Distance: 7.7 miles total, but many options to make this shorter or longer
Parking: several large carparks – some are free, other charge between £2 and £6
Family Friendly: Yes
Pushchair/ wheelchair access: Yes
Facilities: Some
This is a lovely place to visit and has many different carparks around the large pools, so you can park at any point and do the walk in full or just a part of it.
On this occasion, because I had my children with me, we walked the climate change walk, around the Mammoth lake. It is not very long, but has so much biodiversity and there are toilets at the carpark.
Watermead is clean and well cared for by an amazing group of volunteers. Much of the parkland is kept wild, with clear and easy paths through the woodland, around the lakes and through the grassland.
This is certainly somewhere I really recommend.
Watermead sits near the River Soar and the land is full of sand and gravel that was previously extracted for the concrete industry in the 1980s. Since the closer of these pits, effort has been made to allow the space to return to the wonderful natural space we see today, and can enjoy. The pools are former pits that have filled in with water.
You can still access the river from watermead, and we passed one locks on the way around the lake. There are even fish and clams all visible within the water.
During extraction of sand and gravel some amazing bronze age artefacts and human remains were found.
Identified Species
Horsetail – Equisetium
This is an unusual looking plant, its common name represents that fact the plant looks like a tail. This is commonly found near water on in damp rich soils. Horsetail is a spore producing plant and so does not produce flowers or seeds.
Each plant has a central stem and long thin tubular glass like leaves from the central stem. These taper at the base and tip, giving a pointed oval overall shape to the plant when seen. The tend to grown in clusters and spread very easily, due to their spore carry on the wind.
Tansy – Tanacetun vulgare
These is a striking member of the Aster family. It has a clustered flowerhead with flat yellow flowers. The clustered flowerhead looks almost sticky or wet, but it doesn’t feel it. On the underside of the flowerhead, the phyllaries are brown closest to the flower and green as it connects to the stem. This is a tall plant and they grow together in patches. The leaves are deeply divided pinnate in shape and serrated. They are alternate in orientation. The stem and leaves are all hairless. This plant also like water, and can often be found along rivers, pools and banks.
Common Vetch – Vicia sativa
This is a member of the pea family. It has downy hairs to the leaves which are ovate but terminate in a point. The flowers are found on the axis of the plant and are pink or purple in colour, often 2 shades of the same colour. The flowers do not have their own stem. The tendrils are often absent in young plants. But can be independent stems or at the top of the leaf.
Ribwort Plantain – Plantago lanceolata
A member of the plantain family. This has a brown corolla on top of a long downy stem. The downy hair is white. And there are visible white stamens protruding from the corolla. The leaves are deeply ridged ovulates which are at the base of the long stem. You can find these in many different places, including urban environments around the base of trees.
Hawthorn – Crataegus
When in flower, the hawthorn bush has clusters of white flowers, each flower has 5 white petals and all flowers have their own stem. The leaves are in an alternate position, with a group of leaves coming from the same dark brown stem. Leaves are 3 to 5 times lobed with a toothed edge. The underside of the leaf is a lighter green than the top.
Hazel – Corylus avellana
Another lovely small deciduous tree. The leaves on the hazel tree are simple and round, with a serrated edge. To tough they are lightly furry and the tips are pointed. The stem and twigs are lined with hairs. This tree was not in seed, but the seeds are small brown woody nuts inside a green (later brown) leaved case which has pointed edges.
Spear Thistle – Cirsium vulgare
A lovely tall thistle, with heavily lobed leaves, each leaflet terminating in a spine. There are fine and large spines running up the stems. The flower head is spiney looking with a purple tuft of flower on the top, when in flower, this one has flowered and so now all that remains is the spiny globular head.
Creeping Thistle – Cirsium arvense
A lovely thistle that has a complex root system allowing it to spread with easy, and can become a problem in agricultural landscapes. It is tall with slender stems. The flower heads have spines leading up the bracket and a pink to pink purple flower head on the top. The leaves are long and have multiple lobes, each lobe terminates in a spine. The spines do not reach up with the stem.
Ash – Fraxinus
This lovely tree has rich green pinnate leaves, with have either 7 or 9 leaflets from the central stem. There are 3 or 4 pairs of leaflets and one leaflet at the end. The leaves are ovate in shape and end with a point. The bark is a grey brown and soft. The twigs nearer the leaves is a light grey. One of the most iconic parts of this tree is the tips, which all terminate in a charcoal to black tip.
Common Blue Damselfly – Enallagma cyathigerum
These damselflies are common and found around bodies of water, from pool and ponds to lakes. The males are bright blue with black stripped markings and black bands along the tail. The females are either grey or green with dark markings across the tail. They are small and very quick, usually in small groups and can often be seem low to the ground when away from the water.
Alder – Alanus
This is a tall tree, the most recognisable part is probably the seed pods, as I am sure many of have seen them in the past and not known what tree they were connected to. Their seed pods look like small pinecones (as photographed). They can have catkins on the same tree too. The leaves of the alder are simple and round with a inward notch at the end. They are a rich green colour and sticky or shiny looking and slightly stocky to the touch. The underside of soft. The ridges of the leaves are visible and deep. The edge of the rounded leaf is toothed.
Sycamore – Acer psudoplantus
This is a wonderful large tree with large 5 point lobed leaves. The leaves are simple and arranged in an opposite orientation up the stem on the branch. The sycamore is a member of the maple family, and so the leaves are similar to the Norwegian maple. Sycamore leaves are toothed but not as pointed as the Norwegian maple.
The fruits of this tree are winged with 2 seed pods at the centre and long wings which taper slightly at the seed pod to a wide wing tip. These catch the air and float to the ground. (You might have played with them as a kid! I know I did, we called them helicopters). The seed pod is green and wings are brown.
This tree is an essential part of the ecosystem, producing food and shelter for many species. The leave are food for caterpillars, aphids live on the bark. The flowers are pollinated by bees and they are homes to many bird species.
Field Maple – Acer campestre
Another member of the maple family. This has the familiar 5 lobed leaf, although the leaves of the field maple are much smaller than some of the other maple trees and a much darker green colour. The stem the leaves are attached to are smaller too and thin. Leaves are rounded at the lobes and do not have teeth or serrations.
The fruits of this tree have 2 seed pods connected to each other at the middle and wings on either side. The wings stick out from the seed pods on the side, and do not point downward like the sycamore. The seed pods and wings are green and red in colour. These too catch the wind and float to the ground.
The field maple produces the hardest of all European wood.
Himalayan Balsam – Impatiens glandulifera
This is a beautiful looking flower, but is actually invasive and disposed of by the environment agency. The flowers are almost orchid like, and vary from white to pink They have a bell shaped flowers head with his zygomorphic. Having a rounded large petal on the top and 2 smaller petals curved below. The flower head looks too large for the small delicate stem that holds it up.
The plant is very tall and grows along waterways or in damp conditions.
The leaves are ovate and simple, with red or green toothed edges.
DO NOT transplant this flower, try to grow it in your garden and touch it.
Each plant produces 800 seeds and these seeds can disperse through air and water. It is a non-native invasive species.
Yellow Water-lily – Nuphar lutea
The leaves of this water-lily are waxy and large, forming a rounded heart like shape or disc like that sits flat on the water. The stem of the flower head is thick and supports a waxy looking tightly packed yellow flower. The flower is buttercup like is colour and shape. With 5 yellow petals surrounding the many stamen forming a stamen disc which skirts the flat disc shaped ovary in the centre. The stems of the leaves are flexible and long.
The root of this lily forms a root ball that creeps in the mud and slit in the water
Hedge Bindweed – Calystegia sepium
This is a larger member of the bindweed family. It spreads veraciously, climbing up to 3 metres wrapping around any other shrubs in its way. The leaves are elongated heart shapes, with a thin and winding stem. The flowers are white and trumpet shaped. The calyx is green at the base of the flower, this can have an epicalyx over the top, these calyx do not overlap and both pairs are visible.
Grey Heron – Ardea cinerea
Another one of my favourite birds, this gorgeous large bird has a black cap on its head, with a white face, white long neck and chest. With grey feathers to the back and wings, and a black tail. There are some black markings to the bottom of the wings also. Their beaks are yellow. In one of these photos, you can see the cheeky heron has poked his tongue out!
Marsh Tit – Poecile palustris
This little bird took a long time to spot, but I am glad I did. It looks very similar to a willow tit, but I think this is a marsh tit. A marsh tit is a small bird, with a black head and black patch from the chin down to the top of the chest. The cheeks are white, and this white band extends around the back of the head, where the black cap meets at a point. The back of the bird is light brown, and the chest is a creamy off white colour.
Wood Pigeon – Columba palumbus
I personally adore pigeons, wood pigeons, feral pigeons and collared doves. I think they are just the most adorable.
This is a wood pigeon, it is a large pigeon, bigger than a feral pigeon (one you would see in a town). It is a grey bird, but their necks have a pink hue to them and sometimes you will see an iridescent pink chest and belly. They have a white patch on the sides of their lower necks and often have white markings to the underside or lateral edge of their wings. They have yellow beaks with a pink fleshly looking top nearer their face. They have yellow eyes. They are a heavy bird.
The wood pigeon is extremely versatile and it is down to this versatility that its numbers do so well. They do not migrate, and can breed in any month of the year, but tend to have their young in August. They make flat nests ideally in trees, but will use buildings or even the ground to lay their eggs. Females only lay 2 eggs at a time, and will potentially have 6 clutches a year, if she has lost some.
An adult can hold up to 150 acorns in its crop!
Unidentified Species
There are some wonderful fish swimming through the water that can clear be seen, but I do not know what they are. They could be Chub, Rudd, Roach or Dace.
If you know what this is, please comment below! I would really appreciate it.
Thank you all so much for reading my blog. I really hope you are enjoying it.
Feel free to comment below or message me any walk suggestions
More than likely chub, or break, hard to tell.