Fifteen of us met up at Bedfords for the walk on Thursday 22nd August. The weather, once again, seemed to conspire against me, as whilst the previous day had been sunny and warm, the day of the walk was windy with the threat of rain. The park is very large, being over 215 acres, and has great views over London.
The park once formed the grounds of a mansion, so there are a number of exotic trees originally planted in the mansion gardens, such as Cedar of Lebanon, Holm Oak, Monkey-puzzle, Giant Redwood and Yew.
There are also, however a large number of native trees and we saw Ash, Oak, Beech, Hornbeam, Birch amongst others. One particular was the Wild Service Tree which is an indicator of ancient woodland. The fruits of the tree are called chequers and are edible, although need to be frozen before they become edible, in a process known as bletting.
We walked down to the lake where a number of water birds were seen, Coot, Moorhen, Great Crested Grebe, an Egyptian Goose, and a Grey Heron. At the beginning of the walk, we also saw a Buzzard fly overhead.
Near the lake a large clump of Bur-Marigold was found, which is in the same family as the Marigold found in your garden but this has burs, or hooks on the fruits, which get caught in the fur of animals and provides a method of seed dispersal. Along the edge of the lake , we found a bistort, probably amphibious bistort, given its location. This is a member of the Polygonaceae, as is Japanese Knotweed, although this is definitely not that.
We also say a number of different types of ragwort in the fields. It does seem to be very prolific this year, and although it is the food plant of the Cinnabar caterpillar, there have been were few Cinnabar moths around.
We finished the walk at the visitor centre with a well deserved cup of coffee.