Harrold-Odell Country Park

Overview

The Country Park was created in the mid 1980’s following post-war sand and gravel extraction. This led to the creation of two lakes, Grebe and Kingfisher. Please look on the chalk board for recent sightings. If you see anything of note, please let the rangers know so they can add it to the board.

The island on the main Grebe Lake has a large Cormorant colony with around 20-40 nests, and a small number of Grey Herons breed here. There are also riverside walks, a small designated nature reserve and a small woodland.

Both lakes are worth keeping an eye on, especially if you are first on site in the early morning. The shores of the smaller Kingfisher Water can attract waders and the wildfowl can be present in good numbers on either of the water bodies . Walking south of Kingfisher Water brings you to the River Great Ouse; a nice walk in itself. However, to return to the main lake, you can walk north through a kissing gate to the west of Kingfisher Water. This brings you to the main lake and a small promontory, which gives the best views both left and right (SP959569). From here, you can walk north east and around the lake.

The best chance to see Water Rail is by viewing the small open water areas from SP963573 looking south. 

Continuing around the lake, you can cover the north side of the island. The best view is from SP957571. It is worth scanning the edge of the island, especially the easternmost tip, which often attracts roosting waterfowl and the occasional wader or two.

If you’re short of time, take the route as described above but, after viewing from the promontory, walk back towards the visitor centre and north to approximately SP956570, where you can view the other side of the island. This shorter route can be covered in about 40 minutes. Walking around both lakes is more thorough and should take around one and a half hours.

Great White Egret – Steve Blain

Access

The Country Park has a visitor centre with a café and toilets. It can get very busy, especially on weekends, although there are no water sports.

There is another access point from Odell to the northeast of the park at SP963573, but this is best on foot as there is no parking to speak of.

Parking

The car park at SP956566 gives access to the trails around the lakes. 

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Birds

Rarities:

There have been a number of rarities recorded here over the last 50 years. Snow Bunting in 1972 and Caspian Tern in 1976 pre-dated the creation of the country park. In the 1980s, the site was well watched, with records of Black-throated Diver, Red-necked and Slavonian Grebe, Bewick’s Swan, Brent Goose, Ring-necked Duck and Wryneck. In the 1990s, Bittern, Great Northern Diver, notably the county’s first twitchable Little Egret (as recently as 1994), Spoonbill, Green-winged Teal and Common Scoter were seen. Following the turn of the millennium, there were records of White-fronted Goose (2007), Shag, Common Scoter, 60 Bar-tailed Godwits and Grey Plover (2008), Red-breasted Merganser and Lesser-spotted Woodpecker (2009) and two Black-necked Grebes (2010).

In 2010, a pair of Egyptian Geese bred, raising two young – the first successful breeding record of this species in Bedfordshire.