Fenlandphil's Blog A blog from the low country

My first U3A walking group outing

I had my first outing with the U3A walking group on the sixth of February, the group were friendly and made me feel very welcome. I was given a lift to Orton Mere by Ian and Julie Rudderham, thank you Ian and Julie.

It was a fine, cold, frosty start with a little mistiness on the horizon. We arrived at the car park and I was immediately struck by the view of the lake from the car park.

The view of a lake from the car park

Once everyone had arrived, we set off, around first I believe the Rowing lake, then onwards to Bluebell Wood, a bit early for bluebells but there were one or two clumps of Snowdrops in flower. Next up I think was Milton Ferry Bridge. We crossed the bridge then carried on walking around another lake, fetching up at the Lakeside Kitchen and Bar for coffee. I have lived in Whittlesey now for just over thirty years but work has occupied the far greater proportion of my waking hours, so I have had little opportunity to explore the facilities on my doorstep. I really enjoyed the walk and the company of my fellow walkers, thirteen, I think of us in total.

We were able to observe many of the water birds, as they were seemingly used to human proximity, close contact didn’t seem to disturb them, I was able to photograph Herons easily, without them flying away, which is usually the case in the fens.

An undisturbed Heron

As we approached the Lakeside Kitchen and Bar there was some debate as to whether a group of birds perched on a floating raft in the lake and drying their wings were Cormorants, I think they were but I will leave judgement to the experts.

Cormorants?

Here is a close up.

Close up of the Cormorants.

Later on we spotted an altogether different bird, no danger of this one taking flight but all the same an impressive piece of sculpture.

Carved Owl

I really enjoyed my walk and hope to make this activity part of my regular routine. Thanks everyone for making it an enjoyable outing.