College Lake Wildlife Reserve

While camping at the weekend we stumbled across College Lake Wildlife Reserve. Located just outside Tring in Buckinghamshire it was such a fabulous discovery, an oasis of calm on the surface but teeming with activity and wildlife.

Operated by the Wildlife Trust, the lake is a former chalk quarry pit, now an outstanding centre for wetland birds, insects and wild flowers.

We strolled around the idyllic lake, stopping at the numerous bird hides along the way.  There are various different marked walks depending on the time you have available and year-round there's always something to see.

The noticeboards tell you some of the birds you might be lucky enough to spot - a chiffchaff, a skylark, peregrine, lapwing and cuckoos had all been seen recently.  We didn't have binoculars with us so bird spotting was a little difficult, but given that Ruby's Year 2 topic has been 'mini beasts' we decided to concentrate on looking out for them.  We weren't disappointed.

The lakeside is blessed with an abundance of beautiful metallic dragonflies and damselflies flitting about.  There are bees busy collecting pollen from the rare chalkland wild flowers, and it's a butterfly spotters dream.

There were plenty of staff and volunteers around to advise us what to look out for and help identify creatures we'd seen and the local regular visitors were more than happy to stop and chat, showing us their captures on their cameras.

The centre is free to visit (although they do welcome donations) and it costs £3 to park.  They ask you not to take scooters or bikes on site and no dogs because of the delicate wildlife.  It's a perfect place for a weekend stroll and if you check ahead there's often organised family activities or exhibitions on in the visitor centre.

It was the perfect place to instill a love of wildlife into children, and rekindle ours too.

You can have a pitstop in the cafe which served hot and cold drinks, ice creams and snacks although the sandwiches weren't much to write home about - I think we'd take a picnic next time!

Have you visited a Wildlife Trust site before?

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