I wanted a memorable cache for my 200th find and as I'd been told Doffcocker Lodge was good for bird watching, sarahjones65 and I decided to make it this one. We came in the car from the 'Red Rose Forest' cache at Rumworth Lodge, where we hadn't seen any birds other than a few Mallards and Black-headed Gulls. After parking in a nearby housing estate we were quickly walking through an entrance gate and down to the Lodge.
Soon we could see that the main lodge was split in two by a causeway, and I remembered that someone had told me that this was a good place from which to photograph ducks and other water fowl. Unfortunately not today, there was very little here except for the odd Coot and Mallard. So we continued along the circular route around the Lodge to find the cache. As we approached GZ the muggle count suddenly increased, and although I spotted a likely place, we had to walk past it to avoid suspicion. As I had my camera out it just looked as if I was taking pictures of the ducks and geese. When everyone had gone, we snook back to GZ and had soon found the large cache container under a tell-tale pile of newly-laid sticks, just where I had guessed it would be.
The contents of the cache were a little damp, but Sarah managed to sign the log whilst I took some pictures of a nesting coot which started its alarm call the minute I approached. Then we walked round the rest of the Lodge to get back to the car and on the way saw Canada Geese, Snow Geese, Mallards, Black-headed Gulls, Mute Swans, Moorhens and (my favourite) Great Crested Grebes. A great place to come back to later in the year.
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