A Sunday afternoon at College Lake

We spent a lovely afternoon at College Lake today. It's one of BBOWT's flagship nature reserves and has a very family friendly feel to it. The kids love to run around there, peeping out of the bird hides and watching the different water birds hanging out on the lake.

Even on a cloudy day the views were fantastic, looking out across the lake at the flotillas of bobbing 'ducks'.

There were lots of different birds bobbing about on the water, but the kids were most fascinated by the swans that spent most of their time with their bottoms in the air.

Bottoms Up!

Then they raced up to the bird hide in the trees called the 'Window in the woods' to watch the chaffinches, blue tits, great tits, coal tits and robins.

The male chaffinches are so handsome with their pink faces and chests. They were giving the timid little coal tits a hard time though and chasing them away from the feeders.

Male chaffinch

After a bit more running around and a quick 'performance' in the outdoor theatre, we headed back to the visitor centre and had a look around the Christmas art fair. There were lots of beautiful things, but I was very good and resisted the temptation to buy anything.

Fresh air, lovely views, a spot of bird watching and a browse around the art fair. What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.