B is for Broads!

Yesterday our Alphabet Weekend destination was The Broads which is a nearby protected wetland with national park status that's managed by The Broads Authority. The whole ecosystem spreads across the eastern edge of Norfolk and into Suffolk and we're lucky enough to live just a short drive from this area of natural beauty. Except we never go there! I have absolutely no idea why this is but I thought that this weekend was a good opportunity to head out and explore a couple of the nearby ones to remind ourselves what we're missing out on.

The broads we visited were Ranworth Broad and Cockshoot Broad - both of which are nature reserves looked after by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. The picture above is of the Ranworth Wildlife Centre which has viewing windows with binoculars on the top floor and floats on the broad itself. They both have wheelchair/pram friendly board walks to lead visitors around them and, no doubt, to protect the wildlife from people trampling all over them!

As it's spring, there were loads of baby birds testing out their swimming ability which I have to say was adorable. There's something so incredibly cute about fluffy ducklings and goslings swimming around! There was a huge variety of bird life to see - it was really nice to realise how lucky we are to live where we do and that we really should learn more about our local environment. Sadly, we didn't see an otter or a water vole but next time...

Inexplicably, I appear to have taken only two photos yesterday (one of a sign and one of Mr B enjoying his pub lunch at a local Brewery (see what I did there?). We did take along our new video camera though and got some great footage of Birds on the Broads but I've not imported/edited that yet. The more I use this camera, the more I love it - such great quality footage that I think we'll need a new TV to do it justice ;)