Pete Barker (Bark), Tom Wickens (The Wickster), myself (Two Eyes) and Jason Coppock (Badger) returned to College Lake to take part in the Annual Bird Race held alternately each year at Otmoor RSPB and College Lake BBOWT near Tring. The aim is for each participating team to get sponsorship and all proceeds go to support BBOWT and Otmoor RSPB. Usually around £600.00 is raised, it is a great morning out and lots of fun. The race runs from 9am to 1pm and a token trophy of a shield is awarded the winners although the shield is retained at BBOWT's superb visitor centre at College Lake.
If you have never been to College Lake do go as the reserve is well worth a visit and the facilities are quite frankly some of the best I have ever encountered throughout the UK, being very modern, catering for all ages and having a really nice cafe. This was our first visit to this reserve and we were the defending Bird Race champions, having won last year at Otmoor and we won it again this year with a total of 61 species seen! It was a lot of fun, the weather remained fine and we saw some good birds. A few of the highlights in our total were a very late Swallow, a male Kingfisher tucked away in the corner of the lake and half a dozen Lesser Redpolls feeding in a small alder. We failed to find a Great Spotted Woodpecker and another team were lucky enough to see a Merlin.
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