Last year there was a monthly picture report from Barton Fields. This year I hope to visit  Abbey Fishponds every month.

The main entrance is from the Radley Road. There are three other entrances, and houses surround the area.

Abbey Fishponds is a local nature reserve managed by the Earth Trust, and looked after with the help of local volunteers. Marjorie White was warden for many years.

A brook runs the length of the nature reserve. The area gets its name from the earthworks that people once thought damned the brook to make fishponds for the monks of the Abbey.

I believe the brook is otherwise known as Radley Park Ditch, and begins its short journey to the River Thames above Radley College. It is culverted for a short way before Radley Road and reappears in Abbey Fishponds.

There are two paths that cross in the middle. One follows the brook from northwest to south east. The other cuts across and joins the Radley Road opposite St Peters Drive. Another small stream from that direction ends in the brook.

There are also a number of ponds – some permanent and some seasonal. January is wet and the main path is very muddy at the moment, and almost a pond itself.

The main areas are meadow, reedbeds, sedge beds and woodland.

There are piles of wood, left to rot, where some of the trees had been recently cut. On the logs I managed to photograph this blackbird near some ivy berries. A robin pecking for bugs in the wood was too quick for me to photograph. There is a lot of birdlife.

The Thames Path below Barton Fields is very muddy on this sunny December day.

More birds are visible in the trees – now without foliage. They flit away as you approach and look shy.

Looking up from the bottom of the field, across through the willow herb and bare trees, the office buildings along Barton Lane are visible.

The newly surfaced Sustrans cycle path allows cyclists a smoother ride.

Similar surfaces have been introduced this year between Drayton and Abingdon.

Through Abingdon Town Centre cyclists are guided by a couple of signs back towards the cycle route, but nobody has solved how to get the cycle way through a town centre as a joined up cycle way

In December there are very few flowers. Berries are getting eaten or are drying out.

At the top end of Barton Fields – where wild flowers are such an feature in Spring and Summer, the grass is cut, the small trees are bare, and piles of hay provide a place for animals to remain warm during the winter.

Brown has taken over from green as the main colour.

Thankyou to the Abingdon Naturalist Trust for the chance to enjoy the fields for a monthly exploration in 2020. Barton Fields provided a green space for people to walk and cycle during the lockdown. But at the same time more people have been walking over what is intended as a wildlife habitat. Mini thicket fence barriers have appeared at some junctions to keep people on the main paths.

I went for a walk and reached Thrupp Lake (one of the Radley Lakes) at about 3:30 pm. Going in by a gate next to the cycle track I found the path got very muddy at first.

Instead of doing the usual full circuit I stayed on one bank and gazed across the water.

At first all the birds seemed a long way away.

In the trees of the central islands some large birds (Cormorants?) were already roosting.

Flocks of smaller birds flew around, landing in the high branches above the large birds and then taking off again.

Nearer at hand, some ducks drifted by.

A Grebe kept diving and reappearing. There were also coots diving but they did not travel such long distances underwater.

The sun set behind me and a young swan came up very close. It must be familiar with humans as a source of food and waited in front of me for a little while before drifting away.

It went on to join another young swan dipping the lake for vegetation.

As the light faded, the moon became clearer. I retraced by steps back across the mud and back on the cycle path.

Twenty trees have been planted along one side of Boxhill recreation ground. These more than make up for the half dozen trees that were cut down a couple of weeks ago.

The other end of the recreation ground has some more established woodland alongside the banks of the River Stert.