3rd January - Itchen Navigation, Winchester, Hampshire

Happy New Year!

My New Year birding was put on hold for a few days, but Helen and I did managed a walk along the Itchen Navigation.  The weather was absolutely lovely, cold, frosty and with that beautiful azure blue sky and a very low sun.  Before we left home, here is some taste of what the morning was like, the frost touching the edge of one of my garden ornaments.

From the high street we followed the river down to the mill and then around to the sports ground where the fiercely flowing Itchen turns into a calm chalk steam, meandering along.  The path comes alongside the water, the vegetation on the bank was covered in frost and where pieces of chalk were exposed they were covered in ice as the cold forced the absorbed water out of the rock

Just after I took this photograph I disturbed a Kingfisher and it flew across the river and unfortunately out of sight.  Walking on a Green Woodpecker called and flew across the river towards the sports ground.

You can almost feel the cold in this view along the river.

The trees along the path forming a lovely frame for the blue sky and water.

The water temperature was warmer than the surrounding air and a layer of mist was just above the stream as the water warmed the cold air and condensed what water there was in it.

Some beautiful reflections from the surrounding trees.

The path then rises above the navigation canal.  Once upon a time you could walk alongside the edge of the water, but the trail has fallen away in places and it is a very difficult path.

The Itchen Navigation is a 10.4-mile disused canal system in Hampshire, that provided an important trading route from Winchester to the sea at Southampton for about 150 years. Improvements to the River Itchen were authorised by act of parliament in 1665, but progress was slow, and the navigation was not declared complete until 1710. It was known as a navigation because it was essentially an improved river, with the main river channel being used for some sections, and cuts with locks used to bypass the difficult sections. Its waters are fed from the River Itchen. It provided an important method of moving goods, particularly agricultural produce and coal, between the two cities and the intervening villages.

In the 1960s, the value of the towpath as a leisure amenity began to be recognised. The deputy county clerk for Hampshire walked along the towpath from end to end in 1966, together with members of the Ramblers Association. He decided that rather than challenge the legality of the towpath diversions, he would invite the local authorities through which the navigation ran to assume responsibility for maintaining the towpath.

Eventually the path comes out of the trees and falls away to run alongside the canal, just before a weir.  Here we cam across another Kingfisher perched in the many branches hanging over the canal.

I particularly liked this view across the canal to the tree between the bushes  

The path then heads south and then turns right to cross the water meadows alongside the river Itchen.  We stopped at one point to watch a male Mute Swan evicting what looked like an immature swan that was not part of his family.

After crossing the river we walked through the meadows to the church of St Cross and then alongside one of the many streams going past the sports ground of Winchester College.

Looking to the east here was a lovely view of St Catherine's Hill with its small copse of trees at the top.  Despite it now being midday there were still patches of frost to be see on the grass where the long shadows of the trees and bushes had protected it from the sunshine.

We ended up walking through the courtyard of Winchester Cathedral and back through the high street.  As we came through the cathedral I was reminded of the Peregines I had watched last year and hoped that maybe this year they will be more successful and raise some young.