Such a nice day on Sunday I decided to take a trip round College lake with the Father in-law. We arrived at about 13:00 and parked up, BBOWT do not charge an entrance fee but suggest a £2 parking donation. The new visitors centre is very airy, there is an exhibition and a cafe area. The cafe area used to be on the north side of the site in a wooden building, but now you have to enter the site via the new one.
I must add that I have never really been a fan of college lake, I am not sure why maybe because the hides were very distant from the birds. The walk round was to change my opinion, there are now some new hides and well as some of the old ones. The water area close to the centre has been left to flood after they had done some earthworks, and the new hides are well placed to take advantage of the new waterscape.
We headed off toward the Bulbourne side first, it was the middle of the day so there was not much birding action to be seen, but we did spot a hovering Kestrel. Down over the opposite end to the center we came across a toad crossing the path, then went into the newly planted area which is a sort meadow area, there were some shrubs that were covered in the lady birds, lucking the indigenous species. When you turn back towards the center there are a couple of old bits of machinery reminding you that the site was once a chalk quarry.
From the new hide on the bund we saw the Ruff that they had told us about at the visitors centre. I will certainly return, later on the the year.