Miles Collins

Peace and Tranquility on the doorstep

The much anticipated snow never arrived yesterday morning, in its place was brilliant sunshine which was typical as I had decided to catch up on paperwork in my other guise as a chef. After some five hours of sifting through invoices, updating stock sheets and the like I decided a blast of fresh air was in order before work in the evening.

For a quick ‘getaway’ it is hard to beat a ten minute drive from my house in the general direction of my favourite woods where there are open fields playing host to ravens, sparrow hawks, barn owls and game birds.

There is a very pleasant detour from the main road cutting through the charmingly named Wasps Nest and Nocton Fen, this is where I spotted a beautiful barn owl and have since made several unsuccessful attempts to photograph it. The waterlogged fields play host to a number of whooper and mute swans as well as a variety of gulls. A dyke cuts through the vast expanse of fields where pheasants, pewicks and swans idle along oblivious to man and machine.

Five minutes down the road is the excellent Fiskerton Fen Nature Reserve where the bird watching hut offers a welcome respite from the cold. How the waterfowl here can swim in the near freezing water is beyond me, but they do and I look forward to coming back here in the summer months.

The bitter wind rattled through the birds but most seemed unperturbed by it all, unlike me! I reeled off a few more shots then spotted a kestrel in the distance so took the difficult decision to retreat to the car and turn up the heating.

The kestrel proved elusive which in turn proved mildly annoying, I settled for the waterfowl once again but the wind chill got the better of me and I headed back towards Nocton Woods.

There is a nice, if unremarkable walk around the perimeter of Nocton Wood. The walk opens out to a view of typical Lincolnshire scenery; open fields of greens and yellows are home to stouts, pheasants, partridges, herons and birds of prey. Rabbits and large hares are a common sight and I am sure the old Roman Car Dyke will be a haven for wildlife during the summer months. I came across this wooden sign on my walks, it offered no explanation as to why or what it was there for, strange to see in the relative middle of nowhere….

A snow free day until early evening, as much as I enjoyed the morning walk in the sunshine my thoughts have now turned to a mild panic over my freshy sown fennel and chicory!