Visit to The Wolseley Centre Nature Reserve, Wolseley Bridge

Tuesday 4^th June

Garden Centre & Wolseley Centre

Down we go!

River Trent

We are off up the Wolseley Centre Nature Reserve today, so we packed a picnic and set off up the road.  We walked past the Antique/Craft Centre and Garden Centre and went into the nature reserve, it is a really nice place and is alongside the River Trent, they have made lots of paths and a broad walk and there is one bird hide.

What a lot!

We had a good walk around and walked along by the River Trent.  In the field opposite there was some geese and lots of babies, they then went in the water and the babies had to launch themselves off the high bank, it was funny watching them sticking out their tiny wings and jumping, some rolled down the bank, others jumped then fell head first into the water but they all made it safely, we counted about 36 youngsters.

The Broad Walk

Lovely Flowers

As we were walking on the broad walk , we met the old chap who we have met before when we have visited in the past, he comes here most days and knows all about the place.  In one area of the reserve below the broad walk they have made some habitat for bank voles, we always look for them but don't always see them, but today we were lucky, they were very active and running around all over the place and I managed to get a few photos which is quite difficult as they are very quick.

Bank Vole

Another Bank Vole

We then walked around a bit further, stopped off at the bird hide, then went into the field by the River Trent and sat on a bench and had our lunch.  It had been quite overcast, but as were sitting there the sun came out.  There was a family of ducks on the water edge and they were diving down in the water, nice to watch.

Ducklings & Goslings

There was also a few geese families, don't think they were the ones we saw earlier as there wasn't so many of them, we had some duck food so we fed them and all the goslings and ducklings were running around together.

Picnic by the River Trent

We then walked back around the reserve and we did a couple of caches.  There was another cache which was outside the reserve on a path which led off the car park by the garden centre so we went to find that and after a lot of rummaging in the undergrowth Kev found it.

We went in the garden centre, had a wander around then had a coffee in the cafe.  We then walked back to the boat.  We enjoyed our visit to the nature reserve, it's a great place to spend a few hours and well worth a visit.  We are staying here again tonight then moving on a bit further tomorrow.  It was a lovely sunny evening and a beautiful sunset, hopefully more of the same tomorrow.

Beautiful Sunset