6th: Camley Street – London

If I thought Walthamstow Wetlands was right in the middle of a city, Camley Street is on a whole new level. The reserve is tiny and shares a boundary with King’s Cross Station on one side and Regent’s Canal on the other.

You probably couldn’t get any more central if you tried. And yet, London Wildlife Trust have managed to create a space where you really can feel like you’re out of the city.

You could walk around the space in less than 5 minutes, but that would be completely missing the point. We spent at least an hour on our first tour of the place and a good chunk of that was spent watching a pair of coots working together to maintain a nest. I’m guessing that the female may have been incubating eggs as the male was wondering around collecting reeds for her to add to the nest. As a result, the first piece from this reserve may very well be of the female sitting on the nest.

Undoubtedly a challenging composition, but it appealed to me, not only because of its beauty, but also because I felt the feel of the coot being partially hidden in the reeds echoed how Camley Street itself was hidden away in the concrete jungle that is London. There was also a view through fresh oak leaves to an apartment block behind it that I thought captured very well just how close this nature oasis was to our urban homes.