For those interested in birds, a vote is being taken to decide which will be Britain’s national bird. There is a shortlist of ten, from which I have voted for the Blackbird. For more details and/or to vote visit www.votenationalbird.com. Below is how I introduced this to my twitter followers…

Yesterday afternoon I felt like varying things a bit, so I decided I would follow Bawsey Drain as far as possible, and did so until it hit the Gaywood River, at which point I followed that waterway until I reached Wootton Road, whence I headed back into town, via the Gaywood Clock. I finished up by walking through the parkland to Seven Sisters, past the South Gate and down to the Great Ouse via Hardings Pits, following the river as close as is permitted until reaching Devil’s Alley, which I diverged down as it was necessary to check in on my Aunt’s house and make sure all was OK. Having finished there I returned home by going down St Margaret’s Lane to the river and heading along the bank to the Lower Purfleet, which I followed into the heart of the town before crossing the bridge into Baker Lane car park and arriving back at my flat almosgt exactly three hours after departure.
My candidate for Britain’s national bird was much in evidence, as these pictures show…

There were many other birds in evidence as well, some of which I did justice to…

Of course, I also spotted some interesting architectural features…

For my penultimate set of pictures I am going to focus on the Great Ouse…

To end this post, although it came in the middle of the walk I will feature Gaywood’s principal landmark, a clock that is also a war memorial…

























