Gelly Babes March Meander

Four Old Birds go Birding

 

March 11th 2014

 

Today the Gelly Babes are on a mission to become birdwatchers - under the expert tuition of Helen J.

We met at Attenborough Nature reserve and headed straight to the café for coffee and a good chat before we got down to the serious business of bird watching.  The weather was absolutely perfect again, a bit chilly in the wind but lovely sunshine and a real feeling of spring.

Helen had set homework for us and we had all come equipped with books and binoculars. Pam had even dressed for the occasion.

 There was lots to spot before we even set off

Pam looking like a real proper birder

(definitely not a twitcher!)

Helen in action - probably spotting a pintail!

 

We spent quite a long time in a hide (thankfully nothing untoward was happening in there!) where we learned that great tits often pretend to be chiff chaffs, thank goodness there was another birdwatcher on hand to clarify things for us.

 

The view from the hide

 

We headed back to the visitor centre for lunch - soup and pasties followed by cake. Fully fortified we set off for a longer walk, taking in the river.It really is a lovely spot and hard to believe it is only a few miles from the centre of Nottingham.

 

At one point on our walk Helen was accosted by a twitcher who was hunting for pintails - he had the audacity to doubt her knowledge - he was gently but firmly put in his place - Helen knows her pintails!

 

This is the list of birds that we spotted throughout the day:

Tufted Duck

Canada Goose

Mute Swan

Mallard

Black Headed Gull

Coot

Red Crested Pochard (doesn't really count apparently)

Egyptian Goose

Great Crested Grebe

Long Tailed Tit

Shelduck

Moorhen

Lapwing

Grey Heron

Carrion Crow

Teal

Pintail

Goldeneye

Wigeon

Gadwall

Great Tit

Reed Bunting

Dunnock

Chaffinch

Robin

Green Finch

Tree Sparrow

Cormorant

Little Egret

Greylag Goose

Pheasnt

House Sparrow

Starling

 



and something small brown and unidentified which is lurking somewhere in this photograph and is probably very rare.

 

 







I can't believe how many birds we spotted thanks to our expert teacher - I just hope that I can remember at least some of them in the future and I am definitely going to get some decent binoculars but probably not Swarovski ones - I think the crystals might dazzle the birds.