In late winter, wildlife comes closer to people and gardens. Near the Thamesview houses by the Millstream there is a bird feeder, and the spilled feed has attracted not only birds but also a muntjac and a squirrel.

Sometimes there is a pair of swans on this stretch of water. Sometimes there is only one. When they come back together, they greet each other with arching and dipping necks. Here they were feeding underwater and I was waiting for both to have their heads up together.

Moorhens usually keep close to the bank, and this lone moorhen appears to paddle at the centre of a swirl of reflections.

A song thrush is attracted to the ivy berries, as are other birds, though it is not always easy to spot them among the leaves.

With the sun higher in the sky there are bright reflections, and the Thamesview houses and bridge are mirrored in the water. There are small leaves on the weeping willows. Not many trees have leaves yet.

February has been mild, and the evenings have been getting lighter. Here the sun is setting at around 5.30pm, with darker trees and water reflections looking back across the Abbey Meadows.

According to Agnes Baker (¹), access to Abingdon Abbey was once controlled by at least four gateways, of which the surviving Abbey Gateway was the principal entrance.

Above is the Abbey Room; straight ahead stands the Old Abbey House Hotel in Abbey Close; and to the right is the Abbey Hall, home to the Abbey Cinema. Walk on and you reach the Abbey Gardens, and beyond that the Abbey Meadows. Down Checker Walk are the Abbey Buildings that did belong to the Abbey. Even though most of the Abbey has long since vanished, the name Abbey is everywhere.

When I took this picture, on Wednesday, a broad band of late afternoon light stretched down the middle of the gateway. Since then, we have had two days of rain.

¹ Baker, Agnes. Historic Streets of Abingdon. Abingdon: The Abbey Press, 1957.

The millstream leaves the River Thames close to the weir and passes under a humped wooden bridge.

The water level in the millstream remains remarkably steady, even when the Thames is in flood. On the far bank there is a tangle of mossy trees, beyond which the buildings on Audlett Drive can be seen, including Snakes and Ladders and Protyre.

The stream is overgrown with fallen trees and water vegetation. In January another tree fell across the water, creating an obstacle for a pair of swans that regularly travel up and down the millstream.

One of the swans can be seen leaving the water and briefly using the bank to get around the obstruction.

The stream then flows beneath the green girder Thames View Bridge.

This bridge connects the Thames View houses to the Abbey Meadows, and here there is noticeably more birdsong, perhaps encouraged by garden bird feeders nearby.

There seem to be robins every few metres along this stretch.

There are also plenty of moorhen,

ducks and other water birds.

At the end of Abbey Close is another bridge, where a sign politely says “Love Abingdon” and “Please take your litter home.” I’ll be visiting this stretch of three bridges throughout 2026 to see how it changes month by month.

The millstream was created in the 10th century, when Abbot Æthelwold rebuilt Abingdon Abbey. It helped drain the abbey grounds while also providing a controlled flow of water to power the abbey’s mills.

This morning, along the wilder edges of the Abbey Meadow, blackberries were ripening. On one side of a bramble bush, beside the cycle path, people were picking and tasting as they went — “That one’s lovely!” “Ooh, that’s sour!” “We’ll need a stepladder to get those.”

Across the other side of the brambles, near the long grass, there were plenty of juicy blackberries. Wasps flew past the firmer ones, drawn to fruit that had gone soft and squishy.

Ladybirds were also out in numbers on the berries (I though they ate aphids). Bluebottles and other flies landed on blackberries, and blackbirds flew to pick off the ripe fruit.

Where wild clematis threaded through the brambles, a Gatekeeper butterfly rested, its wings frayed at the edges.

And in the wildflower circle, bumblebees were busy on the scabious, bumbling from flower to flower in search of nectar.

Children played in the playground nearby.