Did you know that third Monday of January is considered to be ‘Blue Monday’ – and it’s often regarded as one of the gloomiest days of the year? My Monday definitely wasn’t blue. In fact, I’d have said it was pretty green!
I was dragged out of bed bright and early to accompany my friend, Sarah, on a walk. She wanted to make a vlog about the wildlife of the river. I agreed on Sunday night, but when my alarm went off at 7am this morning I was wondering whether I’d made a mistake. A promise is a promise, however, and I sleepily stumbled over to our rendezvous.
Evidently the cold did me some good, because I was very, very awake by the time I arrived. I sat on a bench, and had a listen to the dawn chorus. I made out the chatterings of blackbirds, the sweet songs of blue tits and the knock-knock-knock of a great spotted woodpecker. A little treecreeper made a welcome appearance, which made waking up ridiculously early worth it, instantly. I also said hello to one of the university’s zoology lecturers on his way to campus – we often pass one another in the park by the cruel irony that we live on the opposite side of the city to our respective campuses.
Sarah arrived, and it was time to go. There was a lot of cloud cover, but it lifted over the horizon and wow – the light was absolutely gorgeous. We took advantage of this to film the opening of Sarah’s vlog (it’s gonna be a treat when it’s done). Whilst we were stood there, a huge flock of pink-footed geese flew over our heads – amazing!
We made it to our first stop, a spot that Sarah knew was good for kingfishers. Sadly, due to the floods a lot of tree branches had come down – which wasn’t great habitat for the little birds. It was also very muddy, so we sat on Sarah’s waterproof coat to avoid getting too dirty (a noble sacrifice). We waited for a while, and entertained ourselves watching the goosanders, but no kingfishers were forthcoming. What a pity. We decided to move on.
And what an excellent decision that was.
Because we saw otters.
Well, we actually heard them first – chattering away really loudly. I didn’t actually realise what it was I was hearing until I climbed up onto a stile and saw two of them thrashing around in the water. I threw my bag to the ground, and grabbed a super quick clip of the pair of them. I turned to see that Sarah had done the same thing, but it was her hat that had ended up in the mud instead. What an absolutely magical moment. Two otters? That made up for the early start about a hundred times over.
A friendly dog-walker saw our excitement about the otters, and offered us some helpful tips about what to look for. He even recommended a path for us to follow where we might see more. We did as suggested and squelched our way through the mud, only to be promptly rewarded with a third otter. We couldn’t believe our luck!
We decided that as we’d been out by a few hours at this point that we ought to turn back as we did have lives to get on with. We were contemplating our luck with the otters, but a little despondent about the lack of kingfishers. As we neared the end of our walk, Sarah grabbed my arm and told me to listen. On the wind we could hear a kingfisher, singing loud and clear! Sarah pointed amongst the trees, but sadly I couldn’t see it. We waited a little and heard another song, followed by a flash of electric blue. A kingfisher!
Definitely a walk to remember. Thank you so much to Sarah, for dragging me out. And thank you to our shoes, that put up with a lot of mud.
Species List
Dunnock
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Treecreeper
Blue tit
Woodpigeon
Crow
Black Headed Gull
Pink-footed Geese
Coot
Mallard
Great tit
Goosander
Otter
Oystercatcher
Robin
Wigeon
Mute swan
Kingfisher
Magpie
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