From Oxenhoath to West Peckham

It was very breezy and quite cool in the late afternoon as Monty and I got out onto the footpath on the Lower Greendsand above Hadlow that leads from the Oxenhoath East Lodge towards the Village Green at West Peckham. The weather had been a bit better earlier on and that had been used in securing optimal conditions for house painting that is progressing well, as we know that this short Indian Summer will not last much into October.

Not much chance of many insects about today, although an unknown dragonfly moved quickly past me along a slightly sheltered hedge line (possibly a late male Black-tailed Skimmer, from a very brief impression of reasonable size combined with a hint of powder blue on the body).

This walk was therefore mainly about exercising Monty and not taking photographs. The field overlooked by the East Lodge has been left to ungrazed meadow this year, and has presumably formed reasonably robust habitat for meadow brown butterflies and possibly others. Behind the lodge chimney you can see the poplar plantation above the Oxenhoath path continuing to supply a bold splash of gold in the autumn landscape.

Even the ivy in the sheltered hedgerows was a bit less exciting today, still with plenty of black Muscid flies and a few median wasps, but no hoverflies in the very poor conditions. As we walked East across the line of the hills, we moved into the intensive strawberry and raspberry area of polythene tunnels operated by several of the farmers in the area. I have little objection to "the sea of plastic" bewailed by others provided the tunnels are well-shielded, carefully managed to keep environmental impact down and heavily balanced by field crops in rotation to the intensive fruit, with lots of emphasis on tall hedges, tree shaws, streams and woodland. The tunnels usually have had their plastic covers removed for the winter dormant period:

As we got closer to West Peckham we also saw sections of newly constructed strawberry beds open to the elements, waiting for their crops to be planted for harvesting next summer. The South facing slope of light sandy soil is warmed effectively by the sun and cold frosty air drains downhill from it, so it makes excellent soft fruit land. Unfortunately this prominent position also means that it is prominently visible from a distance, thus making any visual intrusion of the tunnels and the plastic-mulched beds much more difficult to shield from long distance views, and giving rise to some local concern about the visual blight created,