Is there a better way to spend a beautiful, sunny September day than at Rutland Water Nature Reserve? Year 1 didn’t think so! On Tuesday, we headed off on our first trip of the year to learn more about the seasons. We were met by Eileen and Jenny, the Anglian Water rangers who would be our guides for the day.
1H became nature detectives, hunting for autumn bird food. Amongst other things, we spotted thistles, hawthorn, spiders and ash keys in what Jenny called the bird supermarket. We even tried to entice some worms out of the ground by padding our feet lightly on the grass and singing; sadly, it didn’t work. We were amazed by the size of the mighty oak tree and were astonished to learn that it is home to hundreds of creatures.
1W’s first activity was watching out for woodland birds in one of the many hides at the reserve. We were challenged to be quiet to allow us the best chance of seeing lots of birds. Peering through our binoculars, we were very excited to see blue tits, great tits, goldfinches and chaffinches. Back at the centre we used our newly acquired knowledge to identify and name
some of the birds that we’d seen.
In the afternoon, we walked down to the shoreline to different bird hides to look out onto the lagoons and see a variety of water birds, including coots and tufted ducks. We also saw some impressive dragonflies. On the way back to the centre we looked for more signs of autumn and thoroughly enjoyed working collaboratively to collect items from our scavenger hunt list.
It was a fabulous trip and we are looking forward to visiting again in January and May, when we will be looking out for seasonal changes and taking part in more exciting activities.
