One of Chard WATCH CIC's valued members, Tony Arnold, a retired science teacher, has taken it upon himself to organise a regular walk to the nature reserve at Chard Reservoir with fellow peers from our Thursday Project. The health and wellbeing benefits from light exercise and being in nature are well documented, and we can't think of a better way for our more-intrepid members to spend their time!
Tony had this to report upon returning from the walking group's first outing;
'We all enjoyed a half hour, in depth talk by the reserve’s Ranger, Hannah, covering the reservoir’s history going back to the Victorian times when it was a private estate for fishing and shooting. She then covered the recent redevelopment in the 1900s and the construction of a new 21st century bird hide. Hannah also spoke about the types of deciduous and conifer trees and general wildlife species increasing over time .'
'We visited the bird hide, which is a recent addition and very well built. Its windows can be used to view the reservoir birds and fish, including watching large carp jumping to catch flies. We were very lucky to see an adult heron flying in and landing very close to us in the hide. Our member, Lee, with a professional camera, took the opportunity to capture some excellent photos and helped with identifying many of the water species, including duck and grebe.'
'After we walked from the hide, we passed some new well-constructed ‘blackthorn’ fencing and observed (or heard) many blackbirds, wrens, great tits, dunnocks and robins. We also came across quite a large bee/insect hotel.'
'We returned to the Project for a well-earned lunch, just in time to avoid a downpour. So we were a bit lucky there! All in all, we had a great and interesting visit to the Reservoir and Nature Reserve.'
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