Blogger: Carol Miller, Community Fundraising Volunteer based at the Fens Area Office in Swavesey
Well what a Summer I’ve had this year. I’ve loved visiting some more of the RSPB’s wonderful nature reserves and being able to get very close to some of Britain’s beautiful birds, mammals and reptiles.
I have been to Rye Meads in Hertfordshire again with their purpose built sandbanks for kingfishers to nest in. And it has worked a treat this year. In the wild you can often see a fleeting glance as a spark of blue flashes past near a river, but at this nature reserve when they are feeding their chicks you can see them fly in and out of the nest frequently and even see them perch on a branch or dive into the water to catch a fish or two. I was lucky enough to see one at Minsmere in Suffolk this year too. It perched on a branch in the glorious sunshine for about half an hour – a rare treat. Occasionally it would dive in for a fish too, but it wasn’t feeding any chicks, they were all for its own appetite.
I went along to Minsmere with the hope of spotting some avocets and perhaps spoonbills. I was not disappointed. And I also saw a grey heron catching fish.
I even saw one of Britain’s elusive bitterns.
At Arne in Dorset I managed to see a sand lizard which I was told is quite rare in this country. He was very cheeky and kept running through the heather and then freezing. I guess that’s one of his tactics to avoid predators.
At Bempton Cliffs in North Yorkshire I was very lucky and saw lots of proud puffins on the first day of my visit. The puffins would fly out to sea to catch fish and then fly back and completely disappear into the cliff face, where they were nesting. There were lots of nesting kittiwakes and gannets with young chicks and also many fledgling gannets too.
It’s been a real voyage of discovery and I would urge anyone who always means to go to their local reserve but hasn’t ‘found the time’ to find it and quick! There’s so much to see and do and something for everyone – find a reserve near you here http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/
Photo credits: Carol Miller