I had arranged to meet up with friends Frances and Trevor for lunch, afternoon walk and tea. I live in south west Essex, my friends live in north west Essex, so naturally we agreed to meet up at Tipree, which is on the other side of the county. Our rendezvous was the
Tiptree Jam Factory which I'm sure is a tourist attraction unique to Essex; you can buy jam, eat jam and look around the little museum. Despite some rather dire weather warnings, it was a very pleasant mild autumn day with plenty of blue sky and the occasional ray of sun.
Our ultimate objective was
Fingringhoe Wick, a nature reserve on the Colne Estuary not far from Colchester. This reserve, owned by the
Essex Wildlife Trust was created from old gravel pits and has a variety of habitats; ponds, heathland, woodland and best of all the saltmashes. The views over the Colne Estuary from the tower on the Visitor Centre were terrific.
We meandered around the reserve, pretending to be bird watchers. Not difficult really as there were loads of them practising formation flying over the river. I guess the trick is to be able to identify them. Frances spotted a kingfisher and we think that the flying formations were geese, possibly Brent. There were hides dotted about all over the reserve and many, many seats, a testament to how many people really loved the place.
We were enjoying a post-walk cuppa in Archie (my van) when we were approached by a man carrying an axe. He turned out to be the very friendly and informative warden making sure we had enjoyed our visit. We had found yet another quiet, beautiful, relaxing place in Essex. Who knows, the lesser spotted librarian might become yet another frequent winter visitor!
I had arranged to meet up with friends Frances and Trevor for lunch, afternoon walk and tea. I live in south west Essex, my friends live in north west Essex, so naturally we agreed to meet up at Tipree, which is on the other side of the county. Our rendezvous was the Tiptree Jam Factory which I'm sure is a tourist attraction unique to Essex; you can buy jam, eat jam and look around the little museum. Despite some rather dire weather warnings, it was a very pleasant mild autumn day with plenty of blue sky and the occasional ray of sun.
Our ultimate objective was Fingringhoe Wick, a nature reserve on the Colne Estuary not far from Colchester. This reserve, owned by the Essex Wildlife Trust was created from old gravel pits and has a variety of habitats; ponds, heathland, woodland and best of all the saltmashes. The views over the Colne Estuary from the tower on the Visitor Centre were terrific.
We meandered around the reserve, pretending to be bird watchers. Not difficult really as there were loads of them practising formation flying over the river. I guess the trick is to be able to identify them. Frances spotted a kingfisher and we think that the flying formations were geese, possibly Brent. There were hides dotted about all over the reserve and many, many seats, a testament to how many people really loved the place.
We were enjoying a post-walk cuppa in Archie (my van) when we were approached by a man carrying an axe. He turned out to be the very friendly and informative warden making sure we had enjoyed our visit. We had found yet another quiet, beautiful, relaxing place in Essex. Who knows, the lesser spotted librarian might become yet another frequent winter visitor!
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