A Visit to the Sandmartin Hotel

Not the best photos but I thought you might be interested to see the Sandmartin Hotel
At Testwood lakes they have built a sandmartin Hotel. The sand martins were in danger of losing their breeding grounds when the gravel pits were turned into a reservoir. In 2006 an artificial cliff was built and in 2007 24 pairs bred here. earlier this year the hotel was extended and their are now 100 nesting sites. The sand martin is a summer migrant to England and they return in April . Already many of the rooms are taken. They are such pretty little birds as the sun catches their pale bodies as they skim over the lake. They are also very fast.

A Lot of Rain.

Mid morning the rain stopped for a while, and we decided to go down to the lower test nature reserve for an hour or so.The footpath follows the line of pylons, so we did not get very far!
We walked down the road to see if we could get over the bridge but again we did not get very far! You can just see the bridge in the distance but the water was to deep to wade through.

We decided to go up to Testwood lakes and find the hide up there, but alas the footpath was being repaired and was closed. Unfortunately we walked for about 20 mins until we found way was barred and so we had to retrace our footsteps. Why they couldn't have put a sign in the car park I don't know! There were plenty of gulls about and a pair of swans on one of the lakes so we did get some photos before the rain started again.

Testwood Lakes

Testwood lakes were built by Southern water to ensure an adequate supply of water for Southampton and the surrounding area. Work began in 1992 Work was completed in 2002 and the public have access to the lakes. It seems to be a popular place t walk the dog and several were having a swim whilst we were there.

Ox eye daisies

This afternoon we stopped by Testwood lakes to see if we could find any Goslings. We found a few ducks and a solitary duckling , but no geese or goslings.
What we did find were masses of Oxeye daisies blowing in the wind.