Birding in Yorkshire - Sunday
Sunday, after a prompt breakfast, we headed first to RSPB Fairburn Ings, parking at the visitors' centre and then walking out onto the reserve. It's quite a long walk to the hides compared with other RSPB reserves and, apart from hundreds of hirundines zooming across the water (mostly Sand Martins), there wasn't much to see. Whilst sat in a hide a dog came and nuzzled up to us, the owner birder then joined us in the hide. He recommended we go down to the other end of the reserve, which after said walk in reverse we did.
From here we got distant views of Curlew Sandpiper, mixed in with some Dunlin, and reasonable views of Greenshank and Ruff, together with a fly-over of probably the last Swifts of summer.
From Fairburn Ings we headed on and now heading homewards, to RSPB Old Moor. The visitor facilities here are great, and the reserve itself was good too. We heard reports of a juvenile Curlew Sandpiper so followed their advice and headed to the Wath Ings hide to see. We couldn't see that bird but a Green Sandpiper was very close:
As was this Grey Heron:
The wierd light effects come from late August sunshine being mostly obscured by fast-moving, shower-bearing clouds.
Attempting to see the Curlew Sandpiper we moved on to a nearby hide, where indeed we did get decent albeit reasonably distant views.
Lunch at RSPB Old Moor was fantastic, a fiver for an excellent vegetarian Sunday Roast! After lunch we waddled back to the car and drove on to the YWT Potterick Carr reserve, headquarters of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and a significant reserve adjacent to the M18. Unfortunately it's also adjacent to a wood plantation which on Bank Holiday Sunday was being used for a no-bird-left-alive shoot. That put a major dampener on our visit to Potterick Carr. I do wish they'd shoot themselves and rid us all of their misery rather than taking it out on 20 million odd birds each winter.
We did enjoy the cafe at Potterick Carr and the treat of a Kestrel hovering on the still strong winds, pretty close to a hide we parked in:
Still feeling miffed about missing out on the Pectoral Sandpiper, one chap we sat next to in a hide at Potteric Carr told us he had missed out on the UK's first Amur Falcon as he'd stopped for ten minutes for a cup of tea, that story made us feel much better :) Everyone we met on this weekend was warm and friendly even if the manner of being so can take some adjusting to, much more so than birding around home or even further south... one point we also noticed though, every bird we actually saw we could have seen within fifteen miles of home over the same weekend... hmmmm...
From here we got distant views of Curlew Sandpiper, mixed in with some Dunlin, and reasonable views of Greenshank and Ruff, together with a fly-over of probably the last Swifts of summer.
From Fairburn Ings we headed on and now heading homewards, to RSPB Old Moor. The visitor facilities here are great, and the reserve itself was good too. We heard reports of a juvenile Curlew Sandpiper so followed their advice and headed to the Wath Ings hide to see. We couldn't see that bird but a Green Sandpiper was very close:
As was this Grey Heron:
The wierd light effects come from late August sunshine being mostly obscured by fast-moving, shower-bearing clouds.
Attempting to see the Curlew Sandpiper we moved on to a nearby hide, where indeed we did get decent albeit reasonably distant views.
Lunch at RSPB Old Moor was fantastic, a fiver for an excellent vegetarian Sunday Roast! After lunch we waddled back to the car and drove on to the YWT Potterick Carr reserve, headquarters of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and a significant reserve adjacent to the M18. Unfortunately it's also adjacent to a wood plantation which on Bank Holiday Sunday was being used for a no-bird-left-alive shoot. That put a major dampener on our visit to Potterick Carr. I do wish they'd shoot themselves and rid us all of their misery rather than taking it out on 20 million odd birds each winter.
We did enjoy the cafe at Potterick Carr and the treat of a Kestrel hovering on the still strong winds, pretty close to a hide we parked in:
Still feeling miffed about missing out on the Pectoral Sandpiper, one chap we sat next to in a hide at Potteric Carr told us he had missed out on the UK's first Amur Falcon as he'd stopped for ten minutes for a cup of tea, that story made us feel much better :) Everyone we met on this weekend was warm and friendly even if the manner of being so can take some adjusting to, much more so than birding around home or even further south... one point we also noticed though, every bird we actually saw we could have seen within fifteen miles of home over the same weekend... hmmmm...
Labels: bird identification, bird photography, birding
posted by Michael at 4:59 pm
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