View From the Shed by Volunteer Shaun - JUST AROUND THE CORNER

JUST DOWN THE ROAD

The problem with writing blogs to a weekly schedule is that the writer (that’s me) sometimes has to assume certain events will have or have not happened by the time the reader (that’s you) actually reads the article in question. The trick is to structure the piece so that even if events don’t pan out as hoped then the reader will still find the blog interesting enough to keep going to the end. Got it? Given that preamble, you won’t be surprised to learn that this week is one of those times. I’ve tried to keep it full of the usual mix of facts and fun. I just wish that the birds in question would play ball.

But before we get to the birds, let’s look at their location.

If you haven’t been to our Wombwell Ings site, you really should. The RSPB’s website says that it’s “small but vibrant” which I think is a suitable description. If visitors to the Old Moor Welcome Shed ask how to get to Wombwell Ings, these are the directions that I usually give 

Leave the Old Moor car park and turn right at the roundabout. Go straight across the next, larger roundabout and you will come to a narrow road with houses on your left hand side. Soon you’ll come to a pub called The Old Moor Tavern on a very sharp left turn. Stop immediately, as you do not want to go around this corner. Instead, turn down the dirt track on the right, immediately opposite the pub and park there. Once parked, if you face the pub you will see a MUGA - a multi use games area that looks like a basketball court within a cage made of red tubular steel - through the trees to your right. Walk past that and keep walking for about five minutes until you see a bird hide. As my satnav would say, “You have arrived at your destination”.

There is a lagoon at the centre of the reserve around which you can easily walk, although there are no hard paths; you’ll be walking through grass so bring appropriate footwear. There’s just the one hide looking out onto the lagoon and the associated little pools to the left and right of it. Obviously you’ll see waterfowl on the watery bit but the surrounding muds and grassland are also worth scanning for birds both common and less so. As an added bonus, if you look out from the rear of the Wombwell Ings hide you get good views over Broomhill Flash, an excellent reserve run by the Garganey Trust.

There are no facilities at Wombwell Ings apart from the aforementioned hide - go to Old Moor if you want a cuppa or a toilet - but the birdlife can sometimes make the trip worthwhile, especially the migratory ones that visit at various times of the year. And right now (at the time of writing), if you look carefully in the sedge grass or the mud at the edge of the lake, right in front of the hide, you might be lucky enough to see one or even a pair of small wading birds. Wood Sandpipers are tiny birds, only just a little more than half the size of its close relative the Redshank. In fact, the ones I saw at Wombwell were actually being bullied by some fluffy Lapwing chicks. That’s something they definitely won’t brag about to their mates. You should see that the Wood Sandpipers seem much darker than most small waders of their kind with heavily mottled upper parts. Look for a shortish, straight bill and a white stripe running above the eye too. If you can see yellow legs then this can confirm the species identity, however, almost every time I’ve seen one it’s been either waist-deep in grass or the yellowness has been camouflaged by a copious application of mud.

I know that some of you like it when I delve into the origin of bird names so… It’s Etymology Time!

We can thank / blame a chap called Thomas Pennant for many of the names of creatures that we use today. This much-respected Welsh naturalist named the Wood Sandpiper and many other creatures in the 1785 edition of his magnificent series of books, British Zoology. These volumes make fascinating reading even today, but the writing style and the science involved is very much of its time. Pennant erroneously thought that Tringa glareola (literally, ‘Gravel Sandpiper') lived and bred in marshy woodland. Hence, when he gave it a non-scientific English name he chose Wood Sandpiper after its (supposed) chosen residence. Keep in mind that, even though the bird was seen quite often on the European mainland, there would be no recorded sighting in Britain until some 17 years later. By the time he discovered that it preferred to live in green trees and only feed in wetlands, his naming convention had become the standard throughout the English speaking world. And even if he wanted to change it to a more greenery-related term he couldn’t; he’d already given the name ‘Green Sandpiper’ to another similar bird some years before.

I really hope that the Wood Sandpipers are still at Wombwell Ings by the time you read this. They are migratory birds though so there’s a possibility that they may have already headed south to their breeding grounds in Africa. If they’ve already gone, well all I can say is that sometimes the world changes and there’s nothing we can do about it.

However, a very different change that we very much could do something about has also happened this week. I hope that the person I voted for will soon be taking their seat in the Government’s back benches, but above that I hope that whichever party is now in power, they will see how badly nature needs human help and make it a priority. Maybe one day we’ll see so many Wood Sandpipers at Wombwell Ings that I won’t need to worry that one or two have departed.

Fingers crossed.