The weather forecast promised us a bright, sunny – if cold – day yesterday, so we decided to travel beyond the confines of the city for the first time since last summer. The Besthorpe Nature Reserve has always been a favourite of ours and it’s very lightly populated at any given time, so it was the perfect destination and, at just under 30 miles, a reasonable distance to give the car a much-needed blow. Unfortunately, we were barely five miles from Nottingham when the sun disappeared, never to reappear again while we were at the reserve. Nevertheless, we saw quite a few birds, including a few ground feeders when we called in at Langford Lowfields.
Our list of sightings – robin, blackbird, sparrow, crow, magpie, kestrel, linnet, goldfinch, bullfinch, bluetit, great tit, dunnock, little egret, tufted duck, mallard, gadwall, mute swan, great crested grebe, cormorant, black-headed gull.
The photographs below are from the archives as even 8000 ISO wasn’t working for me!
JACQUI JAY GRAFTON 