On the way to see the Bob Dylan film, I stopped to look for herons. In the next month or so they’ll gather together in heronries to nest. There’s a known site at Kinewell Lake near Ringstead. It’s a lovely setting with a public path right round the perimeter. Grey herons and cormorants perched on islands, as well as great egrets which are part of the heron family. It should be a good place to watch them and get some good sound recordings of the adults and chicks.
I saw the film in Cineworld at Rushden Lakes Shopping Centre. A strange and alien setting, made even more unsettling by the video game interior design of the foyer. But the film itself was excellent – completely believable, and the music and sound design were a joy.
Walking back to the car in the dark afterwards, past the anonymous lights of the endless prestige label shops and eating places, I heard wigeon calling from the lake which runs alongside the site. Round sunken gardens at water level have been set into the terraces between groups of shops. One connects beneath the paving with the lake itself and contains a reed bed.
I heard a quiet kerfuffle on the way past and stopped by the well-lit entrance to Greggs to look down. A hundred or more tiny white faces looked up at me, pied wagtails fidgeting and swaying among the reeds as they settled down to roost for the night.
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