Thursday 12 May 2016

Treading more Boards.


Another boardwalk trail that I like to wander is located at the Riverside Country Park just over a 30 minute drive from home. The start of my leisurely stroll takes me a short distance alongside the River Wey Navigation where I watched a Common Buzzard being harried by Crows before stepping onto the first stretch of boards leading over stagnant water in a small woodland.


Depending on the time of day and the wind direction the road noise from the adjacent A3 can be quite overpowering so the ears have to work a bit harder to pick out the calls of the resident birds.

On this occasion it was the usual suspects; Robin, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Wren, Song Thrush plus the intermittent song of a Blackcap. 

As I walked towards the main lake I saw a number of male Orange Tip butterflies patrolling the grassland but non of them stopped for a photo call!




The main lake didn't hold much of interest just Coot, Canada Geese, Mallard and Moorhen so I turned onto the main boardwalk that crosses the marsh and immediately picked up the scratchy sounds of a Sedge Warbler, typically hidden from view, and parked myself on one of the highly carved seats.





A little time here enabled a few distant shots of a male Reed Bunting (below) singing while endeavouring to maintain its balance on a flimsy perch in the gusty breeze.


One arm of the boardwalk leads into the damp woodland where there is a curved screen with portholes overlooking a small area of open water. Unsurprisingly parts of the hide screen have already been vandalised plus there was recent evidence of a fire on the floor!
You can view an article in The Guildford Dragon News which has images of the original boardwalk and hide construction completed in May 2013 at at exorbitant cost of £210,000 but at least it means you don't have to wear waders to cross the marsh!

A Mute Swan (above) drifted in and then out of view followed shortly after by Mrs Mallard with seven youngsters in tow who spent some minutes paddling in and out of the shadows beneath the boardwalk.





Following the boardwalk again past clumps of Marsh Marigold towards the Wey Navigation I logged a lot more very active Orange Tips, plus one Peacock butterfly before crossing the bridge to sit awhile at Stoke Lock and watch the peacefully slow activity on the waterway.  





A Grey Wagtail was extremely busy catching and carrying insects to a nearby nest. Retracing my steps I listened to Chiffchaff and Common Whitethroat while being serenaded by a Robin.


Linking to:
Good Fences
Saturday's Critters

22 comments:

  1. Hello, a wonderful boardwalk and park. I would like to walk there too. Great variety of birds and I always enjoy seeing the butterflies. I love the Robins and the male Reed Bunting is handsome. Wonderful post and photos. Have a happy weekend ahead!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Eileen. It has interest all year round.

      Delete
    2. This is an awesome critter post. Thanks for linking up and sharing your post. Have a happy weekend!

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. Catherine. Большое спасибо за Ваше посещение и комментарии.

      Delete
  3. beautiful robin shot! love the wagtail, too. what a nice boardwalk! the ducklings made me smile. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Theresa. The mischievous little ones are always fun to watch.

      Delete
  4. I like seeing the swans. Not something I see very often around here!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't think we have any board walks round here.
    I did like the nature carvings on the back of the seat.

    ReplyDelete
  6. A wonderful and safe place to walk and it is great that there will be things of interest there all the year round. I love all your shots and it looks so peaceful there aadn is somewhere I would like to take a walk

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hello Frank!:) An enjoyable stroll along the boardwalks in the Riverside Country Park, and great that it is so near to where you live. One would never guess that it is so near to a busy noisy road. It's quite lovely, and so are your captures. I could listen to the robins song at any time of the day,and I love the beautiful capture of him singing, and also your Reed Bunting and Wagtail images. Those carved benches are an attractive addition to the park, and I enjoyed the peaceful loch scenes. A great fence post!

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a lovely place to walk, the artwork on the bench is fantastic. Such a shame that the vandalism happens though.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Baby duckies! So cute. I haven't seen any yet this year.
    ~

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is a gorgeous park. Loved seeing it. That Bench was amazing. So many pretty photos here today. Those baby ducks were precious.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Fabulous post, so many marvelous sights to take in. Loved it and thank you for sharing these super photos.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Y"all!

    Love the babies this time of year. Fabulous bird shots. Enjoy seeing birds we don't have here in the southeastern, usa.

    Y'all come on by,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

    ReplyDelete
  13. Beautiful walk. I can almost hear that robin sing (except maybe not, because I really don't know what the English Robin sounds like. He is really giving it his all though!). Love the healthy Mallard family and, really, all the birds. This would be a walk both of us could do, so we would love it!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Such a lovely post and a great selection of photo's.
    Thank you

    All the best Jan

    ReplyDelete
  15. Excelente trabalho e belas fotografias.
    Gostei do blogue.
    Um abraço e boa semana.
    http://andarilharar.blogspot.pt/

    ReplyDelete
  16. Beautiful place to walk. Thank you for a walk and for Robin, whom I love. Regards.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I does look a good path to explore - at this time of year I tend to remember 'bird-hearing' was almost as important as 'bir-watching'

    Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

    ReplyDelete
  18. Beautiful photos from your walk. I love the swan and the robin. The ducklings are so cute.

    ReplyDelete

I hope you enjoyed your visit and I always appreciate your comments and feedback.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails