Arundel Wildfowl Trust and a Walk at Swanbourne Lake

November 1st, 2008 in My Life

Arundel Wildfowl Trust and a Walk at Swanbourne Lake

Posted By Ina Woolcott

Below are just a couple of pictures of just a few of the bird me and my 3 year old daughter saw today at the Wildfowl Trust in Arundel, West Sussex. We’ve seen chaffinches many a time there, but it was the first time we’ve seen a Greater Spotted Woodpecker (I hear they are rare) and a Nuthatch. We had the pleasure of watching the woodpecker for about 5 minutes, until Inky got a bit bored and wanted to move on… anyhow, well done Inky, 5 minutes is a long time for a little girly - especially you - to concentrate on something without hardly talking. The woodpecker was still there feeding off the bird feeder when we (me very reluctantly) left. Something about seeing these wild birds I was so unaware of in my youth gives me a rush of happiness. We also saw a Wren for about the 5th time, but it was gone in a flash. At this particular feeder where we saw the Woodpecker et al, there were also coal tits, marsh tits, blue tits and a gorgeous male pheasant.

We have been loving the crisp, cold yet sunny days and autumn colours of Arundel this week. Yesterday we walked around Swanbourne Lake . It always amazes me how far my little Inky can walk, her stamina is great at such a young age. She loves puddle jumping in her wellies (I wore my new wellies yesterday too so I had to join in on madams request, haha) , as well as climbing up and around the roots of a very old looking tree on the other side of the lake. Another of her favourite activities is climbing up the grassy hill on the first half of the walk and rolling down it, reminds me of me when I was little. We gathered lots of twigs, feathers and leaves yesterday, today and in the past few weeks and are in the throes of an art project, making a tree on a huge piece of cardboard covered in paper which me and Inky made - I will be putting the pictures up as soon as we have completed our ‘mission‘. Not sure how long it will take, but I reckon we will need maybe up to 10 hours over the next week or so.

Chaffinch