A day in the life of Major’s Lodge Guests
With thanks to Gill Pipes and friends who visited Major’s Lodge in February 2023 and wrote this account:
It’s our third day at Major’s Lodge and we’re just as giddy about our stay as we were when we first arrived even though we’ve developed a bit of a routine to make sure every day makes the most of this amazing place.
It’s February and we’ve been lucky enough to have dry weather since we arrived. We start with a travel mug of coffee which we take up to our private hide which overlooks the reserve, including the lake full of wildfowl. We’re greeted by the amazing calls of the cranes who are currently living alongside the lodge and hide. The morning light is stunning from here as the sun rises and today we’re lucky that the herd of Pere David’s deer are in good view from the hide. There have been a few misty mornings during our stay and the site of the stags especially against the misty landscape is magical.
We hear the quad bike that tells us a member of the Watatunga team are finishing up the morning feed run so we head back to the lodge, refill the mugs and head to the buggies to explore the reserve. We’d had to cut short our trips earlier in the week due to getting a little too chilly so we’ve now perfected the art of taking a hot drink, wearing as many layers as we can and popping a blanket over our knees so we can stay out for as long as we like.
Many of the animals are very relaxed now when they see us approach and are happy to stay out in the open but we’ve also learnt to scan amongst the trees and are spotting more and more of them on our rounds. This morning we are thrilled to see a black buck calf take what we think is some of its first wobbly steps, presumably having been born the night before. We keep a close eye out for it in later days but the best views of it are from the hide as it hunkers down in the longer grass in the paddock alongside the lodge. We brought a spotting scope with us and it has proved very useful for this.
It’s great to mix up how we use the buggies. We’ll sometimes go out together, 8 of us across the 2 buggies, which is a really lovely way to spend time together and means the non-drivers can take photos and use their binoculars, a couple of people taking a buggy each means that you have 2 sets of eyes and can enjoy the drive whilst stopping together at key points. Taking a buggy out alone is pretty special though. There’s a real mindfulness in just going at your own pace and stopping randomly to listen for movement and see what turns up. This is especially great in the central wooded area where the collection of pheasants and peacocks are most often seen alongside scampering muntjac and the slightly more elusive Chinese water deer. There are a host of wild birds to listen out for and spot too, including woodpeckers, all kinds of tits and finches and lots of raptors. A red kite is pretty much resident in a tree close to the lodge so we’ve been getting amazing views of him and have watched quite a few scraps between him and the crows.
We do have a few favourites we’re all hoping to see on each buggy trip – Mr Bojangles is a very confident little roe deer who likes to come and investigate who’s out and about on his manor. Mister Eland (who we actually called Big Phil before we knew his more formal name) and his pal Daisy the Nilgai are always amazing to see. Phil can be surprisingly hard to spot sometimes considering he’s the size of a small house. It has to be said though that Oorja the Indian Sambar, her sister and the herd of barbary sheep she often hangs around with are huge favourites. Oorja is more than a little inquisitive and often comes up to the buggy for a snuffle. We learned very early on to make sure we move anything she fancies a nibble on but she’s very good and reacts well to a gentle “no” should she show a little too much interest in a shoe lace or scarf. She doesn’t disappoint this morning and we get to give her ear a tickle before she expertly gives the front of the buggy a thorough clean! It is a real privilege to get so close to all the animals and, even for folk who work in conservation and are lucky enough to get up close to wildlife, some of the best experiences we’ve ever had have been this week.
We head to the great bustard field and see that all 4 are there this morning. A mouflon grazes on the edge of the field, heading into the trees when we get a little closer. We turn into the woods where we come face to face with a Javan peacock, silver pheasant and another pheasant we can’t ID – it looks a bit like Ming the Merciless with really fancy golden eyebrows – lined up in a row on the path so we stop and watch them for a while as water deer flash past around us. As we emerge from the woods we see a handful of red legged partridges running through the short grass and the white stork hunting around the edge of the smaller lake.
After swinging by to say hi to the cranes, it’s time to go back for a late breakfast and enjoy the sun through the conservatory windows. Even with 8 adults staying, the lodge is very roomy and we never felt on top of each other. There are ample bathrooms too so we take a shower as we were too keen to get to the hide this morning.
We had a list of local places and sites we had thought about visiting but honestly, we didn’t want to miss out on the reserve so over the week we only made one trip to WWT Welney (which was fantastic but we made sure we were back in time to take the buggies out again).
We popped out to Beers of Europe, 10 minutes away, after our late breakfast and had a short mooch around the antique warehouse attached to it then made sure we were back for 3pm to make the most of the second feed run of the day. We found that this was a great time to see a little more of the more shy species such as the fallow and red deer. We pop to the far field to see Rommel the great bustard and the capercaillie. We’re really surprised to get a first spot in the far corner of the sitatunga with his gorgeous red coat and unusual markings. We get to see all of our favourites plus a hare zigzagging across the paddock amongst the black bucks. As usual, we are accompanied part of the way round by the very attentive and often hilarious flock of guinea fowl.
