Discovery at Little Marlow

I have driven past the old gravel-pits at Little Marlow, Bucks, many times, little knowing that the lake which has been created there is a bird heaven.  It is Spade Oak Nature Reserve and is managed by local people, and the Bucks Bird Club records sightings.

Today I stopped there for a walk and saw my first blackcap, willow warbler, sand martin and house martin of the year, and my second-ever yellow wagtail.

As soon as I came to the shore of the lake I could see the Hirundinidae in profusion over the water, a mixture of swallows and martins, black and brown.  It was a lovely concentration of them when there are so few anywhere else, and they wove ceaselessly across the water.

The lake where the swallows, house martins and sand martins were

A bit further on I stopped at a vantage point where fortunately some people with a telescope could point me to seven common terns and a yellow wagtail.

The common terns were near the island

 

The shore where the yellow wagtail was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I came to a boggy section among trees and here I tracked down the willow warbler and blackcaps—male and female.

Blackcap territory.

A path leading north from the lake brings you to Little Marlow village with its attractive twelfth-century church,

pivoting lychgate

and small green.

I followed a path through woods and along the edge of the fields, noting what looked like a tumulus, which had been left unploughed.  There is nothing marked on the 1:25000 Ordnance Survey map.

 

Tumulus?

A permissive path leads back to the lake and I followed this round to the car park, enjoying the scratchy song of an elusive sedge warbler.

The walk is promoted in a leaflet by Little Marlow Parish Council.  The story of the site and the battle for the permissive path is told here.

Opposite the car park is the Spade Oak pub, a convenient start or end of the walk.

Spade Oak