March 7th/8th – my lovely lady and I had discovered an abandoned mansion house come school house not far away, actually, she discovered it via Tok Tik or some such internet thing. So, it being 6.5 miles away and the sun having decided to show itself, we headed up there for a look.
There’s a kind of space alongside the road where a couple of cars might park, there are two entrances with gates that are probably very rarely used but, I’m not one for blocking gates so, onto the grassy verge for us.
The walk in is only half a mile through tall pines, a young pine plantation then mixed deciduous woods and in the good weather it was a really nice walk, during which we saw three raptors, Sparrowhawk? Peregrine? Didn’t really have time to ID them but, I loved the fact they were around, for the future
We passed another metal five-bar gate and I could see a house through the trees so we carried on by, until we came to a second gate with a grassy curved lane, leading back to the same building; then I realised, that’s the place so, back top the first gate and in we go. None of it is closed off but the second lane had a lot of tree fall over it, hence back to the first one.
I won’t get into any more about the house itself, suffice to say it is pretty amazing with a very sad history and has been empty for around thirty years! I have since discovered there’s a caretaker lives inside!!!!!
SPOOKY!
The surrounding garden areas are completely overgrown, mostly by large trees and shrubs but, a haven for birds, the sounds all around us were fabulous.
I just happened to turn towards a Scots pine behind me as a Goldcrest popped out onto a branch, I could have sworn it was a Firecrest but that would be too special for the area it was just a glimpse of bright orange on the head that fooled me, ach well.
There were Coal & Blue Tits everywhere, I could hear Great Tits but didn’t actually see them; Chaffinches chasing around in the tree tops and Corvids galore. It’s all very overgrown but I’m sure I’ll find some good spots to watch from.
After a really good wander all around the house, we headed back out onto the main lane and carried on as before, see where it went. I could see something very white through the trees which turned out to be a Mute Swan bum! There’s a wee loch through the trees so, a duck, dive and …. mind your footing through the woods and we were on the bank of a small loch that looked man made, a reservoir, for the house?
Whatever, there were a few birds on it.
They stayed well away right across the other side, but a pair of Tufted Ducks were a little more obliging.
I will definitely be going back to this place with more time to sit, wait and enjoy.
It was a Mute Swan that I’d spotted that brought me to this wee loch in the first place and she came closer for a look.
A pair of Little Grebes also appeared.
A few Mallard were also drifting around but keeping their distance, must find a bigger shrub to hide behind.
So the walk was just over a mile with mixed woodlands all around, an abandoned mansion / school house and a wee loch with birds to photograph.
What more could I ask?
Scozmo's Photery 