Christine's walking & birds blog

I parked at Lake End Road car park late afternoon and set off on a circular walk. I went to the Dorney Lake entrance and along its northern edge on the footpath. The path is covered with sand and gravel and is all churned up; I'm not sure they want you there but anyway I got onto the common at last (the footpath beyond the stile was screened off).

Across the hot, windless common I could see a group of gigglesome girls splashing about in the flood. Lucky things! I thought. Anyway, at least it saved me a walk as there would clearly be no Terek Sandpiper there.

At the Dorney Wetlands, two young people were walking away from the grassy bank by the vehicle bridge, which was covered with food wrappers, cigarette cartons, socks..... One of the screen-hides had been taken over by a bunch of blokes, two of whom were wading about among the islands of East Marsh with a large net on a pole. The footbridge had been bagged by people stretched out sunbathing; so I returned to the car park on the north side.

Eventually I found a little spot all to myself on the riverbank near Marsh Lane. A shoal of small fish in the shallows kept me mesmerised as they shimmied about above the gravel. I don't know if they were feeding or spawning, or even what they were. Minnows perhaps. The largest was no more than two inches; and there were some tiny, tiny ones as well, although they might have been a different species. Anyway, they restored sanity.