A party of 5 Nature Group Members were joined by 4 Members of Paxton Pits Volunteer Group on Sunday March 15th for a guided tour of Barnwell Park in Northamptonshire. We were shown round by Matthew Farrugia, a member of the RPS Nature Group and a Volunteer at Barnwell.
This small park shows how an area can serve as a recreational facility for adults and children and yet still support a wide variety of wildlife. It has the river along one border and a series of small lakes/ponds with reed bed areas plus meadows and woodland.
There are several hides/shelters which we explored, spending longest in the hide with the very natural bird feeding area attracting tits, finches, Nuthatch, Wren etc.
A pair of Mandarin ducks were busy exploring the trees for nesting areas and a Heron on the nest plus an Egret were spotted on the other side of a pond.
While others were busy photographing the birds, some of the Paxton group spent some time looking in the leaf litter for smaller subjects and I was delighted to find a Ground Hopper and my first ever Pseudoscorpion (below). The latter are very small creatures related to spiders that feed on all kinds of detritus and have escaped my lens up to now!!
We rounded that off with brunch at their excellent cafe with some very good conversations and stories.
Thank you Matthew for all your preparations to ensure we had a very enjoyable and fulfilling visit
Images by Bruce Kendrick, John Kirkelionis, Matthew Farrugia and Ann Miles
