Winthorpe Lake Trek

 Badly hindered by my ankle injury I'm really not getting out and about as much as I'd like to during this time out, making me feel frustrated and overweight. So my walk out to Winthorpe Lake for a couple of hours, listeing to cricket on the radio and enjoying the mental helath boost the outside world gives me. 

It isn't the most scenic route in the world, I have to say. The walk along the River Trent is rather bleak, with the monotony of a bank given over to the needs of angling broken occasionally of a flushed heron making its way over the water with great, slow wingbeats. Then you get the somewhat nicer stretch along the old elevated railway line before arriving at the lake itself.

Well known locally for the giant concrete barge that ran itself agroung after some kids set it free, I always find this a bit of a sterile spot for wildlife purposes; you don't see many birds here and the ones you do see are fairly unremarkable. 

It never crops up in any local birds of interest report either. 

I don't know why this is, perhaps with Langford Lowfields and Besthorpe nearby the birds have somewhere nicer to go without risking being tangled up in fishing line. 

Still, I enjoyed being out, sore ankle and all reminding me with every step I should give up bowling at cricket. Grrrrr.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 17.09.22

Around Winthorpe Lake

Another sort of walk that turned into a run today, a rather longer one out to Winthorpe Lake.

I've not been out here for a while, but regular blog readers may have seen posts about this place before, where I normally remark on how as a dedicated fishing lake, the waters always seem rather sterile and devoid of life.

That is still true, but the edge of the lake is a lively place when the flowers are in bloom. I got an accidentally decent shot of a flying green veined white, and rampant in the bushes were a mating pair of orange tips. Sadly, they weren't close enough and were too lively to get a good shot of.

There were swallows feeding on the Trent, and one on the telegraph wires at the cottage at Winthorpe Crossing - another not great shot sadly. This building is a big nesting site for house martins, but none are present yet. I might try and film them later in the year.

Watched the Starlink launch live on youtube, and then 20 minutes later watched it cross the sky at an altitude of 180km, which was a first for me.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 23.04.20

Another Run to Winthorpe Lake

Well, there was a bright sun, but there was a nice breeze and temperatures weren't too fierce, so another longer distance so-called "adventure run" seemed a much better idea than it did when I ran 12km in 33 degree heat a couple of days ago, for idiotic reasons of machismo.

It's a pleasant trip out there, through pretty Winthorpe village and the cottage on the level crossing that has loads of house martins nesting in it, and then onto the Trent Valley Way up to the lake.

I've often decried the lake at Winthorpe as being a rather sterile place, maintained solely for the purpose of fishing. And in some ways, it is. But today, the thistles had been allowed to grow wild and tall, and all sorts of life were taking advantage.

There were my first common blue and blue tailed damselflies of the year, both of them silently flying like tiny neon lights and being as ever impossible to photograph with a mobile phone. There were large skippers too, with their wings like furry dart flights.

Meadow browns and ringlets were also plentiful, as were a few gatekeepers. You may remember me writing yesterday that this attractive golden butterfly wouldn't be around for a few weeks yet; I guess my lack of knowledge has been effortlessly exposed.

For not only were they up, they were actually posing for photographs for me! They never do this, they are normally pretty elusive, irritatingly aware of knowing when to fly off just as you press the camera button. Evidence of my ignorance can thus be posted for your amusement.

I just wish I hadn't run home part the sewage farm.

Si

All images and text copyright CreamCrackeredNature 03.07.15

The martin colony

Trent Valley Way

Winthorpe Lake

Usual terrible damsel shot

An even worse one of a blue tailed damsel

Large skipper

Beautiful male gatekeeper

The well known concrete barge at the lake

River Trent on the way home

This is a good caterpillar. A bit of a google makes me think it might be a peacock

The "other" lock

Kayak fisherman

Polish flowers!

Her garden is a riot of colour today

These lilies are stunning

My Winthorpe Lake Adventure

Yesterday, I was out of the house well before midday - ha ha - and on my way on a new running adventure. I've headed this way on a bicycle many times, but not often on foot, and certainly not to this distance.

I was heading for Winthorpe Lake, actually nearer to Holme Village than Winthorpe, and rather more of a cross country slog than heading for, say, Muskham. It was a grey day, with a sky that looked like it ad been mummified, pale grey and lifeless. Meanwhile, the ground was a variety of greens, the lush greens of autumn, but rather muddy once I found myself off the road and onto the bank that marked the Trent Valley Way.  Luckily a pretty flock of goldfinch were on hand to brighten up the surroundings.

I've been to Winthorpe Lake before, in warmer months with sedge warblers at work at some of the reedy margins, but today, it looked very very bleak. Out on the water were a fair number of great crested grebes, some tufted duck and a couple of mallard. A very handsome heron sat on the riverside edge of the lake, outfishing the fellows with their rods and lines.

Around the lake, the famous concrete barge, and the two smaller boars, were marooned on the water's edge as they had been for many years.

I ran back in along the river, all the way to the "other" town lock. This is all fishing country, with rather unfriendly signs on display, and the riverbanks, like those of the lake, denuded of vegetation.

It is lifeless, and depressing.

Concrete barge, Winthorpe Lake

Open water

Grey reflected in grey

Tented fisherman

Under the bridge - the bypass

Under the bridge - the railway

Barges at "the other" lock