The pools they have created will be a haven for dragonflies but, today, those on the wing of this past summer have long gone. I was searching the site for willow tit, rare birds these days, but this woodland still holds some.

The two willow tits I found energetically avoided my camera but not my notebook, it was left to a buzzard and kestrel to bring a smile to the face of the camera lens as I wandered over to the Glaze near Great Woolden Hall.

The ‘floodplain’ area alongside this waterway did as watering holes do in Africa, offer a place to both bathe and feed with a few starlings sharing, as rugby players did in the past, a communal bath whilst seven Canada geese alighted on the Glaze. Then, as if a lion had wandered across this gathering of life, most of the smaller birds took flight as a wayward balloon bobbed over the site. It was time to wander back, the Boxing Day wander happily completed.

If you would like to help the Wildlife Trust with its work on the peatland become a member today – for half price!