NPBW - Day 4.
Surlingham Church Marsh – the return.
The Ellis hide is no more. I know not what has happened to it. It seems to have been replaced by the most rubbish hide I have ever seen. It’s not really a hide at all as there is nothing to hide behind. It’s more of a show. Basically there is a big bench which is covered on three sides, with the people on the bench looking directly over the lagoons. In the full view of all the birds. There isn’t any screening between the path and the access to the benchy thing, you just wander across the horizon and scare everything bar the tame ducks back into the reads. Bizarre. It is sponsored by local businesses etc, but it is just daft. I didn’t take a photo of it because I wasn’t expecting to be yacking on about patches on here, and I was so gobsmacked at the rubbishness of the whole thing. Here is the view from that area though...
On my patch yesterday I found a Greenshank. This is a patch tick. I think that an appropriate word to use for this is YEEESSSSSSSSSS! I'll probably babble on about that later in the week. For now I am returning to Surlingham to complete my brief and incomplete virtual blogtourthingy.
Initially there was one hide. It was named after Ted Ellis but seems to have been replaced (more of that later). After a while there was a call for another hide and some donations were sourced from donations in the name of the late Robert Whalley. Who I never met. But I reckon that he was a birder, and a decent chap.
One cold winter morning in 1989, it was the allocated day for the hide to go up. The area was cleared of vegetation and the hide was erected with my own bare hands. Admittedly it wasn’t just me wot did it, there was about half a dozen burly birders putting it together with hammers and nails and stuff but it did go up and it has stayed up. The day and the hide toasted with a little drop of whisky.
Initially there was one hide. It was named after Ted Ellis but seems to have been replaced (more of that later). After a while there was a call for another hide and some donations were sourced from donations in the name of the late Robert Whalley. Who I never met. But I reckon that he was a birder, and a decent chap.
One cold winter morning in 1989, it was the allocated day for the hide to go up. The area was cleared of vegetation and the hide was erected with my own bare hands. Admittedly it wasn’t just me wot did it, there was about half a dozen burly birders putting it together with hammers and nails and stuff but it did go up and it has stayed up. The day and the hide toasted with a little drop of whisky.
Voila.
The Ellis hide is no more. I know not what has happened to it. It seems to have been replaced by the most rubbish hide I have ever seen. It’s not really a hide at all as there is nothing to hide behind. It’s more of a show. Basically there is a big bench which is covered on three sides, with the people on the bench looking directly over the lagoons. In the full view of all the birds. There isn’t any screening between the path and the access to the benchy thing, you just wander across the horizon and scare everything bar the tame ducks back into the reads. Bizarre. It is sponsored by local businesses etc, but it is just daft. I didn’t take a photo of it because I wasn’t expecting to be yacking on about patches on here, and I was so gobsmacked at the rubbishness of the whole thing. Here is the view from that area though...
But hopefully this is a minor quibble. I'm looking forward to going back again and again as it is a lovely lovely place.
National Patch Birding Week continues tomorrow, with the patch birding call to arms! In the meantime, have a picture of some deer taken from the 'hide that Thing built'.
2 comments:
Politicians and business' always ruin a good thing!
Our glorious leaders here in Ohio have decided to eliminate all funding for state nature preserves as of the 1st of the year. Intelligent people...not really.
Marvelous. What an acute lack of brains.
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