Potteric Carr Nature Reserve

As I live so close to Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's flagship nature reserve, it would only be bad manners not to visit. So on Monday I packed my sandwiches, binoculars and camera and set off early to catch the X78 bus. The reserve is three bus rides away from my house, and having never been before I was slightly nervous about getting off at the wrong bus stop, or not being able to find the entrance. My fears were unfounded however, and I managed to find the reception, pay the £3 entrance fee (for non-YWT-members) and have a quick introduction to the reserve. I was told there were 7 miles of paths around the reserve, well I tried my best at walking around as much of it as I could. Here is the route I took:

Map of my route, borrowed from the Potteric Carr website

As you can see I walked round most of the reserve. I started on the Green Route from the visitor centre, then walked round to the Yellow Route which led onto the Red Route where I visited all the hides by going to Piper Marsh hide first then doubling back on myself to go round the remainder of the path.

The picture below was taken from the beginning of the Green Route, not entirely sure which habitat it is, whether to call it a reedbed or a marsh.

View from the Green Route

 The next photos were taken from the Loversall Pool hide.

Pheasant

Panorama of Loversall Pool

Coming out of the hide, there was a strip of grass to the right of the path with a sign asking visitors to keep off as orchids were currently growing there. I tried to get a decent picture of one from the path:

Common Spotted Orchid

Maybe not the rarest of flowers, but I think it's the first time I've seen an orchid in the wild. I then went into the Willow Pool hide and saw the following birds:

Family of ducks

Another Pheasant

Birds at the feeding station

Quite a few Reed Buntings about

Also saw a flash of electric blue zipping from one side of the pool to the other; hopefully that's not the only appearance that the kingfisher was putting in today, however it's the only glimpse I got. Never mind, there's still plenty of other birds to see and photograph. I carried on around the Green Route path until I got to Old Eaa hide. 

View from Old Eaa hide

Black-Headed Gull

Nothing much to see here other than a large flock of Black-Headed Gulls. I stay and chill for a bit, then decide to continue along the Yellow Route. I get the feeling that this is a less frequented route as it only has one hide and takes you along the top edge of the reserve. Getting onto the path requires you to cross some railway lines and yes I'm that sad that I actually took a picture of the railway crossing :-S

Level crossing

Anyway across the lines on the Yellow Route brings you to Childer's hide. I don't really think there was anything of much interest here apart from any rare trains that may pass by whilst you're birdwatching.

Trainspotting at Childer's hide

The lake was a bit far away for my binoculars to be of much use if anything appeared; I think this hide was one where you would whip out your telescope if you have one (unfortunately I don't). Anyway walking along the Yellow route takes you through some heavenly woodland where the only sounds were the birds, the leaves swishing in the wind, and the passing trains. LOL. Nevertheless I still stumbled upon a family of Great Spotted Woodpeckers (no pictures though, they were too quick for me). Here's some mushrooms and railcarts I found whilst wandering through the woods:

Jelly Ear Fungus

Couldn't resist taking a photo

Then it's round onto the Red Route, the last one I'm visiting today, but it's quite a walk nevertheless. I walked round to the Piper Marsh hide in the hope of seeing a Roe Deer, as I've heard that these are sometimes spotted here.

Piper Marsh

But no such luck for me today, so I doubled back to visit the rest of the hides on the path. On the West Scrape, there were three Avocets as well as Mute Swans and Canada Geese and their goslings (and a lot of goose poo on the path!) Walking back towards the Green Route and the visitor centre, I stumbled upon a young rabbit who graciously posed for a photo or two.

Avocet on the West Scrape

Young rabbit

I couldn't resist going back into the Willow Pool hide to see if the Kingfisher has rematerialized (for a longer period), unfortunately not but I got these shots instead.

There were two Jays hanging round the feeders

Don't know about a bird feeding station, more like a squirrel feeding station! There were four of these critters on the feeders at one point

I think the reserve will definitely be worth another visit in the winter, when the lakes are filled with birds. And I will be visiting the cafe then too!

Gardening Days

Went out into the garden again last week, things are really starting to come along now. Picked my first strawberry last week and my first pea pod today. Think the potatoes are ready to come up too, I'll have to check these as soon as the rain stops.

Anyway, here are a few of the pictures from last week. The recent rains over the last couple of days has transformed the garden, there's nothing like a good downpour to help nature along :)

First here's a garden visitor spotted from my window

Potato flower, quite attractive I think

My first strawberry

Baby carrots

Left off this blog a couple of hours whilst the weather was nice and harvested the first of my spuds. Charlotte, salad potatoes I think they are. Go nice with dinner tomorrow.

The first of my peas

Sprouts, broccoli, spring onions, carrots, peas and onions in this bed

Strawberries, carrots, onions, sprouts, sweetcorn and potatoes in this bed

View from the front

Also dug over the rockery and cleaned out the pond. Definitely going to have a lovely soak in the bath tonight, can't wait :)

Gibraltar Point Nature Reserve

Another walk I went on during my holiday to Skegness was down to Gibraltar Point. Starting from the Skegness Pier, I walked down the beach and across the dunes for a fair way until I reached the boundary of the reserve. The dunes themselves are recognised as a SSSI and it is a really pleasant walk. Here are a few photos from the first part of the walk.

View towards the south

Small creek

This was a bank of Sea Buckthorn, home to many rabbits which I saw on the way

Another view across the site

Reed Bunting

Kestrel hovering

 Another bird heard but unfortunately not seen was a Cuckoo. But then again, just hearing it was amazing, as it was the first Cuckoo I'd ever heard. It also made the walk that little bit more special. There were plenty of little brown birds flying about, and the Reed Buntings were more than happy to sit for a photograph at the top of a bush. The streams or creeks that crossed the site gave me chance to spy some Shelduck coming in to land, plenty more of which were seen at the reserve itself.

After about an hour and a half walking over the dunes, I finally got to the nature reserve. After some delicate stream crossing (of which resulted in me getting quite a muddy bum) the hides were reached and I got to see Avocets for the first time :-)

Welcome

Delicate footwork required

View of the creek

The reserve was full of friendly visitors who were more than happy to share their sightings with you or show you their pictures. One gentleman took a stunning picture of a dragonfly; I can only hope to be as good as that one day.

The view from the first hide we got to showed this bird; although I confess to be rubbish at identifying waders, there was no mistaking this bird:

Avocet

There were a fair few birds sitting on nests. I would love to go back later in the season to see all the chicks! Other birds I saw there included Canada Goose, Shelduck, Oystercatcher, Black-Headed Gull, Mallard amongst the waders I couldn't identify. I had a long walk back to Skegness so unfortunately couldn't go around every hide. After a well-earned dinner in the cafe and a stroll around the gift shop, I went back outside to take some more pictures.

Pond

Fenland Lagoon

I walked back to Skegness along Gibraltar Road, stopping on the way at Jackson's Marsh and Tennyson's Sands.

The Plantation

View of the marsh

Tennyson's Sands

Shelduck

Got back into Skegness well into the afternoon after an amazing morning at the reserve. I really need to brush up on my wader identification skills though!

Pond in Skegness