At the weekend Jennifer and I were in agreement that we should go ahead with our January outing as the forecast was only for showers and it was at Seaton Wetlands with 3 hides to shelter in and hot drinks on site. But at that time we hadn’t bargained on the fact that Wellie wearing was mandatory.

Having got that news first thing in the morning it reduced our numbers from 20 down to 12 stalwart members. Absence of having any Wellies being the excuse! Yes I believe you.

Right, off to the Tower hide down the reported flooded path......but how flooded? We were ok going to the hide, not that there was a huge amount to see when we got there, but coming away the brook at the side of the path had now burst it’s bank and had now increased the water level on the path. 99% of us were wearing tall enough Wellies but one member wished she had too and had to finish the rest of the session with rather soggy feet

Some of us went to the Island hide but three of us were attracted to The Discovery hut. Was it the thought of a hot cuppa? We were soon joined by the other members who, having not increased the bird list in the Island hide, went and sat round the corner in the hide to see what they could see. Snipe, Teal, what was that I heard someone say “a Kingfisher”. Yes and they were able to see why it’s the king of fishers when they observed it doing just that. Those of us who didn’t see it were busy looking the other way at a pair of kestrels one which looked as though it was drawing-pinned to the sky looking for its lunch.

So the rather damp morning finished on a high with an acceptable bird list of 26 and comments of “It was good to get out”.

Janet