Studley (Monday 22nd February 2016)

Yesterday offered another opportunity to get out of the house and I used it to revisit another haunt, the Dipper Marden as I call it. I reached it via the rather boggy footpath that leads to the embankment that used to house the branch railway line to Chippenham but is now a cycle track. I had to scramble rather muddily and precariously up to the cycle path as the official steps were unreachable through the mud.

The River Marden, when I reached it, was flowing very fast and high, and most of the rocks where dippers might land were under water. I saw a distant buzzard in the sky and a mallard drake with two ducks waddled across my path, but that was about it.

The field was being grazed by a flock of sheep and the subject of my blip was feeding too greedily to be bothered by my presence. Behind the feeder is the best vantage point of the river at a point where dippers might be present, and there was one higher ledge of rock which showed clear evidence of recent visitation by dippers. It is very good to know that they have adopted this stretch of river for another year.

I walked along to the end of the field and rejoined the railway path at another gate to return to the car. Having found the unreachable steps from the raised path and used them, I was able to find an alternative, longer return route that avoided the boggiest stretch.

L.
23.2.2016 (1605 hr)

Blip #1766 (#2016 including archived blips)
Consecutive Blip #006
Day #2160
LOTD #1000 (#1124 including archived blips)

Taken with Pentax K-50 (Red) and Pentax HD P-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR lens

A Walk Beside The Marden, 22 February 2016 (Flickr album)

Calne series

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Cavern of Anti-Matter - Phototones (2015)
Featuring Tim Gane of Stereolab