A wildlife-rich mosaic of habitats with free parking and a Visitor Centre just off the A1
Diving Ducks Diving Ducks can feed in deep water by submerging completely, disappearing for a few seconds before popping up nearby. The most common at the Pits is the black-and-white tufted duck which you can see all year round as it breeds on the reserve. In addition to these resident birds, hundreds more tufted ducks… Read More
Dabbling Ducks Dabbling Ducks feed in shallow water or in floating weed, by flipping upside down, with their tails sticking up in the air. You can find some at the Pits all year round, for example, the familiar mallard and the distinctive shoveler with its broad, spade-shaped bill. In the winter, many more ducks arrive… Read More
Winter Thrushes This month you can see Fieldfares and Redwings in flocks, often a mixture of both species, feeding on the ground or in trees and bushes. They have flown over the North Sea from Scandinavia in search of our milder winter weather. Berries Fieldfares and Redwings are particularly keen on the abundant crop of… Read More
The first winter Thrushes have arrived. Paxton Pits Nature Reserve exists because of the sand and gravel being quarried here for many decades. Aggregate Industries have been working to the north and are now about to start the next phase in the privately owned arable fields, which, when they have finished, will become a reed… Read More
A Brief Social and Cultural History I first knew of this spectacular bird from my long past birdwatching days in Yorkshire where it was, all those years ago, mainly a summer visitor, leaving us at the onset of colder weather in late autumn. Many of these northern breeders may end up at places like Grafham… Read More
