Brockholes

This was the first visit for me to the Brockholes Nature Reserve and its floating visitor village. I had a meeting in the conference centre there. This could have been very distracting, though the ice covered water was attracting no birds today as the snow fell.

It is only a couple of years since the Reserve and visitor centre opened, and the old gravel pits still look a little stark. As the reedbeds, willows and alders grow up, the wetland will mature into a much more intimate place. But wildlife is already multiplying quickly under the management of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust - for example, in a few years sedge warblers have gone from two breeding pairs to more than 80.

The buildings stand on a raft of concrete made buoyant by air chambers. This solves the problem of coping with flooding, the raft can rise 4 metres in an extreme flood event. The whole complex is a model of sustainability. If you are interested, there is much more detail here.

I had been hoping for a bird blip during lunchtime, but there were none in range, so here is a very processed shot of the building that houses the shop.

Thank you for all the kind comments on the Wifie blip yesterday. It's good to know I did her justice on this occasion. Some said it would be difficult to take a bad photo of her. Believe me, I can.