Virginia Water, Windsor Great Park, July 2011

Mute Swan

After getting to know Windsor Great Park over the last year, I'd been keen to visit the beautiful lake of Virginia Water. With Heather horse riding in the park tonight, and with the weather looking good, I took the chance to explore.

Virginia Water is part of the The Royal Landscape (map here), one thousand acres of landscaped gardens at the south end of Windsor Great Park comprising Savill Garden (paid entry), Valley Gardens and Virginia Water, the latter being the most informal area. Dammed in 1753, the lake was the largest man-made water body in England until large reservoirs began to be created. The surrounding woodland was planted when the lake was created and is now a mature habitat, with the areas to the south and west part of the Windsor Forest and Great Park SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest), mainly for the veteran trees.

Looking south along the eastern side of Virgina Water

I decided to try the Virginia Water entrance, off the A30 near Wentworth, as it's the shortest walk to the lake itself. With the car park shutting for the evening as I arrived - the park itself is open from dawn until dusk - I parked in a layby approximately 200m north of the entrance. Even at nearly 7pm, the area around the park entrance was quite busy, but after a few minutes walk it appeared that most groups weren't venturing much beyond the first viewpoint over the lake. The light was beautiful - I was enjoying concentrating on the photography rather than the birds for once - and promised a lovely sunset.

Looking north on Virginia Water's most easterly arm, towards Wick Pond

Sweet Chestnut

After reaching as far as Wick Pond, I walked in the easterly fringes of the Valley Gardens. This 250 acre area is a beautifully landscaped and planted woodland garden, with extensive shrub beds and grassy clearings amongst the trees, where flowers carpet the forest floor. It's an enjoyable walk and a fine area to photograph.

Valley Gardens, The Royal Landscape, Windsor Great Park

(photo by Wendy Cutler via Creative Commons)

With the sun starting to set behind the trees, I quickly headed back to the viewpoint near the Virgina Water car park, from where you can look west down the entire length of the lake: perfect for sunset shots! The area was pretty deserted now so I had only the odd walker to share a stunning sundown with.

Whilst concentrating hard on the camera and the beautiful scene unfolding before me, an equally beautiful Mute Swan crept up on me to investigate my camera bag - allowing me to take the portrait at the top of the post at extremely close quarters! Finding no food and scared by the rather large camera lens, he made a sharpish exit and swam away...allowing me to catch a shot of him bathed in the sunlight.

Mute Swan

An enjoyable couple of hours - and no doubt just the first visit of many.

Colourful day at Dungeness, July 2010

Looking west along Dungeness' shingle beach

Dungeness has become one of my very favourite spots to visit over the last couple of years: the various elements - the RSPB reserve, Denge Beach, and the wooden shanties dwarfed by the nuclear power station - are a unique environment - it feels like a foreign shore, forty years in the past.

Purple Heron over reedbed by Jean-Jacques Boujot,

under Creative Commons licence

The birds are great too. Dungeness has brought me three 'firsts' over my last two visits and, on a Sunday morning in July, I spent a couple of hours on the Dengemarsh Road hoping for the Purple Herons - the first to breed in the UK - and a Great White Egret to show. It was a beautifully sunny morning and it was extremely pleasant to simply lean against the car and scan the reedbed, meadow and pool; even the soundtrack of machine gun fire from the adjacent MOD range was not an irritation. In the couple of hours that I watched, an adult Purple Heron came in just once to where the nest was presumed to be, flying low over the reeds, and the Egret also only showed briefly, wheeling up into sight above the reeds as he moved along the pool to a more likely spot to fish. But it was one of those days when it didn't matter; a couple of Corn Buntings sang and three Yellow Wagtails bobbed arund the meadow.

From the reserve, I did my usual and drove down to the beach for a stroll - although without enough time for my normal lunch stop at the Light Railway Café.

Looking north from the beach,

near Dungeness A power station

I spent 15 minutes watching The Patch (left) - the bubbling hot water outfall from the power station that enriches the biological productivity of the seabed and attracts seabirds from miles around - trying to turn the Black-headed Gulls into Med Gulls without success.




The trip finished with a few flypast photos of gulls whilst strolling back. For those who haven't been, I can heartily recommend a visit to this unique and wild corner of Kent.

Herring Gull

Birdwatching in west Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, June 2010

A trip out through Suffolk and Cambs in mid-June was aimed at seeing two or three unusual bird species. I pitched up early at the Lakenheath RSPB reserve in Suffolk - just north of the town on the B1112 - in hope of seeing Golden Oriole in the UK for the first time, but the weather proved less than ideal and there was no sign or sound of the little blighters in overcast and slightly damp conditions. I spent a couple of pleasant hours walking along the Little Ouse River and the droves around West Wood, with Marsh Harriers active (photo, above), a Grasshopper Warbler reeling and pairs of Cuckoo perched both in the open and the birch woodland, before the sun peeped through and a few bars of that flute-like Oriole voice floated through West Wood...but that was it! Still, an enjoyable first visit to this reserve and I look forward to visiting again at other seasons. There is a good visitor centre and some great viewpoints over the fen.

Pied Wagtail, Welney WWT

Things went less well at Welney WWT centre, with no Bluethroat on show and just three hours sunburn and a Pied Wagtail (above) to show for the effort! Naturally, it turned up about twenty minutes after I left and sang its heart out... Actually, despite Bluey's no-show, Welney was great - a friendly bunch of folks waiting, baby Sedge Warblers (below) getting fed within a few metres and Black-tailed Godwits and Avocets flying overhead.

Best was saved for last. Under the evening sun in a beautiful blue sky, I stopped off at Berry Fen, near Bluntisham - a newly restored area in the Hanson-RSPB wetland project to create Ouse Fen nature reserve.

Berry Fen RSPB, June 2010

It wasn't easy to find but eventually parked up just west of Earith and walked south-west along the Ouse Valley Way. The habitat looked superb and enjoying it, freshly arrived from nearby Fen Drayton Lakes RSPB, was a Blue-winged Teal. It was a little distant for the camera and directly into the sun, but there are some great pictures of this individual on the Back in Birdland blog by Mike Lawrence. I will definitely call in again when in the area.

 Blue-winged Teal, under Creative Commons licence

  

The slight struggle to find Berry Fen was worthwhile, however. I stumbled across pretty St Mary's in Bluntisham and spent a half hour exploring the churchyard, which is a beautiful mixture of managed and wild areas.

St Mary's Church, Bluntisham, Cambs