The Gravel Pits are a site of special scientific interest near to the Hilton industrial estate, near Derby.
I caught the train out to Derby, then the Villager 1 bus to Hilton. From there I just had to follow Derby road until it intersected with the A50. On the other side of the A50 I went onto a small road called Willow Pit Lane.
I took the first left off of Willow Pit Lane. It was then I took a wrong turn, going right and soon came to a sign saying there was no public access to that area. It turned out I needed to go left in order to reach the entrance to the pits.
The pits contains a number of lakes and ponds of varying size surrounded by woodland. Most of the paths are a mixture of dirt and stone that were very muddy. Some parts are covered with wood planks, particularly near the lakes.
There are a couple of hides overlooking the lakes for taking pictures.
While I was walking along one of the paths a hare ran across it. Unfortunately it disappeared before I could think about getting a picture.
There was supposed to be woodpeckers round at this time of year. A couple of times I thought I could hear them but couldn’t see anything. There were small brightly coloured birds flying round. Which were, unfortunately, too small and fast to get any really good pictures of them.
That is until I came to a bird feeder where I got these pictures.
Including one of birds taking off.
It was quite a large area with lots of paths winding through it. It took a couple of hours to explore the whole thing.
More pictures can be found here.
Posted by msparshatt 
