Tag: Watatunga Wildlife Reserve

Watatunga Revisited

An account of a visit to Watatunga yesterday with my parents.

17 days ago I visited Watatunga Wildlife Reserve as part of a West Norfolk Autism Group delegation for what should have been assemblage of mental health related charities, and blogged about it the following day. My mother was impressed enough by my account of the day to decide that when she and my father visited me this weekend before they head to Australia for several months we would visit the place ourselves. This post looks back at that visit.

AGE DOTH NOT WITHER NOR CUSTOM STALE…

There were several important differences between my two trips – the first time I travelled round in a trailer, this time round we were in a buggy (I commented while we were on our way there that these buggies looked a little like they had been built using Quadro, which was an exaggeration, but not massively much of one. They have no sides, and the roofs do not provide full coverage either. They bounce like crazy whenever the surface underneath is rough, which is quite often. The weather was inclement, and although my seat was wiped down before I sat on it, and I was given a poncho to shelter my legs I still ended up with slightly damp trousers. Also with the clocks having just gone back it was darkening by the time we finished our trip, and pitch black by the time our taxi arrived to take us to King’s Lynn station, from where I walked home while my parents travelled south. However, for all the issues with our mode of transportation, the weather and the encroaching darkness I enjoyed this visit as much as I had enjoyed the previous one, even though they were so close together.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the pictures I took that came out well enough to keep…

Some of the buggies – note that as we were a group of three ours was smaller than most of these.
Great Bustard male.
Javan peafowls – these are very rare, so the two chicks are big news.
Watatunga’s largest resident, a one ton Cape Eland and its satellite, a Nilgai (only the latter’s back is visible). These two species could never meet in the wild since they live on different continents.
Eurasian Cranes
A roan antelope
The roan antelope.
An eastern bongo (the silvery stripes identify it) with a pair of Eurasian cranes in the foreground.
Guinea fowl – the light was fading by this point.

Watlington Wildlife

My write up of yesterday’s tour round Watatunga Wildlife Reserve near Watlington in Norfolk.

Watlington, just down the A10 from King’s Lynn, might seem like an unlikely place to see interesting wildlife, but it harbours a secret, accessed by means of an prepossessing looking gravel track that leads to a carpark and reception centre both of which are within eye- and earshot of the A10…

THE WATATUNGA
WILDLIFE RESERVE

This establishment, whose website has the strapline “Conservation Today for Wildlife Tomorrow” is explored by motorized buggy, which means that you need at least one person in your group to have a full driving license (also the walk from Watlington station would take some time and a lot of it is along a busy road with no footpath) and is home to a range of interesting species (birds and herbivorous mammals only).

Yesterday a number of us from NAS West Norfolk got to experience this. We used five four seater buggies and one six seater for our groups, with me sharing a buggy with our branch chair and her son. We had a guide who told us what could be seen. After a stretch along a sand track and then through a tunnel which was ankle deep in water we got to the reserve proper and we were not disappointed – lots of wonderful creatures were indeed on show.

After our arrival back at the reception area I got a lift back to the train station, arriving just in time to catch the 18:23 to King’s Lynn, meaning I was home just before seven.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Even with the difficulties imposed by being in a moving vehicle (with occasional stops, but strictly no getting out of the vehicle at any point) I got some splendid pictures:

I hope you enjoy these pictures of the wonderful wildlife of Watatunga, just as I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the creatures yesterday, even in less than ideal weather.