Rodger's Ramble Rodger Goodrick
Members who received last year’s newsletter may remember me as the
swimming volunteer. If you do you may also remember I really enjoy being at
Wheatfen, so putting my RSPB Wildlife Explorers leader’s hat on, I arranged
for our group, the Norwich Nuthatches, to come and visit in late March this
year. For those who don’t know, this is the young persons RSPB group,
formerly known as the YOC.
I enlisted the help of David Griffin to lead our group of about ten children
and parents. The day was nice and sunny but cold. We left the car park and
headed for the woods, the Great tits were on full song with their ‘teacherteacher’
calls. As we strolled along the path, David was pointing out the
different trees and how you could name them by their twigs and the buds.
The children had loads of questions and between us we answered most of
them. We looked for basking Grass Snakes amongst the piles of logs and
fallen leaves but, as you can imagine with us lot coming through the woods,
they were long gone, but we did manage to see a Woodcock fly off though
the trees. We then came to a clearing where we had coppiced the Hazel
trees. The children were interested to find out that this was to encourage
Bramble and Honeysuckle to grow which, in turn, helps the White Admiral
Butterfly as the adults sip nectar from the Bramble flowers and then lay eggs
on the Honeysuckle leaves, which is the main food for their caterpillars. At
this point, we left the wood and joined the path alongside the field where
David pointed out some English Elm suckers and the cork like growths
on the trunks. They did not look very healthy, it looked as if the Dutch Elm
Disease had taken hold.
As we walked beside a field of winter cereals, a Sky Lark rose up singing it’s
beautiful song, rising so high until it was lost to the naked eye. We carried
on the field margin until we could see Rockland Broad and across the Yare
Valley. We then returned down the hill and back into the woods where we
looked at the root balls of some of the fallen trees, which the children found
amazing. David told us that Kingfishers will sometimes nest in these as there
are not many high river banks near the reserve. Some of the Birch trees that
had fallen had Bootlace fungus under the bark which is the result of a Honey
Fungus attack which eventually kills the host tree.
We then came back to the main path though the wood and headed for
Wheatfen Broad where we saw a Grey Heron perched in a tree. We also
hoped to see an early Osprey, but we had no luck.
We left the broads and continued along the woodland edge and Home
Marsh until we got to Home Dyke where we heard our first Chiffchaff of
the visit. We carried on along the path to the thatch and went inside.
The children were told and shown some of the history of Wheatfen.
Leaving the thatch, we went beside Penguin Dyke to Eleven Bridges
walk where David explained that despite it being twenty miles from the sea, we
sometimes have to close this path due to flooding when we get a very high tide.
At the end of the path we turned right and went up Smee Loke. About half way
along we stopped and decided upon our next route. After a quick check of
footwear, those children and parents not wearing Wellington boots carried on
walking along the main path. However, those wearing boots were delighted to
be taken into the reed bed. The children thought this was great with the reed
towering above their heads and soft wet marsh squelching under their feet. In the
middle of the reeds we came across some Bog Mirtle which has a very strong
aroma when crushed between your fingers. We followed a path through the
reeds which had been made by Chinese Water Deer. There were many paths in
the reed bed so it was a good job we had David to guide us through as we could
not see where we were heading for
a lot of the time.
We eventually came out on the path that runs across the centre of the marsh and
headed for the river. Those on the main path had already started heading back
towards the car park.
As we walked to the river we saw a Marsh Harrier hunting over the other side of
the river. There was very little to see on the river, only a few Mallard so we then
returned back through Alder Carr looking and listening for early signs of spring.
We heard Mistle Thrush singing in the trees alongside the meadow just outside
the reserve. We continued back past Old Mill Marsh where we saw some
Daffodils in the middle which had been there for years. It is thought that these
where planted many, many years ago as a crop for cut flowers but nobody really
knows.
We then returned to the car park where the others were waiting with Brenda and
Chris, the other Wildlife Explorers leaders.
The children thought it was a great morning and I think we were successful in
wearing them out. One of the youngsters who came with us, who was only five
years old, slept all the way home!!
Return to Archive Articles index
|