HAVING spent most of the week at the end of March decorating I found myself with a free day.

It was promising to be a gloriously warm spring day so I made the decision to indulge myself in a long walk to see what wildlife came my way.

I have often done this on walks around the Wyre Forest, Church Stretton, Brecon Beacons, Snowdonia and, my personal favourite, Elan Valley.

All of these offer wide open space and some solitude away from the bustle of modern life.

This day I would have to be a little more creative though as I had no access to a car and taking public transport to these wilder areas would probably take up most of the day just to get there.

So I just walked out of the front door of my house in Stourport and set off into what has to be some of the best countryside Worcestershire has to offer.

Seven hours and some 24 miles later I returned having seen less than a dozen people and a wealth of wildlife once I had walked across the bridge of Stourport.

My route took me over the top of Redstone Hermitage, through Shrawley Woods out to Little Witley then up to Monk's Wood for lunch, returning through Holt then down the Severn Way back to Stourport.

Throughout the walk, apart from the odd dodgy bit around a few new barn conversions the rights of way network was wonderful, a real credit to the county council.

As for the wildlife, where shall I start? The majority of mammals I encountered were rabbits. At this time of year the young rabbits were exploring for the first time outside their burrows and their playful antics were quite amusing to watch.

The only other sighting was of a brown hare which raced across a field in front of me.

Buzzards were my constant companions throughout the walk, but the most notable birds were tawny owls. Of the two I saw, one was poking its head out of hollow tree trunk and the other was hunting in a farm field at around 11am.

I also heard a pair calling out at around three in the afternoon in Shrawley Woods.

I was not expecting many insects apart from the drone of the odd bumblebee, but to my surprise I encountered three species of butterfly.

These included the large and lovely lemon-yellow colour brimstone, which I found looked much like a sudden flurry of autumnal leaves that were somehow suspended above the ground and dancing in the breeze.

Another unusual insect was the tiger beetle. It is the earliest in the year I have encountered one and I found this lightning-fast creature darting across a sandy path near Stourport.

There was a wealth of wild flowers, but of just a few species. These produced some lovely displays of yellows in the case of the celandines and snowy white in the case of the wood anemones.

I could see the new leaves of many millions of bluebells and wild garlic and have resolved that if I get the time to repeat this walk in a few weeks time to try and catch the splendour of these blooms I certainly will.

I may not have experienced the wild and windy solitude offered by areas like Elan Valley, but for variety and visual beauty it would be hard pressed to beat the countryside of our district and its surroundings.

After finishing the walk, I was left with the feeling of how lucky I was to live in a district where within a few minutes you could easily walk out into some of the loveliest countryside there is to find.