by Steve Thomson
19th December 2004
What a fine looking bird it was. The roast turkey, I mean. It was delicious and so were the slices of pork, sausages, stuffing, sprouts, carrots, apple sauce, cranberry sauce and gravy. And that was just on my plate. The carvery at The Chequers in Eversley did us proud and thanks are due to Dot Lincoln for organising such a splendid meal.
Beforehand we had been given a taste of all things wet and wonderful on a rainy morning at Moor Green Lakes. I totalled 34 species on a rough count including a bullfinch heard but not seen whose presence I kept pooh-poohing only to be told that its gentle piping call was defiantly pooh-poohing back at me in the distance. Earlier on there had also been a little egret and a UFW - an unidentified flying wader (possibly a black-tailed godwit) - leading a pack of lapwings in a sort of formation dance across the slate-grey sky.
Although we set off in the dry, the drizzle was fairly persistent by the time we sought shelter in the first hide where we quickly became engrossed in a game of Spot the Slavonian Grebe. Not, of course, the exotic creature with puffy orange cheeks that frequents Scottish lochs in the summer but the less flamboyant winter-visitor version.We caught indistinct glimpses of its chunky profile between dives before it seemingly slipped out of sight for good.
Some of us then decided to brave the rain again while the ‘wimps’ - or more sensible ones - stayed in the warm and dry. And they were duly rewarded by the grebe’s return into view while we apparently strolled straight past it, unable to see it nestling under our noses against a nearside bank. A sparrowhawk also swooped in close to the hide and remained obligingly perched there for a good 10 minutes or so.
Fortune eventually favoured the brave walkers as well when the clouds cleared away and the trees were suddenly alive with the sound of goldcrest, redpoll and siskin. Out on the water, meanwhile, we searched in vain for the sly Slavonian but a couple of male goldeneye and two or three goosander still made scanning the lake surface well worthwhile. By now sunlight was bursting out all over, making the abundance of berries in the holly bushes look redder than ever and putting us all in a festive mood on the last leg back to the car park. Let Christmas dinner commence...