18.
spotted woodpecker tapping on a hollow tree near
Cuckoo Brook: a mallard duck and drake waddling
across a horse-ride: a magpie and jay together on
a path and a "frog" in a horse-shoe: for me, whilst
I waited for the next group to come by, a bank vole
feeding for several minutes on the grassy bank of a
ditch.
As I walk through the woodland of Epping Forest,
accompanied by children, blackbirds hop and fly
away, scolding us: blue tits, great tits and coal
tits, chaffinches and greenfinches cross our path
and occasionally a pair of bullfinches fly off,
showing their white rumps: or a party of long-
tailed tits tweek in the tree-tops. The much
larger jays chatter in the bushes and the wood-
pigeons flap away. On the plains magpies bounce and
probe and fly off with a blue of white wing-tips
(have you ever compared the magpie tail with that
of the budgerigar?).
I travel regularly between Sewardstone Road,
Chingford and Church Road, High Beach and record the
mammal deaths on my way (mostly hedgehogs and squirrels
with the occasional rat and rabbit). Last Autumn I
gained an unexpected reward. I thought it was a dead
chicken at the roadside by Almshouse Plain and stopped
to retrieve 'the carcass - no chicken this but a
beautiful, plump pheasant! 'This peasant skinned it,
roasted it and had it for dinner.
Irene Buchan
---oOo---
Over l6 and you want to do your bit for conservation?
The National Conservation Corps has conservation
work camps in wildlife areas the country over. Details
from Ron Allen or from the London Zoo, Regents Park.