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Monthly Archives: June 2012
Counting Hobbies at Thursley Common National Nature Reserve
It’s hard to imagine a nation with quirkier hobbies than the UK… That said, I saw a news piece once about a man in Belgium who dressed up and behaved as a penguin at weekends; but maybe that’s more a comment on the news than hobbies. I digress, what I’m trying to say is that there seems to be something distinctly characteristic about many popular British pastimes.
On a number of occasions I have found myself getting ribbed by friends calling me a ‘twitcher’. This is an accusation hard to deny when you own a pair of binoculars and frequently refer to them as ‘bins’! But the truth is, I just love nature, I love being out and experiencing wildlife, and Thursley Common is a truly awesome place to experience both in abundance!
The exciting mix of terrain at Thursley Common provides a rare opportunity to spot a great variety of wildlife. For me, what really stole the show were the common lizards unavailingly warming themselves on the board walks that sit just above the marshes.
There were plenty of hobbyists about too… Bird watchers, ramblers, cyclists, pond dippers and a noticeable number of photographers (always a turn off for me, but there you go). However the Hobby that caught nearly everyone’s eye, was actually a bird of prey flying overhead catching and eating dragonflies on the wing. In fact there were two Hobbies patrolling this territory giving breathtaking aerial displays. The speed and agility of these falcons is breathtaking, I guess when your main diet is dragonflies you’d have to be pretty agile, trying to photograph them is hard enough!
Throughout the walk my head was spinning in every direction: Lizards under foot, Hobbies over-head and unique landscapes and plant life all around, with so much to take in and so much happening… If you do this walk, do your neck stretches before you set off!
Posted in Surrey Walks, wildlife walks
Tagged nature walk, surrey walk, Surrey Walks, wildlife walk
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Skye Episode 2, Part Deux
One of the great things (for me at least) on Skye was the amount of daylight hours. By May sunset is already at around 10pm! Which meant we could fit a lot more into the day.
So having already experienced the micro climate of Waternish Point, dried off, downed a cuppa and scoffed some Viennese biscuits we took a trip to Dunvegan. The centre looked like it’d seen more lucrative days, but it was interesting enough and we found a shortish walk called the Two Churches Walk. This pleasant and interesting walk finishes by the ruin of St Mary’s church built in 1682 and well worth a browse. With still more time before sundown we explored more of the Dunvegan area and found the Coral Beaches walk. A really lovely walk to end the day. An easy going but very enjoyable walk along Loch Dunvegan which resulted in spending a considerable time sitting and watching a number of inquisitive seals; a beautiful end to our second day.
