Yesterday I put up a video from Boxhill Wood. Today we were in the other nature area looked after by Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council -The Ock Valley Walk. There was a mixture of sun and shade as we walked between the two streams.

Below the weir a group of geese were paddling in the sparkling water.

We saw Martin Wackenier – Devine Times Photography  and said hello from a Social Distance. Martin has been taking pictures every day on his exercise walk during the lockdown. With his sharp eye and lens he sees and identifies lots of birds and insects. First time we have seen him out.

It is a good time to learn to identify birds but not easy to get decent pictures.

Blackbirds and Robins are not that difficult to photograph but other birds like wrens are more elusive to the camera lens..

The other issue is identification. This bird is a wagtail and not pied. Both the grey and yellow wagtail can have yellow underneath. Most likely it is a Grey Wagtail, even though it does not look that grey. It is near flowing water and Greys are more common.

Further along by the other weir was a heron.

There used to be a blog about wildlife by the Ock. It has moved to be a more occasional twitter feed these days.

I am visiting Barton Fields for a picture report every month this year.

It was another bright sunny day. There have been many such days since the Lockdown began. The fine weather encourages us to enjoy nature.

During the lockdown there are more people than usual visiting the area as part of their exercise allowance.

The Thames Path leaves Barton Fields by a wooden bridge before meandering round a fishing lake towards the River Thames. More people than usual seem to be smiling or saying hello as we pass at a distance. Somebody said recently that it could best described as ‘physical distancing’ rather than ‘social distancing’.

There are smaller paths that go through Barton Fields allowing more ways to avoid other people physically.

Today was St George’s Day. England’s National Flower is the rose and the path passes close to these rose like flowers – possibly apples.

There are Hawthorn Bushes / May Trees seen here next to last year’s hay.

Cutting the meadow with scythes, and piling tbe hay, encourages wild flowers to take hold. There are many Cowslips growing among the short April grass.

There are many other wildflowers dotted about. I think these are bugles.

Tony says ‘Ten years ago in April you could find butterburs all along the Thames from Abingdon lock to the first gate. Today, with extended mooring and I suppose more walkers, there are just a few clumps of them. These wonderful pink flowers appear before the leaves which can be quite big and downy.’

We saw these two grebes bringing twigs and making a nest in a place not very far from a road, and on the other side of a hedge and fence. They got vocal and agitated when a cycle passed by their chosen spot. It was not as secluded as it could have been.

The black headed gulls wheel and swoop for crumbs of bread thrown in their path by humans. It is like feeding time at the zoo at St Helen’s Wharf when it happens – which is less often during the lockdown.

This butterfly had settled near the River Ock on a nettle. Nettles are young and fresh at the moment. Butterflies normally flit away long before I get near with the camera. The information board at the start of the Ock Valley Walk has a picture of a Red Admiral, but this one looks like a Tortoiseshell. Somebody might know.