Wednesday 9 May 2018

Reflecting Upon a Holywell Evening


8th May.  The sunshine had disappeared, and the rain began as I was putting my boots on and preparing to leave for Holywell.  I had arranged to lead a small group around the area, all of whom had attended the ‘new to bird watching’ talks at the Rising Sun Country Park over recent weeks.  The rain was heavier when I arrived in the village, so full marks to everyone for turning up.  As we walked off from outside of the Milbourne Arms the rain ceased, although temperatures had plummeted.  Hirundines were few and far between as we walked through the village and only the occasional Swift was noted.  Swallow and House Martin numbers continued to disappoint as we approached the pond, and over the pond only a couple of Sand Martins were seen.  I feel that the reserve is looking a little worse for wear and the reed-beds looked a bit unhealthy and thin to me.  A flash in the west field near to the pathway held a pair of Gadwall and Pied Wagtail and there was only a solitary female Pheasant at the feeding station, although several other Pheasants were heard throughout the evening.

The pond area was quiet but did offer some nice sightings, perhaps the best being a pair of Great Crested Grebes.  I remember an attempt at breeding at the pond a few years ago ended in the death of one of the birds, I seem to remember that it had been caught up in something.  I don’t think there has been any breeding success by this species for some time at Holywell, but this pair did look as though they had been or were preparing to display.  The birds were several yards apart and looking at one another when we arrived although nothing much happened whilst we watched.  Our talks had included information on the Killingworth grebes, so I was pleased that everyone had a close sighting this evening.  I pointed out the Lesser Black Backed Gulls not expecting much of a response and was surprised at the excited calls from one of the participants.  Oh, he must like gulls I thought, that is until I turned around and found Keith’s excited and rather shocked response was a result of a black faced sheep having climbed up the outside of the hide and which was now eyeball to eyeball with him.  The inquisitive small flock of sheep had followed us around the reserve.  Other birds seen near the pond included Mute Swan, Canada Geese, Little Grebe, Grey Heron, Oystercatcher, at least two Common Terns, Mallard, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Moorhen and Coot.  Bird song was limited, but we did pick up the distant song of Sedge Warblers and Chiffchaff.

We later looked at the flash in the East Field and found Canada Geese, Lapwing and Pied Wagtail.  Bumping into A J we were told by him that there was a Common Sandpiper on the west side of the flash which could be seen from the Avenue.  We later found this bird, more Lapwings and a White Wagtail in amongst the Pied Wagtails.  Whilst on the Avenue we heard a close by Sedge Warbler and briefly saw some movement and had very nice sightings of Common Whitethroat, Linnet and singing Reed Bunting.

As we looked over the fields to the east and I mentioned this area as good for owl and geese species a gentleman approached us, and he had his very own Barn Owl.  It was a large Barn Owl tattoo on his leg!  With the benefit of hindsight, I thought that I ought to have taken a photo for the blog.  There gain, perhaps not!

There was little on the walk down to the dene apart from singing Chiffchaff.  The weather had improved however.  Once down in the dene a pair of Grey Wagtails were picked up almost immediately as they fed and on the rocks a pair of Dipper stood together perfectly still with no dipping at all whilst we watched at length.  The lack of dipping movement seemed to me to reflect what was now such a quiet and relaxed evening.  We took a walk along the footpath to find Blackcap but found none and there continued to be a lack of bird song.  We were rewarded with a wonderful sighting of two Roe Deer.  One of them was initially picked out by Heather as it stood at length watching us, again a reflection of the relaxed evening.  I thought this was a good point to call it a day and make back towards the village.  The Dippers remained on their rock as we passed by again.  I picked up a partial call from Yellowhammer and everyone had a good sighting of this bird lit by the now bright sun as it began to drop quickly towards the western horizon.  Heather and I discussed once again the idea of a sunset walk and I suggested fish and chips would be a good way to end it.  Well I would, wouldn’t I?  Anyway, it seems that more than one participant had knowingly seen their first Yellowhammer!

At the start of the walk I had passed my copy of Henry Beston’s The Outermost House to one of the participants.  Published initially in 1928 it describes a year spent Cape Cod by the author.  It’s a real classic and a great read and I set off on the walk with it very much in mind having polished it off over the past couple of days.  Beston used all his senses whilst taking in the passing year on the Atlantic coast of Cape Cod.  Much has been said and written of late about the distance between people and nature and my own experiences with people reflect just how true this is.  Many could benefit by reading Beston’s book.  Whilst many people I come across are good talkers, not so many are good listeners and users of all the senses.  So much can be missed if you fail to tune in to nature.  I also think people in general expect to be shown things rather than making their own efforts, perhaps having been brought up with easily seen nature on TV and social media and it has become the expectation that nature is served up in this manner.  It’s certainly not just young people with that attitude as I find my own generation even more inclined to act in this way.

A very nice evening, with very nice people.

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