Walking the Dog - Day 2

Forgot to mention on yesterday's post that I saw my first Peacock Butterfly of the year. It flew out of a clump of nettles so hopefully it had been laying it's eggs there.

Set off for Richmond Park today as there was another area that I wanted to investigate. Not a wise decision as there had been a traffic accident in Kingston which meant that all the traffic was snarled up! The dog and I were not very pleased.

Driving through the park to the car park, I noticed a family group of Egyptian Geese; Mum, Dad and 6 youngsters. The young were very much younger than those I've already seen in Bushey Park. Strangely they were a long way away from water and walking along the cycle track next to the road. Hope they stayed on the path.

Heard many birds but they were not very visible and not anything much on Pen Ponds. On the way to Pen Ponds there is an area where Skylarks nest and when they do, there are notices requesting walkers to avoid the area. I checked it out, but as expected, nothing breeding yet. I'll try again later in April.

What I did come across were two cows in the Sawyer's Hill area! There haven't been cows in Richmond Park for 60 years now but these were introduced earlier this year to graze areas enough to encourage small flowers such as harebells to thrive.

Other four-legged friends were two horses. These are working horses and pull a large cart/trailer around the park.

The black clouds then descended and as we'd been walking for about 1.5 hours it seemed appropriate to head for the car.

On arriving home, as we came through the front door, the hail started accompanied by thunder. The dog bolted under the nearest table and I had to encourage her to come out once the sun shone again!

British white-Gloucester cross and her calf



And finally, a view of Wembley Stadium. There's
also a view point from where you can see St. Pauls Cathedral
but it was not easy to photograph today because of the very
white sky!