A Visit to Martin Mere

Hello everyone!  It's Endon Bear here, with a little post about a visit we made on the way to our friend Mr Robert's birthday surprise in Blackpool.

Polar and Grizzly stopped at a place called Parbold for their lunch, where they knew there was a nice pub because they visited once before on Uppie before they had us bears with them.  We had a quick look at the Leeds and Liverpool Canal after lunch, then set off for another special place.

We were going to visit the bird sanctuary at Martin Mere, as Polar and Grizzly support the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.  Polar wanted to take her big camera in with her, so we bears decided that most of us would stay in the car and have naps, but I could go in with our human guardians to see the birds.

First, we had a cup of tea in the nice little cafe overlooking the big pond beside the visitor centre, and Polar pointed out a Whooper Swan and a Bewick Swan, and explained that you can tell them apart because Whoopers are bigger and have a bigger beak.

There are dozens of different species of duck to see too.  Some of the most colourful are the Mandarin Ducks (which we sometimes see on ponds around our area) and the American Wood Duck, which is so brightly marked it looks like a painted wooden decoy duck!

I was sad that we weren't allowed to feed any of the ducks or geese, but Polar explained that there is a very nasty disease called Bird Flu affecting wild birds at the moment, which was why we had to walk on a disinfectant mat when we came onto the site, and use hand/paw sanitiser when we went through the gates between compounds.

We did see some of the geese being fed, although there was a big flock of wild mallard ducks trying to steal their seed!  Then Polar showed me another swan, the biggest one of all, which is a Trumpeter Swan from North America.

Near the Trumpeter Swans' pond I spotted some bears!  They had such friendly faces, I went over to make friends and give them hugs, but found they were made of wood.

Then it was time to see the otters being fed.  There is a pair of otters here, with a lovely, big pond and nice shelters built into a little hill that they can hide in, so the best time to see them is when they come out for their fish tea.  The humans who look after them hide the fish inside bamboo tubes, so the otters have to do some thinking and exercising to get to them.

Otters are very clever, so it didn't take them long to get to their tea!

There was just time for us to go to one of the hides that overlook the big mere (lake) where the wild birds come in.  We thought we might see big flocks of whooper swans, but it was probably a little too early in the year to see them.

We did see some cormorants and lapwings, and Polar liked taking pictures of the cloudscapes.  She says West Lancashire is "Big Sky Country", like Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, and a great place for photographing clouds.

On the way out, we saw there was a Stuffie adoption centre, where you could adopt fluffy baby owls, badgers and hedgehogs, or even little falcons.  I wondered if Polar would adopt a new friend for us, but the Bear Bag was already quite crowded, because we were taking Stella Bear with us to the ballroom in Blackpool, so it was probably best that they stayed at Martin Mere for now.

As you'll know if you've read Sonning's post, we had a super time with our friends in Southport and Blackpool.  I think we might let Stella tell you about our journey home, as we stopped somewhere that she and Hanley Bear, being Science Bears really like.

 

Bears Beside the Seaside

At the beginning of October, we bears went on an adventure to the seaside, but not to play on the beach.  We were going to Blackpool for a special birthday surprise for one of our human friends called Mr Robert.

We got to know Mr Robert through our friends the Berkshire Bears, and they were coming on this adventure with us.  We were all staying in Southport for a couple of nights, which gave Hanley Bear and LBB (Little Brown Bear) chance to talk about football, and how disappointed they were with their teams so far this season.

On the way there, we stopped at the Martin Mere bird sanctuary and Endon went to look around with Polar and Grizzly.  I am going to ask him to do a separate post about that when he has the time.

It was very bright but breezy on our first morning in Southport, so we stayed safely in the Bear Bag while our humans had a walk into the town and along the promenade, but not all the way out onto the pier.  Maybe we'll do that on another visit?

Southport's town centre is very nice, with some very attractive Victorian buildings with nice shops in them - including one which was full of old-fashioned sweets in jars.  

Then it was time to go to Blackpool.  All of our Hug and the Berkshire Bears, and our human guardians, got into old Pam the micra, and Polar drove us up the coast, inland to Preston, then out to the coast again, with Mr Robert and some of his other relatives in the car behind us.  

There was a lot of traffic on the road into town, as Blackpool's football team had a home fixture.  Hanley and LBB wondered if we were going to the match, but Stella Bear told us we were going somewhere much nicer, which was why Polar had made her and the Berkshire Bears, Cinnamon and Anise, a posh gown each. 

"We're going to the Blackpool Tower Ballroom!" she said.

"Booo!" said Hanley.  "I don't want to see silly humans dancing and we can't dance, or the clumsy humans will tread on us!  I want to ride on the old trams and go to football!"  

"But we're having afternoon tea," answered Stella.  "With dainty little sandwiches, cakes and scones with jam and cream!"

Hanley decided the ballroom didn't sound too bad after all. In fact, he got quite excitable when he saw these tiles in the lobby, as he was sure they must have been made in Stoke-on-Trent, though Polar hasn't been able to find out for sure yet.

The ballroom was very grand indeed, with lots of humans doing ballroom dancing to music played on an organ.  We bears all sat together on a seat where we had a good view of the dancefloor, but an even better view of the little tea table.

We wondered if Polar and Grizzly would do any dancing, but Polar explained that it wasn't easy for them, because she is so much taller than Grizzly and has very big feet.

Luckily for us, when afternoon tea arrived there was plenty for humans and small bears to share, with sandwiches, cakes and scones with cream, which we all love.

"I think this scone is bigger than me!" cried Waverley Bear!

After tea, it was time for Mr Robert's special surprise.  He was going to play the famous Wurlitzer organ, that rises up out of the floor of the stage!  We thought he might be nervous, as there were still lots of people in the ballroom, but he was surprisingly calm and very happy, and played lots of different tunes for everyone.

After Mr Robert had finished playing, it was time to go back to Southport for dinner.  We were all very happy that Mr Robert's special day had been such a success, and we are very grateful to Mr Andrew (Mr Robert's brother) for inviting us and our humans to join in, and to our great pal Gecko (Deborah) for bringing the Berkshire Bears along too.

We had another little adventure on the way home, as we gave Mr Robert a lift back to his house, but that's another story for another day!

 

Paws beyond the Potteries - a Model Railway Show

Ay up, everyone!  It's Hanley Bear again and I'm going to write another blog post about a great day out I had two weeks ago, with Grizzly, Polar and the cubs, Dudley and Waverley.

Grizzly's model railway club (the Alsager Railway Association) had organised a big show at the Bentley Car factory near Crewe, with some of their own club layouts on display as well as visiting ones.  Waverley and Dudley love model railways and wanted to go very much, and so did I, so we all jumped into Polar's bag.

Polar and Grizzly were going to help sell tea, coffee and snacks, but when we arrived the show had only just opened and the cafe was quiet, so Polar took us bears for a look at the layouts.  I liked looking at the posters of the posh cars, and imagining I was driving them!

The club's big layout is called "Lawton Hey" and is based on South Cheshire and North Staffordshire, so it has an industrial side with works and factories, like Crewe or Stoke, and countryside with a canal wharf.

That's my favourite part, because I like the canal area and I like watching trains going over the viaduct.  

Polar and I spent a lot of time looking at how the canal water was made, using layers of varnish, as we still need to do the water in the canal in Grizzly's layout, though that will have to be much dirtier.

Little Dudley found another ARA layout, which is their 'O' gauge colliery.  Because the scale is larger, it's possible to include even more details than at 'OO' scale, although the wagons are still too small to carry a Small Bear.

Dudley thought it was good that the information around the layout also included details of the mining disasters there had been in our area, which had killed many humans and human cubs, and pit ponies too.  We are glad that bears do not work in mines.

Waverley was busy looking at the layout opposite, which was based on a coastal town in Devon, and wasn't from the ARA.  What caught Waverley's eye was this little boat, which he thought was a Clyde Puffer.

This layout, called St John's after the maker's father, had some amazing details inside the little houses and in the signal box, which all lit up so you could see them.  It looked so cosy that Waverley wished he was even smaller than he is, so he could go into one of the cottages and have tea and scones!

Another layout that we all liked, because it was fun, was set in the Rocky Mountains and had a real waterfall!  After my accident in Hanley Park, I was careful not to fall in the water while I was watching it!

We like to see layouts with pretty landscapes, steam engines and old-fashioned station buildings, but we like good modern layouts as well, and there were several of those, with diesel depots and modern factories.  

We got lots of ideas for things we could make for Grizzly's layout from looking at the ones at the show, but it's hard work making notes in a small bear brain, and we were looking forward to trying the cakes and snacks at the cafe.

Luckily for us, there were still plenty of tasty home-made cakes left, including banana bread and bread pudding, so we had a good snack lunch, but Polar said we had to stay in the bag and not get fur on the food while she was serving people.

The club had a very successful weekend, and we promised to tell our pals about it so maybe next year even more humans and other small bears will visit.