An early February stroll around the Wildlife Trust Reserve at Mere Sands Wood a few miles inland from the coast, between Rufford and Southport, diffused sunlight filters through the bare trees, feathery skeletons of silver birch against the pale glowing sky.
Strolling east from the car park through the woodland along the main path, vivid green lichens and moss coat the fallen trunks and branches in a clearing near a large clump of beech trees. A branch off to the right down a path edged by a fence layered with turkey fungus brings us to the Cyril Gibbons Hide on Mere End lake from where we observe a pair of goosander leaving a shining wake across the still water.
The scene is slightly hazy, the soft winter sunlight reflected from the water amongst the bull rushes outside the hide window.
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| The path through the woods |
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| A little egret on the fields nearby. |
Further around the walk we call in to the Rufford Hide where we sit awhile, sighting mandarin ducks, a small white egret, a heron, goosander, various other small wildfowl and a mass of cormorants perched in a tree at the far side of the lake, their droppings have left a white coating on the skeletal branches. From over in the centre of the lake comes loud honking from a group of Canada geese.
Whilst sitting and watching the wildlife in front of us, an inquisitive robin lands in one of the open viewing ports right in front of us. A wren, almost mouselike, scurries about in a bush in the undergrowth just in front of the hide and the heron stalks the shallows, it’s neck leaning forward over the water, poised to strike. A sudden dart forward as the spear like beak enters the water and it emerges with a fish squirming in its grasp, quickly dispatched down the large throat.
The sky darkens and threatens rain which starts to fall as we drive away but it has been a refreshing and entertaining afternoon.
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| Grey Heron, poised to strike! |
