For some days my eye was caught by a Coot ‘waving’ at me. As it swam by, some way off, one leg was raised in the air in time with the other paddling. Progress seemed nevertheless normal, but something...

Remember the Dainty Footwork sighting of the Little Egret? Imagine my joy when in the same spot, a Great Egret alighted this time and proceeded with much balanced elegance to carefully step among the sunken vegetation and ice...

New Year’s Day. Time to venture out and blow away the cobwebs. So to Ouse Fen with a brilliant blue sky and a biting wind. Scanning the vast expanse of Phragmites fronds as they bowed and swayed was like...

A beaver in the Ouse Valley? Well, not yet! But not far away. In fact in Rushden Lakes, just off the River Nene near Peterborough, released recently by our local Wildlife Trust. At a fascinating talk by the Trust...

We had worried about the nest for quite a while. The Great Crested Grebes chose to build  a floating mass of weed in the reedbed margin of Holt Island Nature Reserve, in full view of the public on The...

The delicate pale pink Cuckoo Flower, also known as Lady’s Smock (Cardamine pratensis), is now in bloom. It grows in damp places – along ditches, on the flood plain meadows and on the riverbank. Its common name comes from...

  EGRET  DAINTY FOOTWORK I watched this lovely Little Egret stepping carefully through the sunken reeds. Then I noticed something interesting. As it placed each foot down it quivered it slightly. Then I realised why. It was flushing its prey, probably...

OTTERS ABOUT A gruesome find perhaps but more evidence that Otters are once again thriving in the Great Ouse Valley. We have been aware of this for a time as sightings have become more frequent, although these are usually confined...

HANGING OUT? Bridget noticed a bunch of Cormorants gathered in the branches of a tall pollarded Black Poplar close to the river the other day. She noticed the bird right on the top branch had adopted the classic ‘heraldic’ posture....

Ever seen inside a bat box? Nor had I. So this was a rare treat. On a nature reserve island in the valley, the boxes are inspected a couple of time a year by a registered ‘batman’ (they are...