Spring at Sandford-on-Thames

A beautiful sunny day so to the Thames at Sandford.

Sandford-on Thames is a small settlement on the Thames below Oxford. There used to be a water mill here, going back to before 1100, and originally used to mill corn; in 1826 it was converted to a paper mill, where paper was made for the Oxford University Press. It finally closed in 1982.


Looking up towards the lock at Sandford

Perhaps one day the river here will be used as a source of power again, to produce hydro-electricity, though I know of no such proposal. A few miles upstream, at Osney Lock, however, a planning application is being considered at the moment to do just that at the old mill there. And I understand a further application will be made, maybe later this year, by a group called Low Carbon West Oxford, to site another hydro-electric turbine at Osney, opposite the mill. Things are coming almost full circle.

The river here is busy in the summer, with lots of activity around the lock, but quiet now.

Going into the first field two red kites flew up from a stand of tall trees. By the time I got my camera out, they were rather distant! You should see one kite if you look at the big image. Perhaps the pair is planning to nest in these trees but I could see no sign of it yet.



Red kites were nearly extinct in the UK by the end of the 19th century, with only a few hanging on in Wales. In 1989 kites, brought from Spain, were reintroduced to the Chiltern Hills which lie between Oxford and London. They have established very successfully and spread out; we now see them often over Oxford.

Next two Peacock butterflies, woken from hibernation. Here's one sunbathing



A few wood anemones (A. nemorosa) - also known as windflowers - the Greek word anemos means wind - on the edge of a wood; I didn't think limboing under barbed wire and into a ditch of water was worth it so the shot's from a distance and not too sharp.



Finally - and I'm not obsessed with catkins, it's just that time of year - a Pussy Willow also known as Goat Willow and Sallow (Salix caprea). The yellow catkins mean it's a male tree. (Female catkins are green.) Sallow has either male or female catkins on an individual tree = monoecious. Cf last week's hazel, both on the same tree = dioecious.