Paxton Pits Nature Reserve lies just off the A1 north of St Neot’s Cambridgeshire and is a great place for some summer birding. Leica and Birdwatching Magazine teamed up to offer readers of the mag a day out birding at Paxton. Alan and Mark Symes of Leica joined Mike Weedon from Birdwatching for an early morning walk for the readers. Jenny Hodge of Leica met the guys in the reserve car-park and sorted out Leica binoculars and telescopes to be used during the walk. Once everyone was kitted out with optics the party headed into the reserve.
A Lesser Whitethroat sang in the first clump of bushes and as this bird was enjoyed the gentle purring of a Turtle Dove was heard up ahead. The dove was soon in the Leica telescope and every detail of this beautiful bird was soaked up in the early morning light. A real treat for Alan, and all the others, as Turtle Doves are declining in the UK so it was great to have such wonderful views. A Hobby flew overhead as a Nightingale burst into song from dense scrub near the Heron hide. As so often the Nightingale refused to show but poured out its wonderful throbbing song, magic.
The hide provided great views of Great crested Grebes tending their single striped young as Common Terns buzzed over the water. A noisy colony of nesting Grey Heron and Great Cormorants made for fun viewing as the huge young begged the adults for yet more food.
Back on the trail another Nightingale was blasting out its song and this one made the mistake of singing from a branch where it could be seen. The Nightingale was instantly in the telescope and everyone had time to really have a detailed look at the songster, very lucky indeed.
Back to the visitor centre for a breakfast and to meet up with rest of the group, including Sheena Harvey and Mat Merit from Birdwatching Magazine. Refreshed another walk was taken around this wonderful reserve and again the luck held with amazing views of both Turtle Dove and Nightingale. Displaying Sparrowhawks, a Common Buzzard and a Kestrel added to our raptor list. Cuckoo and Green Woodpecker were also seen all be it rather briefly. A ditch with flag-irises also held some Beautiful Demoiselle damselflies which really tested the close focus on the Leica scopes. Everyone gasped when they looked into the scope and saw the insect in alarming close-up!
The next part of the day was spent experimenting with the Leica digi-scoping kit and everyone soon found how simple and quick it is to obtain great photos using this set up. The Leica D-Lux 4 cameras used with the APO scopes with their amazing wide-angle zoom lens produced wonderful results.
A pub lunch had been laid on and this gave a chance to review the photos taken earlier in the day. An image of an adult and young Great crested Grebe was voted shot of the day by Alan, Sheena and Mike, an impromptu X-Factor style panel of judges, not sure whether Mike or Alan was most Simon like! The winning digi-scoping team of two each won a monocular with close-up lens from Leica, a fantastic prize. No one went home empty handed of course everyone had a Leica jacket, Leica pin-badge and a copy of the pictures they had taken.
Just time for a group photo in the pub beer garden before everyone set off home after a really great day at Paxton Pits Nature Reserve. Many thanks to everyone involved for making this such a fun and rewarding event.