Attenborough Nature Reserve, April 2023
One of the places I really miss after moving from Nottingham to Leeds is
Attenborough Nature Reserve (also: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap).
Despite living just over an hour's walk from the reserve since 2017, I didn't visit until the summer of 2020. Like for many people, it was the lockdown and disruption of the pandemic which got me to explore the nearby nature reserves. Then, in 2022 I attended a Wildlife Photography Course at the reserve by the photographer, videographer and writer Jack Perks - I do have a few photos I took during that course and I may share them on here in the future. But this post is about a couple of visits I made to the reserve in April 2023, just a few months before I moved away from Nottingham.
About the reserve
Following open-pit gravel mining in the area next to Attenborough village in the first half of the 20th century, the disused gravel pits flooded creating a series of artificial lakes next to the Trent and Erewash rivers. The site was established as a wetland nature reserve in 1966 and was opened by the one and only David Attenborough (who's family apparently hail from the area). Today the site is owned and managed by Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust. A few signs of the reserve's industrial past remain, but what draws people here are the birds.
If you visit Attenborough, I highly recommend stopping at The Bird Hide micropub! I didn't get to visit The Bird Hide on either of the days out I talk about below as they were both on Mondays when the pub is usually closed. I have been a few times though, in 2022-2023 and again in 2024 on a visit back to Nottingham. I've always found this micropub welcoming and each time they've had a good selection of gravity-dispensed cask ales. They also sell excellent quality mead and I am highly in favour of more pubs selling mead!
17th April
This was a relatively short walk around the reserve with my partner Emily, so I didn't spend too much time running off with my camera. I did get a few good photos, including one shot of a couple of Egyptian Geese that I was really happy with.
My favourite discovery of the day was the quality of the bacon sandwiches in the visitors' centre!
24th April
This time I went to the reserve on my own so was much more focused on the wildlife and my photography. I spent most of the morning in the bird hides provided on the site, these were excellent facilities giving a great view over the main lakes of the reserve, but wildlife is fickle. I saw very little of interest to photograph from the hides, and the few times I did spot something it was gone before I could get a good shot of it. This is the way things happen some days, wildlife photography is an excellent way to learn patience!
After leaving the hides I took a walk around the reserve and my luck improved at the main carpark - not the place you'd expect to give the best photography subjects but see above re wildlife being fickle...
As well as the very dapper duck you see above, I saw a remarkably friendly swan who didn't fit the usual hissing and threatening stereotype. I captured a shot of a moorhen looking at me curiously for just a second before running off. And I saw the first goslings I'd seen so far that year.
From one of the bridges between the artificial islands of the site I looked back over the visitor's centre, a.k.a. the Attenborough Nature Centre, a.k.a. the home of excellent bacon sandwiches.
I really enjoyed both of my visits to the reserve that April and I was looking forward to having many more opportunities to visit. Little did I know that later that year we'd end up moving to Leeds! I have since been able to re-visit the reserve though, and will undoubtably be making more trips back to Nottingham in the future to see it again.
