28.
BOXING DAY RAMBLE - 26th December 1978
The day funnily enough began at Chipping
Ongar police station. I hasten to add that
the participants had not spent the previous
evening in the police cells. It just happened
to be a suitable starting point for the
ramble. We followed a footpath, which took
us past an old Motte and Bailey castle which
had unfortunately been converted into a farm.
However the moat still remained in which
there were a number of ornamental ducks.
Included was a very colourful male Mandarin
duck (Aix galericulata ). Fr om here we
wandered down to the River Roding which we
crossed via a footbridge. It was noted by
many members of the party that the river was
somewhat higher than is usual for the time of
the year, due to the heavy rain of the
previous few weeks.
The scenery of the walk was very much
dominated by rough arable farmland, on which
flocks of Lapwings (Vanellus vanellus) and
Black headed gulls (Larus ridibundus) were
feeding. The route then took us through a
very large farm which we
later learnt was owned by
the Co-operative Society.
It was interesting to see
that the farmer had taken
a number of preventative
measures in order to get
the best from the land -
rabbit proof fencing etc.
After we passed through the
farm, we continued along
a footpath which took us
across a disused World War II
airfield, where we flushed