#CountryKids on the Lancaster Canal

 

We were very lucky to be taken for 5 nights on a narrowboat on the Lancaster Canal by my parents. A very much needed break away from it all. We boarded Bluebell at Tewitfield Marina which is currently the most northerly part of the Lancaster Canal that is fully navigable:

After being shown the ropes and having our steering observed we headed south along the canal under one of the many beautiful bridges:

They are all numbered (the numbers start in Preston) so you know where you are: 

The canal is a haven for wildlife and this was just one of the many herons we saw:

This canal was built along the contours of the land (makes it intriguingly wiggly) so it has no locks but does have a swing bridge that the children helped to shift:

Feed the birds

We have been keen to encourage birds into our garden for a while but yesterday's visit to Leighton Moss has boosted this even more. The bird table in our garden has been attracting blackbirds and starlings but we want to see more birds like the tits etc we saw feeding at the RSPB reserve:

We have previously put out fats and seeds as well as nuts to attract birds in and we have now added dried worms (yum!):

Funnily enough the worms had already vanished by the time I went back for another look! We have also but a window feeder on the kitchen window that will hopefully attract visitors:

So far today I have seen a blue tit popping into the garden and the starlings enjoying the fat. A heron also flew over the field behind to remind me of the one that we enjoyed watching yesterday:

What sort of birds do you see in your garden? We now just need to discourage the neighbourhood cats and put up the nesting box!

#CountryKids RSPB Leighton Moss

Today our family drop in group had a mini day out to the RSPB reserve at Leighton Moss this is only 30 minutes south of us but we hadn't yet been there as a visit. It's pleasing to know its an affordable day out with adults £5 and children £1 (with 2 adults the children are free!).

We started by watching the birds at the plentiful feeders near the visitor centre. These were birds that between us we could easily recognise: sparrows, blue tits, great tits, pheasants, mallards, chaffinches, bullfinches, robin... There were also quite a few rats enjoying the leftovers!

Then we took a short walk to the first hide. It took the children a bit of getting used to being quiet but they were pretty good (not all other bird watchers appreciated hordes of kids around though!). It was fun for them to pop open the windows to look out and then try and spot birds. Another mum had brought a spy type listening device that was fabulous for picking up bird calls too:

After a while we had to move on as the children had had enough so we headed to the next hide which wasn't too far away. It was interesting walking through the reed beds and seeing things like the bearded tit reed wigwams:

The next hide opened onto a wider stretch of water and a helpful gentleman told us the names of some of the birds we were looking at including Shovelers and Gadwall ducks:

There were plenty of useful pictures and information boards in the hides to help you work out what it was you had seen:

After lunch the rest of the group went home in the minibus but we stayed on for another few hours which enabled us to see the rest of the nature reserve. It was worth walking a couple of miles on a round trip to see the other 2 hides. We also found that people were more laid back about 2 "well behaved" children than hordes of slightly noisy ones:

The path from one side of the moss to the other is hard standing and its a straight forward walk. Its only getting to the Lower Hide that took you onto narrower dirt tracks:

On the way we caught glimpses of the famous Marsh Harriers but nothing I could photograph! This last hide turned out to be the best of the bunch though as we saw species we hadn't seen before such as a Great Crested Grebe, Little Grebe as well as the Marsh Harrier plus a herd of red deer. The 3 gentleman in the hide were all very kind in letting the children look through telescopes and telling us where to look. They were of the mind that children had to learn somehow!

Our favourite bird at this hide was the heron who kept posing away and got in close enough for me to take far too many photographs before he flew away:

On our way back my son came running up to me saying he had seen an osprey. Having glimpsed one whilst driving to Whinlatter on Tuesday I was really keen to see one when I could take photographs. Of course birds don't appear to order and with my not super zoom it took a few practice shots to get a final cracker:

We were also lucky to hear the sound of the male bittern calling in the reeds. Such a wonderful place we will have to go back and see what little ones we can spot after all the flirting we saw going on today!