Pugneys Wildfowl

26 December 2013

Pugneys Country Park & Calder Valley Wetlands

In more than thirty years of Boxing Day birdwatching this is the most perfect weather that I can remember. It stays close to freezing but in the sun with no breeze it doesn't feel it, although after fifteen minutes in the main hide in a frosty, sheltered corner of park we're ready to move on.

Estimating the number of lapwings that are resting on a spit of ice on the reserve lake, I count in tens and estimate the flock at about sixty. My birdwatching pal John goes quiet for a minute and says that he makes it fifty-seven. With that level of accuracy it's no wonder that he got an invitation to make keynote speech at a scientific conference in Beijing but I'm pleased to have got so near with my rough and ready estimate.

Making his mark

'I'm rambling!' says a small boy as he strolls along with a stout stick.

'I'm making my mark!' replies his brother who is brandishing an equally hefty branch. When they come to a frosted bench they scrawk their mark on it.

Carping for Christmas

We've never seen 'keep out . . . no fishing' signs in both English and Polish but the prominent red plastic signs at what we used to call Cawood's Lagoon adjacent to the Pugneys are bilingual.

A Polish friend once told me that her family's traditional Christmas dinner was always a large carp.