Cliff Pools and Northwood Hill

We had a visit to Cliff Pools RSPB reserve today. This reserve has been under renovation by the RSPB since they purchased it as it was in a sorry state before and what a masterful job they have achieved. It is now so pleasant to either walk or drive along the path through the reserve with the lakes on your left and farmland to your right.



Unfortunately there was not many birds in the lake today so we decided to drive further along and see what we could find in the bushes and farmland instead. We had not travelled far before we came across two sheep that had escaped from the farmers fields and was enjoying some tasty bush leaves growing on the roadside.




A little further was a small tree full of starlings. Although Starlings are an all year bird, a lot of them migrate to Europe and only come back to the UK for Winter. Over the last few weeks, we have noticed lots of starlings visiting our bird feeders at home so it appears that they are making their way back to us. We spotted several more small flocks enjoying our summer fruits and berries


And what an abundances of berries there are. The bushes are simply bursting with tempting treats for the birds, big blue grape like fruits, Shiny red Berries and all manner of wild delights to feast on



Stopping the car we proceeded on foot for a while to better enjoy the sunshine and chirruping of the birds as they flitted amongst the berries, taking their pictures whenever an opportunity arose




The Reserve is not too large, and as we were close to Northward Hill RSPB we decided to pay them a little visit as well. There are a lot of Rabbits living at Northward and the banks alongside the driveway leading to the main car park has been mined out by countless generations of them into a maze of tunnels



We went for a nice long walk following the marked trails, Northward Hill is a very picturesque reserve with many colourful wild plants and flowers. Many of them are now shedding their seeds in the wind ready for next years shoots so the air was thick with the scent of flowers and white fluffy seed pods


There are some small ponds and waterways here, and these are home to the Darters and Dragon flies. And what colourful insects they are , they would flit back and forth in front of us to get out attention, before landing on a nearby leaf to show off their shining red or blue refinery. We just had to stop and admire them


Walking on, we carefully crossed a field dotted with wild mushrooms, carefully treading so as not to disturb the delicate fungi, to look over the farmland and watch a shepherd with his collie dog gathering up a heard of sheep into a tight flock before moving them off to another field. We hope that he counted them as we know where two of them are hiding



A little further and I stopped to investigate a hide that had been built on the reserve. The hide faces several bird feeders and allows you to watch the birds without disturbing them. What a nice thoughtful idea. Unfortunately the birds had emptied the feeders earlier that day and had departed to seek food elsewhere



Time was pressing on so we started to make our way home, but we just had to stop and watch the bees working so hard whilst buzzing merrily to themselves as they gathered all the rich harvest of pollen to take back to their hives.

We hope that you enjoyed your walk with us as much as we did. Further pictures from this and other walks can be found in our galleries at www.voinapics.co.uk Steve & Mick