This post is part of our FREE Family Days out in Yorkshire series
Hornsea Mere is a very large lake on the west side of Hornsea in East Yorkshire. It is home to a lot of wildlife, mainly ducks, geese and swans.
Today, I don’t think they had seen a lot of visitors because, as we drove up, they started eying up the car, doing an assessment of whether we would have any food for them. We did indeed. We parked up and got out, already surrounded by a multitude of birds, all pecking away. One stole a full slice of bread from the hand of my two-year old. She seemed a bit put-out but no harm done. My 5-year old and other 2-year old though were absolutely petrified and demanded to go back in the car, sobbing. The animal-mad 8-year old loved it.
The birds are very tame and will stand close enough so you can touch them. They get very rowdy, which can be good fun, unless the birds are taller than you!
Once we had finished dishing out the bread (which was gobbled up in about three minutes), we had a little walk round.
We looked at the rowing boats which can be hired during the warmer months, and at the putting green, which was waiting for it’s maintenance in preparation for the busy season. The onsite cafe was being re-decorated, and the toilets were closed for repair.
Today, it was cold and very quiet, which was lovely. Sometimes in the summer, you have to fight your way in with your car, but today we drove straight in and had our pick of parking places.
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| The birds of Hornsea Mere |
Hornsea Mere is accessible from the B1242 (turn down a signposted side-road to find it). There are the expected water hazards, and over-exuberant ducks and geese to be cautious of. The toilet facilities are basic and hopefully will be open again soon.
Other things nearby –
Not much fun being mobbed by hungry wildfowl if you’re only 2 feet tall! I have very happy memories of feeding the ducks when I was a child, but they can be very demanding as they have no fear of humans.
My wee man is not a fan of ducks getting two close….we were running away from them on our walk around Airthrey Loch! Looks like you had a good time out and about exploring. It’s amazing the difference in places depending on the weather!
Those Canada Geese can be quite nasty if you get too many of them but it looks like your 8 year old was quite relaxed with them though. Sounds as if summer with a picnic would be the best time to visit. Glad you didn’t need the loo while you were there and that you had a chance to have a good wander around on a nice dry day. Thank you for linking up to Country Kids.
Summer with a picnic is fab, but you have to eat it in the car to save yourself from being pecked to death. We will be returning when the weather improves, no doubt. Thanks for visiting.
Hope you will join me again, the linky is every Saturday x
Luckily we didn’t need the loos! I hope they get them sorted soon though, it’s heaving come summer. Thanks for visiting.
four kids and the loos are closed, not handy. we tend to have the opposite problem here they get too much bread and show no interest