And the winner is ................................ Hodbarrow's hotly contested sandcastle competition winner is.....Kianna with her castle complete with Pier, rock garden and decorations. Here is a picture of her below with the brilliant prize donated by Frame It. Their gallery and printing business in Millom is well worth a look.
(Photo Andy Deacon)
If you hadn’t guessed this was for our family fun day where we wanted to showcase the amazing wildlife that makes Hodbarrow it’s home. We had a great day and other highlights included The Mayor from Millom having ago at our heron game...not sure it has been played by someone wearing quite so much ‘bling’ before...if you are allowed to call it that. We also had a scarecrow we had made for the local scarecrow competition. Walter warden as he came to be known enjoyed a couple of days sat out at Whiterock enjoying the view. When I went to collect him on Monday morning I was surprised to find he was without a foot and his hat! How forgetful he is! Oh and we got runner up in the community section of the competition. I'm already thinking of ways to improve for next year ....I wonder how long we can get a tern to sit on his shoulder for.....
It was a great day made even better by our brilliant volunteers who came to help – it wouldn’t have gone ahead without them.
Also this week we had Millom Infants School children onto the reserve to have a look at some of the birds. After a trek around to the hide (which one told me it was definitely a 100 mile walk) they had a couple of hours watching birds from the hide, writing their sightings on the board and even creating their own hand drawn birds. There was some wacky ones....one was called seagull and on lived on Egremont street. I’m not sure they are on the British list so we may have a mega on our hands!
Walter didn’t live up to his name because we have plenty of birds at Hodbarrow. Little tern numbers are still high and a visible on the lagoon aswell as out ont he estuary feeding. We also have Sandwich tern and Common tern around – some on scrapes. Other highlights include the reed warblers singing where people feed the ducks. Great crested grebe chick is in the same area. Large numbers of Eider chicks on the lagoon – Speaking to Stephen we wondered how they climb out to the estuary when they are young...it’s some trek for the little ‘uns. Orchids are still going strong with plenty of bee and pyramidal to be seen throughout the reserve. Patches keep popping up everywhere!