Swallowfield and the Blackwater Valley

Ducks on the Blackwater

We had a friend to stay and wanted a walk which was both local and full of interest. This 4 mile walk absolutely hit the spot. It begins just outside Swallowfield on the road to Farley Hill. You walk back along the road towards Swallowfield and turn up a lane. At the top you turn right and wend your way down to the bank of the Blackwater. The route then follows the left bank of the river for a bit over a mile, passing the point where the Whitewater joins, and Thatchers Ford where the river is crossed by the Devil's Highway, the old Roman road from Silchester to London.

The section from Thatchers Ford is a little further away from the river, but we were struck by the clouds of dragonflies taking flight as we passed along the narrow path.

This section along the river is the end (or start, depending on your perspective) of the Blackwater Valley Path, which runs from Aldershot. The Blackwater itself goes on past Swallowfield bridge and shortly flows into the River Loddon, which in turns joins the Thames near Wargrave.

Leaving the river at Jouldings Farm, alternating lanes and tracks take you back to the beginning, passing just beside Chill Hill, which on the route of one of the first walks reported on this blog.

From: Village walks in Berkshire by Berkshire Federation of Women's Institutes (Countryside Books)

Map: Explorer 159 (Reading, Wokingham and Pangbourne)

Rating: four stars. Exceeded expectations.


Sightings

We saw this wonderful duck leading his family along the river (see also photo above).


I couldn't find him in my bird books and the excellent RSPB bird identifier did not yield an answer either. However, a direct email to the RSPB produced the answer: an Egyptian goose. Closely related to the Shelduck, it was originally introduced as an ornamental wildfowl species and has escaped into the wild, now successfully breeding in a feral state. Well done to them for a quick and very helpful response.

He didn't seem too well and his attempts to quack came out as hoarse-sounding rasps - as though he had some sort of respiratory disease.

Flowers of the day

There were some lovely water lilies in spots of slack water in the otherwise free-flowing Balckwater. The lily pads create an almost abstract image.


I have only seen isolated poppies so far this year, but today there were several clumps. These, at the edge of a field of barley, had a Impressionist quality and contrasted beautifully with the different shades of green.