Yesterday I led what was supposed to be a Winter Warmer Walk complete with festive punch and the left over mince pies. Normally we would expect temperatures close to freezing and firmness under foot. Nature had other ides.
Setting off in basking sunshine our first stop was our heronry where right on cue a heron flew in to sight and perched gracefully on the top of the nearest tree. Perfect timing I thought. My audience were amazed at my use of a remote controller to bring on the birds. The heron was quickly followed by a great spotted woodpecker (which then started to drum away in the heronry), a pair of little egrets flying directly overhead, blue, great, marsh and log tailed tits fed on the feeders and then a brave nuthatch entered the scene, unperturbed by my howling at the attendees list! As we moved off, a female sparrowhawk dived at the unsuspecting feeding birds! Talk about giving the audience what they want.
After an hour we reached the lakes and found out the elusive male smew was on site. Wow, a smew, one of only 100 wintering in the UK and here on site. Off we went in search of him. Thanks to one of the volunteers from Sandwell who just happened to be on site, we eventually found the little devil and put it on our list! Not bad for a winter walk.
Three hours later we arrived back at the pod for a refreshing cup of punch which felt out of place in the sunshine - jusy as I imagine Christmas in Australia to be like.
For all those who came on the walk, here's a close up of the smew just for you.
See you on the reserves,
Best regards,
Chris Edwards