A morning stroll through Spiceball Park en route to a meeting at The Mill in Banbury enabled me to photograph a splendid new wildflower meadow in the park. This slightly damp mini-meadow was created three or four years ago during the building of the new Spiceball Sports Centre. As part of a package of flood "mitigation", the ground level was lowered so that when the river floods the water has a bit more space to spread before it starts inundating any buildings. I think it must have received a wildflower seed mix, carefully selected for the conditions. That foresight has created a rather wonderful small oasis of wet meadow flowers, long since lost from most places in the Cherwell valley.
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| new wet meadow in the park |
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| ragged robin |
The river flows past the new sports centre and again some nice habitat has been created, with patches of reeds and scrubby vegetation, perfect for whitethroats (2 pairs here) and sedge warbler. The "sedgies" were busy gathering material for their nest and were a bit more confiding than the whitethroats.
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| sedge warbler nesting near the centre of Banbury |
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| Spiceball Sports Centre |
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