9th: Withybeds – Radnorshire

Withybeds is a small, yet beautifully formed reserve that runs alongside the River Lugg. As you enter (passing some neatly kept allotments) you don’t see the river, but right in front of us was a small patch of mixed woodland, I noticed willow, beech and many other trees, creating a very different feeling to the ancient beech trees of Cooper’s Hill we’d not long left. The small woodland was dense, filled with a large amount of undergrowth and if it were not for the boardwalk, kindly supplied by Radnorshire Wildlife Trust, I think it would have been difficult to get through! We had to leave the boardwalk to get to the riverside, which was beautiful, although I’m not sure the river is particularly healthy as there wasn’t a lot of signs of live, but I’m probably jumping to the wrong conclusion there. I had originally thought I’d like to do a river scene, but we had a magical encounter with a wren once we’d returned to the boardwalk.

We were hearing a lot of chatter in a hawthorn tree and were trying to see what was there when we both spotted the little wren almost at the same time. They can be very tricky to get photos or videos of, as sometimes they don’t seem to stay in the same place for more than a few seconds, but this one was pretty obliging and I managed to get some reasonably good video footage, so we’ll have to see what comes out, once I’m back in the studio doing some sketching.