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BIRD TRAIL 2011
For this year’s Bird Trail event, Dawn, together with Don Fuller of the
RSPB, chose a different venue from our normal Bolderwoods site, so
instead it was held at Blashford Lakes, on the edge of the New
Forest.
Seventy
five children attended on 15th of May, together with the normal HOS
volunteers, RSPB, plus teachers, Wildlife Trusts, WEX and Watch
leaders, so once again we can only express our thanks to all who gave
up their Sundays to guide the children around this famous reserve, and
show them a few of the wonders of our local wildlife. The
pond at Blashford proved its worth with a large display of the life
that exists within such a small environment, life and death struggles,
‘Beautiful Demoiselles’ and predatory beetles and dragonfly
nymphs, together with a whole collection of
other creatures, down to the microscopic. It helped that this is
located right next to the Education Centre, so microscopes and fish
tanks were plentiful.
Each
year has produced something spectacular. The Honey Buzzard
gliding slowly over our heads, displaying Goshawks, a cloudburst of
legendary proportions and best of all, a Stonechat riding on the back
of a Cuckoo.
This
year could best be described, as the sort of day that produced the
birds we would expect to see at such a place, on such a date. Blashford
Lakes is a good summer reserve, but has become a great winter reserve,
with Bitterns every year, and a fantastic Woodland Hide guaranteeing
Woodpeckers, Bramblings, Redpolls and Goldfinches in huge numbers.
Sadly,
the children once again behaved impeccably, and this must be some kind
of record, which I am sure is welcomed by all. Shame. Far better
to write about things go amiss, or some mess up in the
organisation. So far, we have never had a mishap, in 4 Bird Trail
events and about 8 trips to Needs Ore. Pity.
Chris
Packham arrived, looking exhausted, taking time off from filming
Springwatch to drive hundreds of miles to attend to his usual HOS
event. He has not had a day off in over 2 months, but once he was
off with his talk to the multitude, and his quiet one-to-one talks with
the children, then the tiredness disappeared.
He
did manage to speak to most but he had to leave by 12.30, so apologies
to those couple of groups that were missed. He was sternly
lectured, he must start saying ‘no’ to magazines, radio, television
producers, special projects, other organisations, with the obvious
exceptions of HOS and the BBC in that order.
The
day did not go without controversy however, and we have to report a
point of dispute. As usual, Chris enthused the children and all
was building to a resounding climax. They were raring to go,
straining at the leash, shouting in unison until the fateful
moment. What he asked, ’Is the only thing better than
birds?’ Answers were plentiful and varied. No one came close to
the controversial answer. Excitement rose, until the
denouement. Chris shouted the answer - - - - -‘’POODLES’’.
There
was an unexpected hush, murmurs of discontent, and even mumbles of ‘No
they’re not,’, but it was mainly a stunned silence. Some of those
present even swore they saw a tumble weed blow ever so slowly across
the car park. Heads sadly shook and dropped to the chin,
disenchantment etched in the eyes of everyone, young and old,
reflecting the deep disappointment and total anti-climax. Chris
Packham for once, was in a minority of one.
Still, life must go on, and the teams went on their merry ways, the mention of poodles slowly forgotten if not forgiven.
Here are a few observations from Christine Oliver:
"There were 3 Bank Voles in the woodland hide. Several groups
really enjoyed watching them. Other highlights included, Great
Spotted Woodpecker, Jay and Nuthatch on the feeders. One girl was
so engrossed watching a Great Tit going in and out of the nest box with
food that she did not join the others in the hide!"
We also received the following email from Nikki Reed:
"A very big thank-you again for organising such a fantastic day for the children.
I brought along my
daughter Heidi and her three friends. I have received such
enthusiastic comments from them all and their parents. Not one of
the sets of parents could believe we saw a Peregrine Falcon let alone
Chris Packham........
All four girls and myself
thoroughly enjoyed the whole day, with such lovely kind generous
volunteers that gave up their time and identified birds instantly.
We particularly liked
birdwatching from the hides where we saw an abundance of different
types of bird. There was always a groan when we needed to move out of a
hide to let the next group in. Looking at the pond dipping
creatures under the microscope was fantastic, especially my macabre
daughter finding and being fascinated by a damsel fly nymph eating an
unfortunate smaller nymph!! We also laughed a lot at the picture
quiz - and then laughed at others being baffled by them. I have
to say this was mostly the adults rather than the children.
One of the volunteers,
Tony Norris was an expert on badgers and taught us many things about
them. He even made us put our hands down a disused badger set,
afterwards saying that he was pleased there was no Adder sleeping down
it (we were quite pleased too!). He also taught us many other
things about trees, insects etc... then collected leaves for us to all
identify and proceeded to tell us the history and origin of every
tree. A complete treasure and a lovely asset he was to our group.
I have already pencilled in 20th May 2012 into our diaries and am look forward to it already.
Thanks again,
Nikki Reed"
The highlights were a kingfisher obviously seen by the Kingfisher
group, an obliging Reed Warbler that posed like a Stonechat, a Red Kite
and the 150 Sand Martins which are an excellent sight this year.
The pair of nesting Little-ringed Plovers (which we can mention),
displaying and mating just a few feet in front of the Tern Hide, must
give the best views of this bird anywhere.
Here is an incident recorded by HOS volunteer Christine Colgrave:
"I never thought when enrolling as a Volunteer for this year's
Birdtrail, that the day would be so rewarding as I set off with no
expectations other than to help other like-minded individuals to
promote this fun event to our younger generation.
Following a rousing pre-walk talk by Chris Packham and the odd photo
opportunity for me, fellow volunteer John Clark and myself reached
Goosander Hide to set up equipment and await the day's young arrivals
and guides. With the impromptu meeting of Russ Tofts, I quickly
realised how fortunate I was to have two expert birders to broaden my
knowledge, and with time to spare before the first group arrived, we
clocked up 23 species! As the time ticked away, I eventually
dragged myself away from the aerobatics of the Sand Martins and the
endearing, red-headed Coot chick, whose parents had conveniently nested
within yards of the Hide, and we took up position under sunny skies
before greeting the first arrivals.
Having deposited the group into the capable hands of John, the cry went
up - a Peregrine Falcon had been spotted! It circled several
times, oblivious to the excitement below, before disappearing in the
blink of an eye. As lunch came and went, I kept my binoculars
glued to the skies in the hope of another fly-by whilst John kept the
ball rolling inside the Hide. There was an exchange of
groups, and as if on cue, a small dot appeared in the sky moving with
speed until easily recognisable by the children.... another excited
group.
Yet, the Peregrine's display wasn't over and in a lull between groups
it reappeared yet again, hovering menacingly whilst two Buzzards flew
unwittingly across its radar. With the speed and precision of a fighter
pilot, the Peregrine made a swooping attack on a Buzzard before veering
off. It circled far and high putting as much distance between itself
and its intended victim before dropping at speed back towards the other
Buzzard making actual aerial contact from above. Surprisingly,
the Buzzard held its course whilst the Peregrine doubled back to
intimidate its mate before chasing them off into the distance.
What an amazing day then the Bird Trail had been... and to think, I set off as a Volunteer with no expectations..!"
The winning group, the Barcelona of teams, was Song Thrushes, which
obviously was the HOS team, led by the Lionel Messi of group leaders,
Margaret Boswell. She reports, ‘The magnificent display by the
Sand Martins, the excitement of a grass snake which slithered right in
front of us for about 3 minutes, the same time as a Red Kite made an
appearance overhead so the kids were confused as to where to look, a
nice Hobby, an appropriate Song Thrush dealing with a snail on its
‘anvil’, 2 Crows attacking a Raven, fascinating insects, all made for a
lovely day’.
One boy kept telling everyone within earshot, and even beyond, about
Swifts, after hearing their amazing life stories from Chris Packham,
and they were also amazed and shocked at seeing him eating stinging
nettles – (not to be tried at home)!
So, a glorious sunny day, and as you may gather, the volunteers
enjoying it every bit as much as our children. Dawn is now
considering alternating between here and Bolderwood in future years,
and Titchfield Haven may even be considered.
If you know of any group of children who might be interested in coming
along next year, then we may be offering invitations later on in
Kingfisher magazine.
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