Walking around Barkby Holt

I did this little exploratory hike the other day. I wanted to get into Barkby Holt and see what was in their. Here is my photojourney.

To be honest inside the wood, I couldn't see anything! The path was muddy and crossed with brambles and stingers. To protect my rather exposed legs I ended up walking through the whole place looking at my feet rather than inspecting the wildlife. I get the impression that this place would be awesome in winter on a mountain bike.

When you get out of the wood you end up back in farmland overlooking the pretty village of South Croxton. Here the wildlife is a little bit easier to see.

Check out this Cereal Leaf Beetle (Oulema melanopa). I found a couple of these loitering on the grass stems near the edge of the field above. These little bugs eat grass leaves and so are disliked by farmers who grow grass related plants. Still I think he looks quite pretty.

One thing that I like to do when walking around in the fields of Leicestershire is to sneak across field boundaries. That is, to silently slip over the fence and peak into the next field to see whats there before it has chance to run or fly away. Its surprising what wildlife you can catch off guard. Part of the path went through this conifer plantation. The rows of trees essentially cut off all view except for the line of trees at either side of you. As you move through the plantation a new row will open up and you can look down it. Again and again you go past row after row. Each new row was a new opportunity to sneak and peak to see what was hidden.

Check this out. A Brown Hare (Lepus capensis). In fact there was probably 20 or so of them and I got some fantatic close encounters. Further along I stopped to look at the White Bryony(Bryonia dioica) growing in the hedgerow. At this time of year you can see the berries of this plant hanging in the bushes like red grapes, almost.

This plant is one of those that I remember seeing back at infants school. As I remember there were only ever two plants that came onto my radar. Sticky plant and curly wurly plant. Well this is curly wurly plant. Let me explain, to help it climb it sends out little feelers that entwine other established plants and enable it to get a leg up. Check out these curly wurlies.

The last interesting thing that I saw was this bazaar looking Dancing Fly (Empididae empis).

All in all, an interesting wander.