B2B or back to birds and back to Old Moor RSPB to do it the waders are coming back thru so I decided on a change for this weekend leave the trap alone and catch up on some birding.
Bittern hide was the first port of call for the reported Kingfishers that were showing well , the hide was full needless to say, and within ten minutes of waiting one kingfisher gave good views and a few people got good photos, i didn’t. We waited an hour the bird reappeared to our left this time due to people leaving I was in a good place, it stayed in the reeds for a good ten minutes, needless to say at a distance, then took off flying out of sight, no landing on the post this time, so we left.
After leaving the hide we caught up with an easier photogenic creature Dragonflies, there were Ruddy and Common Darters along with Migrant Hawker which unlike the Kingfisher gave us some wonderful poses, great models.
We walked then down to Wath Ings hide taking photos of the Darters as we went, on arriving at the Wath Ings hide we soon caught sight of a few wader species Black tailed Godwits, Dunlin (3), Green Sandpiper (5), Spotted Redshank (5), and Ruff (2) and along with the waders Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Shoveler, Teal, Gadwall, Mallard, Moorhen, Coot, Lapwing, Black headed Gulls, Little Grebe, Starlings
We then walked back to the wader scrape hide and its whilst doing so I found a Female Common Blue Butterfly a well-worn individual but a first it was, and a long side the Argus a Common Blue Butterfly so a good comparison was made. Other butterflies for the day were there Speckled Wood these were seen in various places around the reserve and a Comma along Green Lane, eventually from the hide a nice surprise was seeing a Pintail.
The family hide is where we saw plenty of Sand Martin and a Common Sandpiper, a couple of Stock Dove, plenty of Linnets. In at the bird garden Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Great Tit, Blue Tit,
Species list fot the day :-
Kestrel, Moorhen, Coot, Little Grebe, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Teal, Shoveler, Gadwall, Pintail, Grey Heron, Blackbird, Starling, Linnet, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Bullfinch, Woodpigeon, Stock Dove, Kingfisher, Magpie, Sand Martin, Spotted Redshank, Dunlin, Black tailed Godwit, Green Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Ruff, Lapwing, Black headed Gull, Mute Swan, Pied Wagtail, Cormorant, BROWN ARGUS Butterfly, Common Blue Butterfly, Comma Butterfly, Speckled Wood Butterfly, Azure Damselfly, Migrant Hawker, Common Darter, Ruddy Darter
Common Blue Butterfly (♀)
One of the many Common Darters
Ruddy Darter
Huddsbirder 