A wildlife-rich mosaic of habitats with free parking and a Visitor Centre just off the A1
It is difficult to imagine that Huntingdonshire was covered in extensive forests during Saxon times. The area was declared a royal forest by King Henry II in 1154. Since then, it has been gradually deforested, and Huntingdonshire now has one of the lowest coverage of trees in the country. The Paxton Pits nature reserve may not… Read More
Image by Marilyn Peddle, CC BY-NC 2.0 Latin name: Sturnus vulgaris Adults in the breeding season look basically black, but with a shining purple and green feathering, the starling is truly a very handsome bird. It is indeed very attractive and so underrated by both birdwatchers and the general public. The starling, like all birds,… Read More
Image by aaandreasss, CC BY-ND 2.0 Latin name: Turdus merula It has very few local names, but I have located blackjack (male) (Surrey), black thrush (Yorkshire), garden ousel (Cheshire) and colly (Somerset). We all grew up with the nursery rhyme “Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie”, and just about every species from sparrows… Read More
Image by Corine Bliek, CC BY-NC 2.0 There has never been a time in my long birdwatching life that I have not been involved with this large and perhaps most attractive sawbill. This species has a very interesting history in the UK. It was widely persecuted in Scotland, but eventually bred successfully in Perthshire in… Read More
Image by Natural England, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Latin name: Egretta garzetta This beautiful, elegant bird is a small white member of the heron family, which comprises of 60 species and can be found on every continent except Antarctica. The Little Egret is now widespread in Europe, where the birds which breed in the north of… Read More
