The final installment in my series about Saturday’s excursion to Pensthorpe, featuring Cranes and Flamingos.
Welcome to the final post in my mini-series about the excursion to Pensthorpe on Saturday. Our subjects are cranes and flamingos. The former are the subject of one of Pensthorpe’s major conservation efforts.
CRANES AND FLAMINGOS
As you enter the area where the cranes and flamingos are the flamingo pool is in one direction, open and visible, and the birds themselves, clustered together in numbers, are even more so. In the other direction is the crane hide, with wide, shallow windows each of which you can observe a different species of crane through. I actually managed to visit this part of Pensthorpe twice in the course of the day, near the beginning and near the end (visiting it also means passing within sight of the Monet inspired bridge, pictures of which featured in my introductory post, which is a bonus).
The penultimate post in my Pensthorpe series, dealing with the Explorer ride.
This is the fourth post in my series about my part in the West Norfolk Autism Group excursion to Pensthorpe on Saturday. This one looks at the trip on the explorer which showed as the stuff we could not get on foot.
AN INFORMATIVE JOURNEY
With the explorer due to leave at 12:00 I was ready for it by 11:50, and I got an excellent seat, at the front left of the trailer (most of the really interesting sights are off to the left as one travels, so sitting on the left side of the vehicle is a good idea). Our driver/guide gave us extraordinarily wide ranging information of everything from present arrangements at Pensthorpe, to the effects of WWII on the land (food shortages meant that every last ounce of crop had to be extracted from the land, which meant that the soil was hugely overworked and took a long time to recover), to the history of human settlement at Pensthorpe, to details of Pensthorpe’s position at the southern edge of the northern ice-sheet during the last era of glaciation and the effect that that had on the local landscape. There were also details about oak trees, and how the three survivors of the great storm of 1987 could be proven to be such (oaks don’t produce acorns until they are 40 years old or more, which means that an acorn bearing oak dates from 1983 at the earliest, and all three trees are acorn bearing), nesting boxes of various kinds (three different species of owl were catered for, plus bats (specifically pipistrelles, a tiny species about the size of a human thumb) whose boxes were organized in a group of three at different angles, as bats don’t like to be warm, so need to be able to move out of the sun), and other nesting platforms. The ecological importance of the Wensum, as a chalk river, was also stressed. One part of our route had once been a railway line, transporting goods (it never had a passenger service), which fell victim to Dr Beeching 60 years ago.
It was a cold journey due to the weather, which is one reason why I did not go round a second time, but it was very enjoyable in spite of the conditions.
Continuing my account of my visit to Pensthorpe with a look at the discovery centre and at the sculptures dotted around the place.
This is my third post in a mini-series about my part in a West Norfolk Autism Group excursion to Pensthorpe which took place on Saturday. It is a two part post, and represents the mid-point of the series – there will be two further posts afterwards.
PART ONE: DISCOVERY CENTRE
The discovery centre at Pensthorpe contains many features of interest, including a harvest mouse, a glass fronted beehive, a tank containing small water creatures, exhibits about bird evolution and giant birds, some woolly mammoth remains, dating back approximately 10,500 years to a time when Norfolk was at the southern edge of a massive ice sheet extending all the way from the north pole, and other stuff. It is also inside, which on day like Saturday gave it extra value – I made a total of three visits…
A rare occasion on which the harvest mouse made itself visible.
THE SCULPTURES
There are sculptures dotted around Pensthorpe, and they definitely enhance the experience. I have slightly extended the range of objects that would usually be described as sculptures by including a bench and also a mosaic. I did not specifically set myself a task of finding and imaging sculptures, I just imaged them when I happened to find them, but one could undoubtedly plan to identify and photograph every sculpture at Pensthorpe. I favour a freestyle approach to somewhere like Pensthorpe but some may prefer to be more regimented/ organized.
Continuing my mini-series about my visit to Pensthorpe with a look at the ducks and geese that I saw there, which include some exotic species as well as some commonplace ones.
This is the second post in my mini-series (the first is here) about my visit to Pensthorpe yesterday as part of a West Norfolk Autism Group excursion.
MIXING THE MAGNIFICENT AND THE MUNDANE
A huge variety of duck and goose species were on show all around Pensthorpe. The Barnacle Geese (black and white coloured and smaller than any other variety of goose at Pensthorpe) were notably aggressive. There were goose families of one sort or another on or around virtually every pathway. Ducks of varying species were using pretty much every available body of water.
Introducing what will be a mini-series about the West Norfolk Autism Group visit to Pensthorpe Natural Park.
Yesterday saw a West Norfolk Autism Group excursion to Pensthorpe, a nature reserve combined with a working farm a few miles from Fakenham in Norfolk took place. This post introduces what will be a mini-series about the day as I experienced it. I will be doing specific posts about the varieties of ducks and geese on show, the flamingos and cranes, the discovery centre, the sculptures (probably these last two will share one post) and the Explorer trip. The gallery for this post will feature some introductory and general pictures.
OVERVIEW OF PENSTHORPE
Pensthorpe, which was a village until the 14th century when the black death accounted for so many of its inhabitants that the survivors had no option but to up sticks and move down the road to Fakenham, which was originally the smaller of the two places is now home to a nature reserve which is involved in a number of very important conservation efforts. There is also a working farm, and a lot of the electricity the site needs is generated by solar panels on the roofs of the farm buildings – for so big a site it has a tiny carbon footprint. I was booked on the 12:00 Explorer ride (and could also have had a place on the second ride an hour later, but the weather cool, though at least it stayed dry, so I settled for one trip. Otherwise between our arrival just before 10:30, and our departure, scheduled for 3:30PM it was entirely up to me how I spent the time.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here to complete this introductory post are some photographs…
aspiblog 