Roding Valley Meadows

I have been suffering from a touch of cabin fever lately, so I was delighted this morning when Smithers said he would be happy to accompany me on a walk in the Roding Valley Meadows nature reserve. We nearly had to abort the outing, though, because when we arrived we found the car park was completely full. Clearly a lot of people had had the same idea as us on Bank Holiday Monday! Fortunately a space became available almost immediately, for which we were very grateful. 

The birdsong was just exquisite. While I was waiting for Smithers to change into his walking boots, I switched my Merlin app on. To my delight, it immediately started lighting up a wonderful array of birds’ names – robin, wren, blue tit, chiffchaff, greater whitethroat, blackcap … and that was just in the car park!

The paths underfoot were quite reasonably dry, given the amount of rain we’ve had recently, because they are formed by a lattice work of concreted areas which are a throwback to the days when it was the wartime RAF Chigwell site. We wandered past hedges of blackthorn, clumps of English bluebells and wood piles covered with moss and lichen, revelling in the musical accompaniment all around us. I did spot one wren, but she flew off almost immediately, so I wasn’t able to grab a photo. 

The steps in my photo may look attractive, but they only lead up to an elevated path which runs along the side of the nature reserve and overlooks the M11 motorway and the Police Traffic Unit attached to it, before another set of steps brings walkers back down to the car park some distance away.