Potteric Carr Springwatch Festival

I love a good festival; that is, as long as there are no alcohol, partying or noisy screaming bands involved. A nice, calm nature festival is more up my street and indeed, there was just the thing being held over the weekend at Potteric Carr nature reserve. I arrived at the reserve just in time to sign up for the Stroll and Sketch event - a gentle stroll around part of the reserve with plenty of chances for sketching various scenes.

Afterwards the café beckoned and I enjoyed a delicious veggie sausage sandwich, before having a wander around the different stalls.  

Four Spotted Chaser

Clutching a handful of leaflets, I paid a visit to the Willow Pool Hide, always a popular one; most likely due to its proximity to the café but also because of some of the gems it occasionally reveals. Today there were no water rails or kingfishers, at least not whilst I was there, but there was a rather sweet rat picking through the spoils.

View from the hide

Hungry rat

Female Chaffinch

Coot family

Male Chaffinch

I then took a good walk around the reserve, following the wetland trail. I spotted a couple of distant little egrets, along with plenty of butterflies and blue damselflies.

Little Egret

Ragged Robin

Dog Rose

Yellow Iris

Eventually it was time to turn back, so I followed the route back round, stopping briefly at the West Scrape Hide where, to my delight, I heard a bittern booming. Unfortunately it was concealed in the reedbeds, but just hearing one close by is exciting in itself.

Perch in the Mother Drain

Common Spotted Orchid

Honey Bees

The path was diverted away from the butterfly garden. Nature reserves, much like my allotment, are a constant work-in-progress and never really seem to be "finished", as such. This diversion took me past a small but cheerful display of orchids. The one species of orchid I haven't yet seen, but would love to, is the bee orchid. Hopefully I will manage to see some this summer.

I paused by the bee hives, watching the honey bees busy working. Then it was back through the visitor centre and over to the bus stop, slightly browner in skin-tone than when I had arrived and much lighter in my mood.