  We then crossed the river and followed the trail west along the river.  It eventually leaves the river and uses roads through Sandhurst in order to get round the commercial Tri Lakes Country Park, which prevents access to a section of the river.  The riverside trail is picked up again from Mill Lane at Horseshoe Lake and then passes several lakes that are the remains of gravel workings, part of which is Moor Green Lakes Nature Reserve, run by a community group for the importance of its nesting birds.  After the reserve the trail passes more recent gravel workings and leads to a lane from Eversley Cross.  We left the trail there to walk a couple of hundred yards into Eversley to take a lunch break at the Chequers pub (good drinks and food, friendly service).  We then walked back to Shepherd's Meadow.  It is a pleasant and easy walk (apart from the section through Sandhurst), but not botanically inspiring.

          Shepherd's Meadow appears to be relatively unmanaged, apart from mowing a few paths.  The sward is dominated by meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria, jointed rush Juncus articulatus, and greater birdsfoot trefoil Lotus pedunculatus.  Also frequent were marsh bedstraw Galium palustre, musk mallow Malva moschata, tufted vetch Vicia cracca and marsh foxtail Alopecurus geniculatus.  There is no great diversity of plants as indicated by old records from this site.  The interesting plants we did find were limited to small areas and few in number.  They included sneezewort Achillea ptarmica, water purslane Lythrum portula, great burnet Sanguisorba officinalis, betony Stachys officinalis, and smooth tare Vicia tetrasperma. 

Betony

Water purslane

It was a predominantly sunny and very warm day, so the meadow attracted a good range of butterflies - we saw Comma, Green-veined white, Hedge brown, Large skipper, Large white, Meadow brown, Red admiral, Ringlet, Small skipper, Small tortoiseshell and Speckled wood.  The apparent loss of the site's floral diversity may be from one or more of: lack of management (presumably withdrawal of grazing); drying out as the climate becomes more challenging; people pressure (the meadow is well used by local people, although they keep almost entirely to the paths and should not affect the diversity); and large amounts of dog faeces (although we did see a few exceptional dog-walkers picking theirs up, and again they are concentrated on and near the paths).  We felt that the reasons for the decline of the site are largely down to the first two on this list.

Blackwater River with unbranched bur-reed

Blackwater River itself has rather bare banks for the most part and few aquatic plants, best seen in the section by Shepherd's Meadow.  Anglers have removed riverside vegetation in places.  In the river itself we found Water plantain Alisma plantago-aquatica, Nuttall's waterweed Elodea nuttallii, broad-leaved pondweed Potamogeton natans, fennel pondweed P. pectinatus, and unbranched bur-reed Sparganium emersum. 

Branched bur-reed

There was also a water starwort Callitriche agg., which we could not determine as we could not find any with seeds.  Riverside trees included alder Alnus glutinosa, grey alder Alnus incana, white willow Salix alba, and crack willow S. fragilis. 

Grey alder

Riverbank plants included Branched bur-reed Sparganium erectum, Great water dock Rumex hydrolapathum, Hemlock water dropwort Oenanthe crocata, Gypsywort Lycopus europaeus, Purple loosestrife Lythrum salicaria, Water figwort Scrophularia aquatica, Wild angelica Angelica sylvestris, Indian balsam Impatiens glandulifera, Orange balsam Impatiens capensis, Pendulous sedge Carex pendula, Water chickweed Myosoton aquatica, Water forgetmenot Myosotis scorpioides, Great willowherb Epilobium hirsutum and Hartstongue fern Asplenium scolopendrium. 

Water chickweed

Birds on the river were Mallard, Moorhen and Mute swan.  Dragonflies included Aeshna cyanea, Agrion splendens, Enallagma cyathigerum, Pyrrhosoma nymphula and Sympetrum striolatum.  The banded agrions were particularly beautiful as the sunlight flashed metallic greens, blues and brassy gold from their bodies. 

Male banded agrion

The horse-flies were also noticeable although mostly not too troublesome - they were the pretty banded-wing wetland species with striking bright green or red eyes Chrysops relictus.  Among waterweeds we found the tiny gastropod Potamopyrgus antipodarum.  Other insects showed themselves only by the feeding activity of their larvae - the bean-galls of the sawfly Pontania proxima on Salix fragilis, and the leaf-mines of the flies Eneleia heraclei on angelica and Trypeta artemisiae on mugwort.

Blackwater River Trail

          The sides of the trail itself included Ballota nigra Black horehound, Epipactis helleborine Broad-leaved helleborine, Humulus lupulus Hop, Papaver rhoeas Common poppy, Picris echioides Bristly ox-tongue, Elymus caninus, Cytisus scoparius Broom, and Lepidium heterophyllum Smith's pepperwort; plus the common garden escapes - Chelidonium majus Greater celandine, Lunaria annua Honesty, Oenothera glazioviana Large-flowered evening-primrose and Pentaglottis sempervirens Green alkanet.  Being predominantly wooded, we also saw a number of common birds - Blackbird, Green woodpecker, Jay, Robin and Wren.

          The borders of the lakes were largely inaccessible from the trail, but we did see Common skullcap Scutellaria galericulata, Water mint Mentha aquatica and Yellow loosestrife Lysimachia vulgaris. 

Yellow loosestrife

There was also Meadow cranesbill Geranium pratense in one lakeside grassland and White melilot Melilotus albus on a stretch of wasteland near the current gravel workings.  Birds on and by the lake constituted their main interest, however: Black-headed gull, Canada goose, Common tern, Coot, Cormorant, Great crested grebe, Heron, Herring gull, Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Pied wagtail, Pochard, Tufted duck and Wigeon.

Canada geese on Horseshoe Lake