Mike's Natural Musings: Scartho Cemetery and The Horsefield

Saturday 21 March 2020

Scartho Cemetery and The Horsefield

Although official 'Lockdown' didn't begin until Monday 23rd March, government restrictions were beginning to kick in and most people were starting to stay very much 'at home'. Writing now, a week later, we are allowed out for one exercise session a day which must begin and start at our own home so trips out in the car are a thing of the past, at least temporarily. While this situation lasts I have decided to embark on a Conavirus project to observe and record the progress of nature through the seasons in the cemetery and the Horsefield. I can walk to both these locations from home and, in fact it has been a regular walk/run for years and I have been photographing the Horsfield, my local edgeland for two or three years. The Horsefield is, more correctly, Gooseman's Field but we refer to it as such because of the half a dozen or so horses that are tethered there. My regular walk is through the main cemetery, a circuit of the woodland cemetery and then out for a circuit of the horsefield.

On 21st March it was grey, overcast and chilly. In the cemetery primroses were plentiful as were daisies and, to a lesser extent dog violets. Daffodils were at their peak and leaves were beginning to open and in the woodland cemetery a fine willow was coming into flower. There several groups of magpies, especially in the Horsefield. Gulls and wood pigeons were also in evidence. The best bird sighting was of a female sparrowhawk as she streaked through on her quest for small avian prey. We were excited to see deer slots around the perimeter of the woodland cemetery, presumably roe or, perhaps, muntjac.
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