An Adventure to London's Wildlife Haven

My husband's birthday treat was a trip to the Wildlife & Wetlands Trust in Barnes, London. Having gone to the one in Arundel for my birthday, I chose Barnes as it is a prime location for bird photography. Now that my husband has his very own fancy camera and has become pretty good at wildlife shots I thought he would enjoy spending a day at a place renowned as a haven for birds, as it is the largest wild green space in the capital.

Our adventure began much the same as usual - a large tea at the station before hopping on a train. We had to change at Clapham Junction, and then it was a ten minute walk from the station in Barnes to the wetlands.

We were thirsty on arrival so headed straight to the cafe for a cup of tea and a cookie, which we enjoyed outside on the water's edge, admiring a range of waterfowl splashing about. Of course, my husband had his camera out immediately, bravely ignoring the monstrosity belonging to the serious birding couple on the table next to us.

Our first stop after tea, however, was not to see more birds. It was the otter enclosure. The centre has recently introduce a family of four Asian short-clawed otters and I was eager to see them. However, they were nowhere to be seen in their specially landscaped area of rocks, waterfalls and pools. We peered through the portholes into their sleeping holt but they weren't in there either.

Not to be discouraged, as the day was yet young, we continued onto Wildside where native flora grows in abundance to create a habitat resembling an untouched area of English countryside, a far cry from the concrete jungle that is London. Indeed, the only reminder that we were in the city was the view of roofs beyond the main lagoon, and the occasional wail of sirens in the distance.

As soon as we entered through the tall double gates we were greeted by the musical trumpeting of marsh frogs. We scanned the reeds, attempting to make them out, and eventually we saw one out on the water and watched , fascinated by his bulging vocal sacs as he croaked. Eventually the peace was disrupted by a group of 'jolly hockey sticks' types on a tour, so we decided to disappear up a footpath into the relative tranquillity of the reed beds, after first attempting to photograph a rather majestic grey heron resting on a bridge.

We kept our eyes pealled for water voles but they were far more elusive than at Arundel, and unfortunately we didn't see any. There were plenty of brightly coloured damselflies and dragonflies flitting about however, which made me somewhat nostalgic for our honeymoon almost two years ago, as we'd several on our stays in both Devon and on the Kennet & Avon Canal.

We continued on to one of the many bird hides for some peaceful twitching until we became hungry. We walked back to the main picnic area with a quick diversion to the otter enclosure - they were still hiding.

After lunch we visited the other side of the wetlands, meandering through lush gardens full of brightly coloured June blooms. Eventually we stopped for a rest on a bench where the foliage thickened around one of the lakes, when my husband's eye was caught by a pretty little bird fluttering about the tree opposite. He got up to take a closer look and realised it was a long-tail tit feeding her six chicks all lined up on a branch. We were captivated by them for some time, and my husband began to take numerous photos. After a while I walked on ahead to practise my own photography in a slightly less committed manner, playing with the aperture and the macro features.

After some considerable time I managed to tear my husband away from the incredibly cute long-tail chicks and we continued on, visiting a few more bird hides, where we spied many birds from visiting Egyptian geese raising their young to sand martins flying back and forth on their hunt for food for their young.

It was then time for more tea, so we went back to the cafe, arriving just in time to see a greedy jackdaw demolishing the sandwich of one of the workers - occupational hazard I guess, tee hee.

We tried to see the otters again but they were still hiding, so we wandered around World Wetlands, looking at different wetland species from all around the world. My favourite was probably this puna teal, native to the Andes, because I think his blue beak is cool!

We did another circuit of Wildside but the water voles were still hiding, and even the dragonflies had disappeared as the sky grew greyer and the wind grew stronger. We decided it was time to head home before the rains hit, with one final stop by the otter enclosure on the way out.

This time they were there, hooray! They were playing in the water and on the rocks, clambering over each other and splashing about. We had unknowingly arrived at the enclosure just before feeding time, and so we watched as they excitedly scrambled for the food that the staff tossed into the water. It was definitely worth the wait to see them!

We then proceeded homewards, squished onto a commuter train reminiscent of both our days working in London. It was a relief to get eventually get off of the train, even into the torrential rain that had now hit. We hurried through town to our favourite Indian restaurant for a delicious meal to round off a lovely day, with a great deal of wildlife photos to show for it.

Photos my own.