Author: Andy Finnegan

Old Winchester Hill.

/ Andy Finnegan / 5 Comments

An uphill walk around a local nature reserve on Thursday morning

Old Winchester Hill is a 164-acre Site of Special Scientific Interest in Hampshire. Part of it is a scheduled monument. On the summit of the hill is an Iron Age hill fort. Within the hill fort, Bronze Age barrows dating between 2100 and 750 BC can be found. The fort itself was probably built in the Early or early–Middle Iron Age, 600–300 BC.

Dog Roses.

Ox-eye daisies.

Buzzard.

Jackdaw.

Air Ambulance passing over I think they were using the hill fort as a reference on their route

Not many Butterflies were spotted while on the hill. Only one distant Blue Butterfly and a couple of Six-spot burnet moths were seen. They’re a day flying moth.

Feathers.

/ Andy Finnegan / 4 Comments

During the Victorian times, Little Egret feathers were highly valued for fashionable headgear. This led to a massive decline in the bird population. The demand for Egret feathers was immense. The birds were farmed and hunted extensively. The plumes were worth more than gold. This unsustainable trade ultimately spurred the creation of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Fox.

/ Andy Finnegan / 2 Comments

Our fox is equally at home within our woodland and farmland, or city streets. At the top of the countryside food chain, they consume a variety of animals. Their diet includes everything from birds and beetles to rabbits and rats. In the city, they scavenge around human activity waste bins and abandoned fast food is a favourite.