Trip reports

Eelmoor Marsh SSSI Visit

Sunday, 6 April 2008

It's 3.45pm on Sunday 6 April 2008 and we've just got back from Eelmore Marsh SSSI. This morning it was really snowing and it was about 5cm deep but it melted before we got there and it was quite warm and sunny. We put on the red badges given us by Betty and Paul, who work at the Qinetiq site. Paul is a photographer and Betty is a conservationist. We went in the cars into the nature reserve and parked in a lay by.

On the way I saw a male pheasant and a crow. Jonathan gave us some binoculars and Betty told us about the site and the highland cattle and Przewalski's horses. We saw a horse and some highland cattle running away. We walked up a road alongside the runway until we got to the Basingstoke Canal fence. On our right there was a boggy marshland heathland place with a pine tree grove behind it. We saw some stonechats, a mistle thrush and some Canada geese by the runway.

We stopped on the corner opposite the canal by some buildings and a fenced area which they used for the animals. While we were standing there a mallard flew over and we saw some blue tits and a wood pigeon. We turned right at this corner and walked on a road parallel to the canal. Two mute swans flew over. We heard a chiff chaff and then we saw it at the top of a silver birch tree. Then I spotted a robin by the side of me and a blackbird by the side of the road. There were goldfinches and chaffinches and a song thrush in the trees and a kestrel swooping in the air.

On the walk back to the lay-by we saw 2 horses and a snipe and a magpie and William and his girlfriends (more highland cattle). Finally just before we got back to our car in the car park we saw 3 starlings and lots more rabbits. The second group were waiting for us when we got back.

By Daniel