Shipley Saunter
7th January 2014
A leisurely amble today to start the new year. We met in the car park at Mapperley Reservoir, thankfully Helen J's order for good weather had worked and the sun was shining! Campervan coffee to start the day and we started the walk with a little gentle bird watching. As Helen J was the only one with binoculars (and knowledge)we have to take her word on what we spotted!
This is her list:
great crested grebe, cormorant (not shag!), goosander (not red breasted merganser), mallard, tufted duck, moorhen, coot, black-headed gull, wood pigeon, wren, robin, blackbird, redwing, blue tit, great tit, magpie, carrion crow, house sparrow, bullfinch, canada goose, chaffinch, mute swan ... and a grey squirrel
We all got very excited about the red breasted merganser but consultation of the twitcher's bible revealed that it was merely a goosander! Dishonest twitcher's would have claimed it as a sighting but we know better.
Best feet forward
Look - there's a tree!
Our walk took us along the edge of the reservoir and eventually up to the visitors centre where we availed ourselves of the facilities, even if we didn't need them. From there we followed the track down to Osbournes Pond.
By George I do believe that duck is attempting to fly!
No Maggie that is definitely not a Shag!
From there we walked up the hill to where Shipley Hall used to stand. And spent some time imagining what it must have been like - from the perspective of drunken colliers wives!(apparently the wives were drunk not the colliers, though they might have been too)
Did you know..........?
From the Hall site we walked down through the woods via the burial ground and back to the reservoir.
We drove to the Bottle Kiln where we had a lovely lunch followed by delicious coffee and a jolly good chat. Another lovely day with the Babes!
Mega thank you to Pam for organising the day's walk and lunch. It really was lovely to walk in the sunshine with such good company....
ReplyDelete