A quick one at the Local....

......as a lad of about 9 or 10 yrs old, I rather nurdily joined the local Natural History Society with a friend of mine and rather than play the usual game of footy on a Saturday morning, we would regularly take our cheep plastic binoculars, along with a packet of sandwiches (of sorts),  pencil/notebook and the Observer Book of Birds to the local nature reserve...... Admittedly, this was 40 odd years ago but I cannot remember ever seeing anything......though we did convince ourselves that we clearly observed everything from Golden Eagles to Ostriches.
As I say, that was many moons ago, and much fluid has passed beneath the span since then, but it is with a very real pleasure that I still occasionally visit the same reserve having moved back to the area (ish) after life's various adventures in pastures elsewhere.
The many acres of mixed broadleaf/deciduous woodland, with their forest rides and paths, the broad expanse of the 'secret lake' at its heart, and the still magical wooden-hut hides placed accordingly, for which you need a special key to enter .....its all still there...seemingly unchanged from boyhood memory.
Even now, as I poke my jaded nose into that unchanged 'members' hut containing the communal observation log book and cobwebby specimens of feather, skull, nest and various found bits of 'nature'....the damp wooden walls pinned with fading mouldy posters of birds, animals and plants....I am, thankfully, still filled with the same simple feelings of excitement and interest.
I make my way quietly into the reserve and am almost guaranteed the familiar and hugely welcomed sightings of the usual suspects....
All the woodland birdage is seen. Tit/Finch/Wren/Warbler/Blackbird/Thrush/Rook/Pigeon/Robin/
Wagtail/Sparrow/Nuthatch/Treecreeper/Jay etc etc etc.....
The lake can be relied upon to offer up for inspection the usual massed troops of water-based personnel including Mallard/ Tufted/ Pochard/Grebe/Swan/Coot/Moorhen/Bittern/Cormorant/etc etc etc plus the added visitation of wetland exotica.....
Four-footed and furred residents can also be encountered.....Roe / Fox / Squirrel / Badger / Otter / Rodent variation /etc etc.......Bats.
Creepy crawlies are everywhere....obviously....but we don't mention them......
and of course, the trees...ah the trees, the woodland itself.....the ground growth....the reed-beds....the plants and flowers.....

(I even came upon a dinner-plate sized terrapin-turtle thing once !...and despite photographic evidence.....no-one believed me....)

All in all, even after 50 years or so, the comparatively mundane and familiar 'nature' of a standard ramble in such surroundings can still set whatever passes for my soul alight....