For followers of Springwatch, when I say that Curly and I went to Pensthorpe yesterday, you'll know exactly what I'm referring to. For the uninitiated, Pensthorpe is a nature reserve with ponds and gardens and its a place where a lot of fantastic conservation work is done. Happily for us, its only just down the road from our bear cave.
It was a bit too cold yesterday for the full tour, so we just went along for the 3.00 p.m. winter bird feed. This is great, as visitors get to sit in the warm in a viewing gallery, with big glass windows looking out onto a large pond, while a warden goes out to feed the birds, talking through a headset so we can hear his commentary. When all the food has been scattered, he then comes back in to join us to talk some more about the birds and the fantastic work they do at Pensthorpe, including breeding red squirrels (aaaah!)
The warden spotted Curly and me straight away and commented about the bears at the window. After we said 'hello', he said he would address his comments directly to us so we felt very privileged.
As we waited for the feed to start, it was very clear that the birds knew exactly what was going to happen as they were all flying in and swimming in and jostling for pole position on the bank. There were 2 rather bully boy ruddy ducks who thought the bank where the feeding took place was their's and did their best to see others off, but they were outnumbered by the crowds.
The sheer variety of water fowl was amazing and we learnt lots of interesting facts. Our favourites were the bar headed geese and the smew, but we also rather liked the puma teal with its interesting blue beak. Bar headed geese in the wild fly from Tibet over the Himalayas to India, so are real high altitude fliers, but of course the captive bred geese at Pensthorpe weren't able to chat with us about their impressions of Everest.
This amazing experience cost us just £3 so, if you're in North Norfolk before the end of February we strongly recommend a visit to Pensthorpe to see the winter bird feed.
Lots of love, Chelmer and Curly xxx
2 comments:
That sounds a very interesting day Chelmer. Did you see any of the stars from Earthflight? Suffolk Branch have been enjoying that too - amazing how the birds find their way on such long journeys!
Midlands Branch still remember a similar experience at Slimbridge on a very cold winter afternoon several years ago.
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