Miles Collins

In search of the illustrious coot….

 Despite the near Arctic like chill I managed a pleasant two hour walk in the morning sunshine, taking in all that Whisby Nature Park in Lincoln has to offer. Situated just off the busy A46, five miles from the city centre the nature reserve is a wonderful escape from the annoyances of work, traffic, people, cats and pigeons.

I was surprised at how big the Park is, there are a number of walks to follow, Thorpe Walk takes you around the largest of the Whisby lakes and brings you to a crossroad of walking options. Grebe Walk takes you along the banks of Grebe Lake, supposedly the best lake for spotting water fowl, Magpie and Willow Walks are a little more wet underfoot but interesting nonetheless. Crossing over the railway line takes you to sandhills, open marshes and small dragonfly lakes.

Armed with my monster 400ml lens I headed off along Coot Walk hoping to photograph of all things, a coot. If you don’t know what a coot looks like then buy a book because after today I still don’t either. Despite the lack of coot the walk was worth it, passing along the banks of Pike Drain (I didn’t see one of those either) it leads to the Oak Wood and is apparently the best place to see a nightingale (I’ve more chance of seeing a Yeti)

The lakes at Whisby are all man-made but provide a safe haven for all sorts of plant and wildlife, I shall return in the months ahead because I have been told there are over 500 species of plants whilst the lakes play host to grebes, swallows, sand martins and one of my favourites, the kingfisher. The only thing that spoilt a nice morning was reading up on that dammed coot to find they’re almost as common as a seagull!