As it's in my nature, I'll give you a story within a story, so that I can explain where the photos of the birds were taken at. Around 80km (50 miles) or so driving north, there's our work's annual retreat destination. What's good about this retreat is that it won't be only employees who are going but also individual that we look after.
The reason I've mention all of the above is simple; I work on brain injury recovery unit in a privately owned setting. And by doing that kind of job we have to use every method for an individual's wellbeing, including trips to places that are stress free!
Place is located in Hambleton which is about 10km away from Blackpool. Whilst Blackpool is known for many things apart from being peaceful, Hambleton is everything exact opposite.
You're well secluded from the nearest village and a big farm right next to it which is owned by them. This place has one superb feature and that's a big pond surrounded by all the cottages in which you'd be staying for the duration planned.
So, now that you see where this story is going and what the base for it is, I can start to explain about all of the well adapted feathered friends that live there.
Domestic Muscovy duck in the photo above.
Place itself is so quiet that all you'll ever hear are birds making all sorts of noises. Ducks are there in numbers, a couple of species of ducks to be precise, but are not the only birds you'll meet. Place itself has their own egg production going, which means hens that roam free and give amazing & tasty free range eggs. Not to forget geese which by my last count were 8 altogether (my past two visits), and a single Black-necked swan.
Much more blur image as I've had to move constantly with Black-necked swan seeing a threat in me yet again coming to close to its offspring.
An image far from being great as every time I took a photo, the duck would take a few steps closer to me in hope I have brought them food.
Area is of a decent size and all the birds roam free. In fact, they roam so freely around that a knock or two on your front door throughout the day will be nothing unusual. Last year, they've expanded and added a few amenities as well as that, they've completed a major renovating project. Sadly doors were closed to public and guests who would stay there for quite some time and our reservations for visiting this year in April went down the drain.
As mentioned before, you can buy bird food or bring your own bird food. That said, as long as bird food is up to standards, and of course not to feed them inappropriate kind of food which you'll be cooking whilst staying there.
Owners of the farm and cottages have told us that they keep checking and count the number of birds once a week from 10 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon. Count is conducted by a qualified and experienced birdwatcher, who then reports this number to their local national trust. Of course there are a few ways of how to check the numbers and what to record;
- Regardless if the same water bird will be counted a couple of times in the time period
- Mark all the birds and record their features that stand out or are unique (spots, colours,...)
- All tagged water birds (around their ankles)
- Different species visiting
As you can see, we gave them a bit of food and for the whole week they've decided to camp in front of our cottage door.
Be prepared for constant knocking on the door,...,unless you feed them, then they'll go away.
A tiny bigger and thus more intimidating more commonly sighted Pomeranian goose doing what ducks did, knocking on the door, and also letting me take a photo without grabing hold of my phone.
A genius idea was to install an external tap and adding a hose in front of every cottage door. Let me give you a hint why is that a genius idea...so you're able to wash away all the bird poo. It is a 'must' or a 'to-do' chore at least once a day.
Surprisingly, when and if you do decide to do some fishing, all the birds will leave you alone for some reason. Every person I've seen fishing had nothing but peace next to them as well as in front on the water. We haven't gotten to that part yet (fishing), but I'm planning to bring my rods for the next year's visit in April, which we booked a couple of days ago.
Just thought I'll finish the article with the photo overlooking the pond, and a few of the feathered friends way on the other side of the pond.
I'm very muchlooking forward to our trip to this place for the next year, and you never know, maybe there will be some new birds, or maybe the number of already established species of water birds will be increased.
These photos were taken in the last two visits and are mine, as well as that, so are my thoughts in this article.
Thanks for stopping by and take care.