About Mountsorrel > Outdoors > Nature Diary > Midwinter 2002
A crisp and sunny New Year's day was the ideal time to walk off the celebrations of the night before. With a thin snow cover and a very hard frost – down to -8 degrees C – even the muddiest of ground was frozen and therefore a good occasion to walk round Mountsorrel Marshes. This area is muddy at the best of times and often under water in winter, but this time the frozen top surface was firm enough to keep your feet dry. The Marshes are probably best visited in summer when flowers and insects are more visible but even in the middle of winter there can be interesting things to see. The water in the ditches around the fields was not frozen and a number of small birds – wrens and robins – sped off into the willows. A flock of about twenty Canada geese was grazing on the edge of the river and on my approach they shuffled off onto the unfrozen water. One pair took flight and circled around calling loudly – always a stirring sight and sound – but perhaps more typical of the Canadian Arctic than the English Midlands.
A few small ripples at the edge of the water caught my attention, so keeping very still in case it was a water vole, I saw a small brown water bird surface. It was a dabchick, or little grebe, birds that are not so common these days and may be, like the water vole, a victim of predators such as mink. It is the smallest of our native grebes, only 25cm (10ins) long, with a short stubby bill and a stumpy, 'cut off' rear end. It briefly looked around and then dived again. A couple of other walkers trod carefully around the edge of the fields and enquired about the way out to Barons Way. It was good to see other people exploring this nature area.
Near to the playing fields entrance I flushed up two very different birds. The first, feeding on the mud at the edge of the ditch, had a long, straight bill and flew silently off to the left; it was a woodcock! These birds are normally seen in thick woodlands like Swithland Wood so this one may have been a migrant from the continent. The second bird was a grey wagtail, a handsome bird with grey back and yellow breast and belly.
Completing the walk around the edge of the playing fields fieldfares and redwings scattered through the willow trees. The final bird of the day – a great spotted woodpecker flying through the trees – completed an excellent walk. My short winter's walk around a couple of marshy fields had provided lots of interest, all within a short distance from the centre of the village.