Photographs

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My photos really do not do the meadows justice!

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Some areas of the wood have been planted with conifers

The eastern woodland path follows the course of the stream

The stream wends it way through thick undergrowth

In places the path becomes very muddy and so boardwalks have been installed

The path to the east of the river is very different to the western path

From the top end of the path there are views across the Frome water meadows

The two areas of woodland are separated by a field of improved grazing pasture

The western wood is dry acid woodland and very different from the wet eastern wood

The western wood is a mixture of oak/birch with planted Corsican pine 

The western wood has a typical acid soil flora understory

The balancing pond; too deep for any wildlife to make use of

The gravel pits were abandoned long ago and nature has taken back control

A pleasant walk through a wooded setting

Unusual to see the golf course so quiet

Just coming into full flower

The small pond by the western entrance

Slepe Heath is mainly dry heath on a sandy soil

Much of the area is pretty inaccessible to the average walker

To the southern edge where the land is lower it becomes wet heath verging on bog

The nationally scarce yellow bartsia can be found here

To the north there are views over Poole harbour

The river Frome as it nears the entrance to Poole Harbour

The view across Bestwall marsh

Some of the area is farmed

It is where people mess about on the river

A small part of the extensive reed beds at Swineham Point

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A lovely afternoon for a woodland walk

Foxgloves are still going strong

Some work has been done on thinning out the conifers

The top pond is looking quite low and becoming dominated by bulrushes

Hanson's have now completely pulled out leaving a larger area to explore

I think this is the first bee orchid I have seen at Higher Hyde