Sussex Scrapbook
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Nature walks throughout the year
Saturday 8th
November 2008
Richmond Park, London
A paltry 5 miles in pouring rain!
The
Met Office had decreed that today was going to be a total deluge with strong
winds, so we decided once again not to go out by bike but instead to go to
London by train and splosh around
Richmond park.
We got to Richmond station at about 11:30 and headed through the remains of
Richmond Palace to the Thames and walked south along the towpath to Richmond
Hill. There are some very large trees here including a huge
Riverside Plane and
a
Chilean Pine (Monkey Puzzle) that was about 80 feet tall.
The view from the top of the hill was great,
especially as the rain kindly decided to stop for a few minutes. It's very hard
to believe that you're in the middle of London when the views give the
impression that the "big smoke" is still highly wooded.
To fully explore the park would take at least several days, so on this trip we
only strolled around the Northeast section. It looked magnificent in all its
autumn finery and although the weather was wet and miserable we saw a good
selection of birds. There were lots of Green Woodpeckers and Parakeets, but we
also saw Goldcrest, Coal Tit, Jay and Mistle Thrush.
On the way back to the station we stopped at the Slug & Lettuce pub for a wet
and a warm up before tackling the train home during a rush hour made even more
hectic by thousands of rugby fans on their way home from
Twickenham Stadium (England v
Pacific islands).
Richmond park is by far the largest park in London
The Thames at Richmond Bridge. You can walk North for 2.5 miles to
Kew gardens,
or the same distance south to
Ham House.
Richmond Bridge. You can hire boats here
and also get boat trips up and down the river.
Plenty of grey herons along the Thames as well as Kingfishers, Cormorants and
many more species.
The storm clouds recede momentarily as we reach the top of Richmond Hill
There is a very healthy population of
Ring-Necked Parakeets in the park
The sign for the
Capital Ring walking route
We had to shelter from the rain inside a hollow tree
A fat squirrel that was obviously very adept at begging tried his best with us.
There are around 200 deer born every year in the park and
to maintain a healthy population of 650 there is a yearly cull.