Welcome To The Kingfisher Wildlife Diaries – John Bailey
May 26th 2010
A Walk at Dawn
Dear potential Holiday-maker, just a word of advice here. If you're coming to Kingfisher this summer, make the effort to get up early at least once in your stay. Choose a period of warm weather and if there has been a clear night, set the alarm clock for four of five a.m. It's then that you will see the lake and the valley at its very best.
You will see the heron get up sleepily and flap its way across the water, still hungry for breakfast.
You will see the mist rising in mysterious columns. 
You will see endless shifts of light as the mists dance and then melt before the slowly-rising sun.
You will hear the reed warblers begin to wake. You will see the grebes hunting the fry in the bays.
You will hear complete and utter peace. No traffic noise. Just the sound of the lakes wakening to the new day.
You will probably see the cattle on the water meadows, their breath steaming.
You will see the bivvies of the sleeping anglers enjoying carp-filled dreams.
Look carefully and you will see tench bubbling in the Lobster Pot and carp swirling everywhere on Lily Lake.
You can even be back in bed, perhaps, at six for another couple of hours sleep and it really will have been worth the effort to enjoy that most extraordinary of hours at our lovely complex.