70 Years of Rotary in Camberley

Tuesday 26 May. I attend a black tie event at Camberley Rotary Club, who are celebrating their 70^th anniversary, and the DG tags along. The special celebration was held at Camberley Cricket Club, where I came for my official visit to the club earlier this year. That previous meeting was memorable for being one of the best Rotary meals I have had all year, so I had high hopes for tonight’s repast. The Earl and Countess of Wessex are honorary members of the club, but as on my previous visit, they were not in attendance. I wondered if anyone had actually told them I would be present. It might have made a difference.

                                          Camberley Cricket Club

President Chrissie Lawson treated us to her usual warm welcome, and I was also delighted to meet the new mayor of Surrey Heath, Joanne Potter, who was attending one of her first engagements after becoming Mayor. Joanne’s father, Bob Potter, was the founder of the Lakeside Club, one of the country’s leading entertainment venues and the home of the World Professional  Darts Championship every year. I met Joanne Potter at the Lakeside Club some years ago, when she was general manager there and I was working for Brooklands College. We discussed training for her staff. When I reminded her of this tonight, she graciously said that she remembered me.

                                           Girl Power - Joanne Potter, Chrissie Lawson and the DG

The dinner, as on the previous occasion, was superb. Avocado & Mozzarella followed by Roast beef and then a trio of desserts enhanced the caterers’ reputation even further in my opinion. If I ever need to hire caterers for an event, I think I will ask these to do it.

                                                          Dessert looks too artistic to eat

After dinner we were treated to a slide show by Peter Allin, showing photos from the previous 70 years of the club’s existence. It really was very well done, with pictures going back over several decades, in many cases showing members who are no longer with us, showing what terrific work the club has done in the local community over the years.  The club founded an Old Folks Retirement Home in the town, they funded the original senior citizens tea room in the town centre, helped provide Frimley Park Hospital with a hydrotherapy pool and equipment for their ophthalmic unit, and renovated playground equipment at Frimley Childrens Centre.

                                           The DG can hardly get a look in

We also saw photos of the club’s participation in local carnivals, the Rotary Kids Out day in June, Christmas Collections and the Wellington College firework display. They have sponsored young people on Rotary Youth leadership programmes, the Young Chef competition and Youth Speaks among others. Peter’s presentation brought home to me how much good work Rotary clubs do in their communities, and how often people probably enjoy an event without ever realising that it was organised, or sponsored by the local Rotary club.

The club has a marquee for hire

We also had a visiting Rotarian from the Philippines, called Peter Emata, who spoke to us briefly about the Charity ASCT (Asian StudentsChristian Trust) which is registered in the UK and seeks to fund education for children in the very poorest parts of the Philippines, where children live on rubbish tips. It seems Camberley Rotary Club have been involved with this worthwhile project, hence Peter’s visit today.

                                              Peter Emata (standing, right) talks about ASCT

It had been another very enjoyable evening at Camberley, with good food and good company. I’d be happy to go back there any time.

Farnborough Donkey Derby

Monday 25^TH May. I attend one of the highlights of the Rotary year in District 1140, the Farnborough Donkey Derby.  It takes place on the King George V playing field every year on the Bank Holiday Monday, and has been going for over 50 years. It is a huge  event, one of the largest in the local area, with 10,000 people expected if the weather is fine. The extraordinary thing is that the whole event is organised by three Rotary clubs, Farnborough, Rushmoor and Ash & Blackwater Valley. Yet again I am amazed about the sheer size of some of the events run by Rotary clubs.

As guest of honour today, I was allocated a parking space directly outside the entrance, which was also appreciated by the DG, who was accompanying me today. The first thing I noticed was how well the car parking was organised, with numerous stewards waving feather dusters around to direct drivers. They have found these to be a good way to be noticed when directing traffic.

                                           Parking steward with feather duster

We arrived shortly before the noon opening of the event, and there was already quite a long queue developing at the entrance. Naturally, the DG and I were whisked through the entrance ahead of the queue and  made our way across to meet the organisers. As soon as we arrived we met the organising committee chairman, a member of Farnborough Rotary Club, Merv George.  A charming man, he spent a lot of time looking after the DG and I, although he must have had the cares of the world on his shoulders at the time.

                                            The gate opens

We started with a cup of tea in the café which is in an elevated position in the park and provides good views across the whole site. We were joined by another Farnborough Rotarian Brian Fagg, and also the Mayor of Rushmoor, Diane Bedford, who also happens to be a member of Rushmoor Club. A more down to earth woman you couldn’t hope to meet, she was thoroughly enjoying her year as mayor. From our vantage point sitting outside the tea room we could see the sheer scale of the event, with a fun fair, arenas for different activities, a performance stage, charity stalls, donkey racing circuit and much more spread over a very large area.

                                          The DG with Brian Fagg, Merv George and Diane Bedford

I was staggered to learn that the 3 Rotary clubs go door to door in the surrounding district to sell programmes for the Donkey Derby. At £1 each, the programme doubles as an entry ticket at the gate. Such is the local support for the event that people will buy programmes even if they don’t intend coming. The programmes are quite big, with 24 pages, and are full of adverts from local traders, details of entertainment in the arena and on stage, and all the runners in the donkey races. Clearly thousands of the programmes are sold each year, which may explain the enthusiasm of local businesses to support it.

                                                          Event programme

By now the field was filling up with people and we went for a wander, looking at stalls and chatting to the many Rotarians we met. By some accident we arrived at Rushmoor club’s legendary barbecue. They had organised the barbecue at the DG’s handover last July and people are still talking about it. I would say it was probably the best barbecue I have ever been to. Today the burgers were for sale, but they were just as good as I had remembered.  It was good to see Neil Rorie and Owen Durrett working so hard.

                                          The field starts to fill

Thus refreshed, it was time for the DG’s main job of the day. She had bravely agreed to judge the baby show in the tent. It really was brave of her, because every mother is bound to think her baby is the most beautiful, but there can only be one winner, and there were dozens of entries in the two age groups, 0-9 months and 10-18 months. Fortunately, she had help with the judging, as there were actually 3 judges, the DG, Mayor Diane Bedford, and local MP Sir Gerald Howarth. Thus the burden of blame for picking the wrong winner could be shared with two others.  I heard later that there were a couple of complaints from mothers who didn’t agree with the result, but fortunately all 3 judges escaped from the tent unscathed.

                                           The DG and MP trying to find a winning baby

                                         Dog show in arena - the DG would have been happier judging this

The DG was kept for an hour or so with her judging commitments, so I wandered over to see what else was going on. In the main arena there was a display of Japanese Taiko drumming by Oku Nojo Daiko, a collaboration between schools in North East Hampshire to perform this exciting and reverberating sound.  Youngsters of mixed ages worked together to produce an excellent display of drumming. Apparently they are in demand for performances across the whole country.

Drummers

                               

Following the drummers in the main arena was a falconry show. I don’t really like these magnificent birds being kept in captivity, but I can’t resist watching them perform. There was a young Golden Eagle on show, although it didn’t take part in the display.  One of the birds being displayed (a type of falcon I think – I couldn’t hear the commentary) flew off and didn’t come back. The presenter explained how each bird carries a tracking device which can find the bird within a 40 mile radius. The worrying thing was that 10 minutes after he disappeared, the tracking device could not locate him. There was a false dawn, when a falcon was seen flying overhead, but this turned out to be a wild peregrine falcon hunting in the area and unconnected to the show. I was impressed. I would never have expected to see a peregrine falcon over Farnborough, but there it was.

                                            A Harris hawk awaits his turn

In between other events, I kept track of the donkey racing. I think it was the same donkeys every time, but as the course was only a couple of hundred yards long, it probably wasn’t too taxing for them. Children were invited to be jockeys for each race, and there was no shortage of volunteers, in fact they were queuing up. I had a bet on every race.  My plan was to bet on donkey no. 2 in every race until it won. Surely no. 2 would win sooner or later. Well it didn’t, even when I stood at the fence shouting at it to hurry up, much to the alarm of the child riding it. Even the guy on the Tote was feeling sorry for me, and after race 4 suggested I try a different number. But I was committed to my game plan and determined to see it through to the bitter end. And it was bitter: 6 donkey races, £6 lost.

                                          Runners and riders under starters orders

Despite my gambling losses, it had been an enjoyable afternoon at a terrific event which was well organised by Rotarians and well supported by local people. The DG even found time to buy a bag at one of the trade stalls. As we left the field, I noticed the falconry display was on again, and it seemed that another bird had gone missing. The old adage occurred to me ‘never share a stage with children or animals’.

                                           Merv George with the DG, who looks nervous

Eurostar Gala Dinner - Croydon

Saturday23^rd May. The DG and I have accepted an invitation to a Eurostar Gala Dinner organised by Croydon Rotary Club. I have only travelled on Eurostar a couple of times previously, so I was keen to take part in this prestigious occasion. Being a black tie event, I supposed it would be held in a swanky dining carriage, akin to the Orient Express.  Incidentally, Eurostar is a very wheelchair-friendly train. On our previous two trips we bought 2^nd Class tickets but were automatically upgraded to 1^st Class because those were the only carriages that could accommodate wheelchair passengers.

                                                              Eurostar

 I must confess I wasn’t clear whether tonight’s gala dinner was to be held in England, or whether we would actually go through the tunnel to France whilst dining. Obviously I made sure I had our passports with us just in case. As we set off I put the co-ordinates we had been given into the Sat Nav, and off we went. St Pancras is the main Eurostar terminal, but I thought it more likely that we would join it at Ebbsfleet International station. Ebbsfleet International is a grand sounding place, but I don’t think there is much to it apart from the station and a massive car park. It does, however have one great attraction, in that it is just off the M25 Motorway, and therefore easy to get to, traffic permitting.

                                St Pancras Station

We headed southbound on the M25 as expected, but I was a bit surprised when we turned off towards Croydon. I was quite sure the Eurostar doesn’t stop at Croydon, at least not since its early days when it left from Waterloo station and limped embarrassingly slowly through South London on its way to the tunnel. Perhaps there was to be a coach in Croydon to take us to the train. The directions actually took us to the rather smart  Selsdon Park Hotel, where I noticed a couple of coaches waiting outside, so I was convinced we would be transferring to one of them.

                                          Selsdon Park Hotel

It was only when we got out of the car and were welcomed enthusiastically by the lovely Barbara Harker, President of Croydon Rotary Club that I realised I had been misinformed, or at least I hadn’t been given all the information. We weren’t going to be travelling on the Eurostar train at all! Eurostar, I was informed, is a name adopted by seven Rotary clubs from across Europe who meet up every year for a weekend of fun and fellowship. The countries represented are  Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain and of course the UK, represented by Croydon.

                                           View across the golf course from the Hotel terrace

Each year one of the Clubs arranges a weekend for the other six clubs, and this year it was the turn of Croydon to play host to the others.  A full programme of outings and events had been planned for the weekend, culminating in tonight’s gala Dinner. The DG claimed to know all about this already, so was it just me who had got it wrong?  I doubt it. No-one is going to admit to such a mistake so there were probably a number of people at the event who had thought they were going on a train ride, but were too embarrassed to admit it.

                                                        A dazzling array of drinks

The Selsdon Park Hotel is a beautiful, and big, hotel. Besides tonight’s dinner, at which over 100 people were present, there was a wedding reception going on elsewhere in the hotel, and another function as well. It is to the Hotel’s credit that we were unaware of the other functions going on that night, and were well looked after by their staff. It is a huge Victorian building, on a site with a history dating back to the 13^th Century. Some of the internal décor is quite breathtaking.

                                           Impressive ceiling in Reception

As we mingled on the terrace with drinks in hand, I met some of the international guests. Altogether 88 visitors had attended from 5 of the countries in this group (the French club couldn’t attend this year) and the coaches I had seen outside had brought them to the Hotel. Clearly I would have to be on my mettle tonight, with all the different languages being spoken around me.  Helpfully, people wore name badges with their country of origin, so I knew what language to switch to. Being multilingual, I was able to move from person to person and say a few words in their own language.  To be fair, It was the same few words every time, and I quickly discovered that whilst I can speak some Italian, Spanish, French and German, you need a follow-up comment to ‘Hello, how are you’.

                                          The terrace gets crowded

Eventually, it was time to take our seats, and naturally I found myself on the top table, with a charming Swiss woman to my left (from the French speaking part of Switzerland) who couldn’t speak any English. I therefore had plenty of opportunity to practice my French. I started with an observation that there must be many mountains in Switzerland. She agreed.  The conversation petered out at that point, as I couldn’t think of anything else to say to her that I could express in French. So I attempted the tried and tested technique of speaking to her in English, but very slowly and with added gesticulations. This worked a little better, but help was soon at hand in the shape of another Swiss woman on her other side, who spoke English well and translated for us. A lively conversation ensued.

                                             Switzerland

Before dinner was served, we had entertainment, in the form of a group of bell ringers. I don’t mean the kind of huge church bells you hear on Sundays, but hand held bells, each individually tuned to produce different notes. They were from All Saints Church in Sanderstead, and called themselves The Two O’ Clock Bells, as that was the time of day they had practice every Monday. Led by Sandra Winter, they started with a medley of British folk songs and finished with the theme from the Eurovision song contest (very appropriate as the contest was actually on tonight) and the European national anthem. I thought they were excellent. People sang along to tunes they recognised, and several of our European friends actually stood for the European anthem.

                                           The Two O'Clock Bells perform

I had pre-ordered  a smoked salmon starter, followed by roast pork and crème brulee.  As usual I had completely forgotten what I had ordered, but fortunately I found that my menu choices had been printed on my name card at the table. What a clever idea, which saves all the confusion that can occur when menu choices are given weeks in advance.  During the meal I chatted to the dining companion on my right, who turned out to be a man who was born in England, but moved to Spain with his family when he was a teenager, and never went back. He runs a building business in Spain, and I expect he does very well from Spain’s large ex-pat community who I’m sure would appreciate dealing with someone they can hold a conversation with in English.

                                                        Creme brulee

After dinner, inevitably, there were speeches. The President of every club spoke in his or her own language, and we were all given English translations. The speeches were mercifully short (limited to about two minutes each) and it was clear that our visitors were enjoying their weekend immensely. Yesterday our visitors were taken to Hampton Court and had a boat trip on the Thames.  Today they had been on a visit to Denbies vineyard in Dorking for a tour and to sample some English wine. I have heard it said that in view of global warming, Denbies now has a similar climate to the Champagne region of France, and the same chalky soil, so the future’s looking bright for English wine.

                                           Denbies Wine Estate

After speeches, it was time for the exchange of gifts, which is customary at these events.  I‘m not sure if everyone had a gift for everyone else, it could just have been that the President of each visiting club gave a present to the host club President.  The Swiss club, demonstrating a sense of humour, presented Barbara Harker with a cuckoo clock.  I wasn’t clear about who gets to take the gifts home, or whether they are used as raffle or auction prizes at their next event.  Even the DG received a gift from the Italian contingent, in the form of a large coffee table book, full of beautiful photographs of their part of Italy.

                                           The DG gets a gift

As we left the Hotel, waving to our new Swiss friends  boarding the coach taking them back to their accommodation I reflected on the event we had just attended. Like so many things I have been to during my year of office, I had no idea this Eurostar group existed. What a marvellous way to foster International understanding and friendship. I thoroughly enjoyed mixing with people of different nationalities and practising my linguistic skills, and I’m sure they will never forget the day they met the Consort to the District Governor.

The DG with Barbara Harker and (I think) the Swiss club President

John Brewer PHF

Thursday 21^st May. I make an official visit to Ewell Rotary Club, the purpose of which was a secret from most Ewell members. One of it’s  members, John Brewer, was to be presented with a coveted Paul Harris Award, the highest honour that a club Rotarian can aspire to. In order to ensure that the recipient doesn’t find out in advance, it is normal for as few people as possible to know about it.

                                                                     Paul Harris medal

After the debacle in Mere, when Nigel Wilson missed out on the honour of being presented with a Paul Harris Award by the Consort to the District Governor, due to our Club President taking it upon herself to present the award, I thought that at last I would have an opportunity of presenting a Paul Harris Award to someone.  John is a worthy recipient of this award for many reasons, not least of which has been his continuous involvement with the Rotary Youth Leaders Award, or RYLA. In a pithy speech (not too long, about half an hour), I planned to recognise all John’s hard work, after  detailing my plans for developing the role of Consort to the District Governor, something  which I felt the club would be interested to hear.

The Award to John Brewer was actually instigated by PDG Betty McLure, Chair of Youth Services in our District. Besides being well aware of John’s hard work with RYLA each year, Betty has been grateful for his invaluable support with the District Youth Speaks competition. It was Betty who suggested to the DG that the District awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship to John, a recommendation which was acted upon, and so here we were at Cuddington Golf Club, where Ewell club hold their weekly meetings.

                                                         Cuddington Golf Club

Tonight, coincidentally, was the night of Ewell’s Club Assembly, so I thought it would be interesting to listen to the club’s plans for the coming year. This year’s President, Mike Shone welcomed us as we arrived and no doubt a few members were wondering why they were being blessed with a second DG visit this year. Just to add to the intrigue, Betty and her husband Harry were already there when we arrived, and we all looked suitably surprised to see each other. I noticed that John Brewer’s wife Jackie was also present. Apparently she hardly ever comes to Rotary meetings, but she had been told what was happening beforehand, so she could make sure John actually turned up tonight. She decided the best way to ensure he came tonight was to say that she was going herself.

                                         The DG is briefed for Club Assembly

John clearly had his suspicions, as he came up to me at one point and asked why the DG and I were there tonight. I just responded breezily that the DG likes to re-visit clubs that she particularly enjoyed visiting earlier in the year, although I’m not sure he was convinced. I wouldn’t be surprised if he asked the same question  to Betty McLure.

                                                        Betty McLure with the DG and John Brewer

Throughout dinner, I was getting ready for my speech, during which I would make the presentation of the Paul Harris fellowship to John Brewer. All that I needed was the actual medal and certificate, which I expected the DG would hand to me at the appropriate time. Well that time came quite quickly, because immediately following dinner, Mike Shone announced that there was to be a special presentation this evening.

                                                          I have been usurped again

At last, I thought, my moment has arrived, and I started getting up to my feet. Imagine my surprise then, when I saw that the DG had already taken to the floor, with the medal and certificate firmly grasped in her hand. Clearly she had decided that if there were any presentations to be made tonight, she was going to be doing them. I wasn’t disappointed on my own account of course, but I was sorry that John, like Nigel a few weeks ago, had missed out on being presented with his award by the Consort to the District Governor, a moment I’m sure he would have cherished.

Proud John

Anyway, the presentation went well, and John did a good job of being surprised to receive it, although I suspect he had probably guessed what was about to happen.  The DG and Betty both expressed how well deserved the award was, and a delighted  John Brewer made a nice acceptance speech.

                                             It should have been me - the DG is flanked by Betty and John

The meeting then moved on to the Club assembly, which was led by President Elect Andrew Ford, who takes over on July 1^st. Reports were heard from the various committee chairmen, and I was struck with the friendly and lively atmosphere throughout the meeting. I certainly approved of the comment by one chap, whose name I didn’t get, who said that he was introducing a new question to the 4-way test (essentially the Rotary Code of Conduct). From now on, he said, there will be a five-way test, encompassing the original 4 points, plus this one ‘Is it fun?’  Too right, I thought. We shouldn’t do anything if it isn’t fun.

                                            Andrew Ford (standing) leads the meeting

The meeting concluded with a Sergeant at Arms who fined members for various misdemeanours, real or imagined. People were fined for arriving late, for speaking too much, for poor dress sense, in fact whatever occurred to the Sergeant at Arms. The fines were only about 20p, but it created a lot of merriment. My own club used to have a Sergeant at Arms at the end of each meeting, but some members were uncomfortable with it so it was stopped. Perhaps I will bring it back when I’m President next year.

Powerful Team - Michael Shone, Andrew Ford, DG, ??

Dawn Chorus

Wednesday 20^th May. This morning several members of Shepperton Aurora joined me on an expedition to Chertsey  Meads with the intention of listening to the Dawn Chorus.  Why, you may well ask, was an important personage such as the Consort to the District Governor traipsing across a meadow at such an unearthly hour? To explain fully, I need to go back a few years, 34 of them in fact.

                                                       Chertsey Meads

When we were first married, more years ago than I care to remember, the DG used to get up first in the morning (she wasn’t the DG then, of course).  Whilst I was showering and getting ready for work, she would make us some tea and toast for breakfast. However, she would invariably burn the toast, and proceed to scrape off the black bits with a knife.  I could hear this scraping noise going on from upstairs, and it was such a regular occurrence that I used to call it the dawn chorus.

                                                                            Burnt toast

Obviously It wasn’t the real dawn chorus, which actually begins before first light, and is really the sound of birdsong as our feathered friends herald a new day of attracting a mate, nesting and defending  territories.  I didn’t know much, or even care about birds as a young man growing up, but this all changed after I became married and moved into our own home. As a house warming  present, someone gave us a red plastic bag, containing peanuts, and suggested we hung it on a tree to feed birds. Almost immediately, I was hooked.  I recognised common birds like sparrows and robins, but what were those funny little yellow birds hanging upside down on the nuts? I also noticed another bird, which looked a bit like a sparrow, but wasn’t.

                                                                               Tits on feeder (picture from web)

The following Christmas, I was delighted to receive from Santa a copy of the Reader’s Digest Field Guide to the Birds of Britain. This was fantastic.  It not only had a description of every native bird in Britain, but expertly drawn portraits of them and photos as well. I spent hours looking at birds in the garden, and looking them up in my Readers Digest Field Guide. I was amazed by the sheer variety of birds to be seen. Blue tits, great tits, dunnocks, pied wagtails, greenfinches, bullfinches and wrens all passed through regularly, and were duly noted. Then I realised that in the field beyond my garden, and the lake beyond that, there were a whole lot of different species, some of which were too far off to see clearly.

                                                         

So I invested in some binoculars, and a whole new world was opened for me. I saw lapwings, snipe, woodpeckers, and on the water I could see grebes, tufted ducks and herons.  In the winter, temporary visitors would appear, such as fieldfares, redwings and smew, whilst in the summer there were swallows, swifts and house martins. All this I could watch from the comfort of my living room.

                                                               Swift

I have been a keen birdwatcher ever since, and have particularly studied birdsong, which can be a more reliable means of recognising different species than visual identification.  So many warblers, for instance, look similar and it can be very difficult to separate them. In the birdwatching fraternity they are called Little Brown Jobs (or LBJs). However, if you know that the chiffchaff, one of our most widespread warblers, simply calls out his name all day long, he can be very easy to identify.  I have  done a few talks on bird identification to groups of people, including the Rotary Club of Shepperton Aurora a couple of weeks ago. Having enthused them (I hope) with the delights of birdsong recognition, I thought it would be a good idea to take them out into the field to put their new found skills to the test.

                                                       Chiffchaff

So that was how, at 5.30 this morning,  I came to be leading a group of 10 on an expedition to Chertsey Meads to listen to the dawn chorus (it actually begins an hour earlier than that, but I doubted that I could persuade anybody to come along at 4.30). We met at the Bridge Hotel on Chertsey Bridge, and the plan was that we would be back at the Hotel by 7.00 for our usual breakfast meeting.  Walking there was a simple matter of crossing the road from the hotel,  following the river path past the new development of luxury flats, turning right at Bates Marine, and there you are.

                                                        The intrepid explorers set off

Chertsey Meads is a hidden gem, unknown to most residents of Shepperton. Even those who know about it tend not to go there. I fell into that category until I became a dog owner, and  started to go there to add some variety to our daily walks. It is an enormous area of meadow land, bounded on two sides by rivers (the Thames and the Bourne) and with just one road crossing it leading to the Hamm Court Estate. It may sound fanciful, but in May and early June, it would be easy to kid yourself that you were in an alpine meadow, such is the abundance of wildflowers carpeting the whole area.  You have to use a little imagination, and ignore the traffic noise from busy local roads and the M3 Motorway. You also have to ignore aircraft departing Heathrow Airport, which may pass directly overhead depending on the wind direction. And of course you have to ignore the absence of any mountains. But aside from those small points, it really could be Austria.

            

                                                        An alpine meadow

The Meads is a super place for birdwatching because it has so many different habitats, which all attract different types of birds. It has woodland, meadows, reedbeds and rivers, so there is great scope for a variety of sightings.  My objectives for the morning were for my companions to hear and identify some of the birdsong I had played to them on my tape recorder a couple of weeks previously. Number one on my wish list was the skylark, a bird that is rapidly disappearing from our area, and is rarely heard. However I know that there is a small population of them on Chertsey Meads, so I was really hoping we would at least hear a skylark even if we didn’t get to see one. I was also hoping for a sighting of a kingfisher. I know they are present on this stretch of the Thames, but they can be quite secretive and difficult to spot.

                                                        Believe it or not, this is a densely populated area

It was surprisingly cold as we set off, in fact there was frost on the ground which is unusual for this time of year. We hadn’t even reached the Meads when we heard our first wren singing. The wren is actually the commonest bird in Britain, although it is not often seen, as it tends to lurk in the undergrowth. On our walk this morning we would hear more wrens than any other bird, which underlines this fact. Our party was in good spirits as we headed diagonally across the Meads.  It wasn’t long before we heard the unmistakeable sound of a skylark singing above us. We were to hear two skylarks this morning, and we all managed to see the second one. 

                                                              Skylark

 Approaching the River Bourne we came within 200 yards of a pair of roe deer. I have long known that there were deer on Chertsey Meads, but I have only ever seen them on two occasions before today. They seem to hide themselves very well. The river Bourne generated some interest among those of us who knew it flowed through Chertsey, but hadn’t seen it before. In fact there are two River Bournes, the Addlestone Bourne and the Chertsey  Bourne, and they meet at Chertsey Meads before  flowing into the Thames.

Where are the birds?

By now we were starting to run short of time, so after a quick visit to the reedbeds (reed buntings and sedge warblers were heard) we had to head back to Chertsey bridge, missing the stretch of the Thames where I had hoped we might see kingfishers. We had walked a couple of miles in fine countryside, and saw or heard a total of 21 species of birds. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and we all got back safely, so I felt it had been a successful expedition.

                                                                 Kingfisher