Today’s day in nature was to be at RSPB St Aidan’s near Castleford, the bird attraction today were , Slavonian Grebe and Red Crested Pochard.
Arrived at about 8:30am to a very cold but dry day, getting the gear together, I opted for wellies today, as St Aidan’s can get a bit muddy in places, and it was also going to be a scope day, mainly due to the distance of the birds being far, I also expected the target would be also, I would also be videoscoping today.
By the time I got everything together, it was about 9am, the first port of call was to be the Little Owl, which was always around the dragline, and not to be disappoint, there it was on the railway sleepers, sleeping, of course, also around the dragline were Stock Dove, and Woodpigeons. Around the visitor centre feeders (Little Owl Cafe) were Great Tit, Greenfinch, Robin, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, and Woodpigeon.
Moving on, I decided on going around Bowers Lake first, this was the last reported place for the Red Crested Pochard, it wasn’t here, birds that were, Goldeneye, Pochard, Tufted Duck, and Cormorant. Next course of action was to go down to the last reported place of the Slavonian Grebe, looking around, I got sight of Great Crested Grebe, Teal, Wigeon, a perched up Common Buzzard on one of the islands, Great Black backed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Common Gulls, Black headed Gulls, Oystercatcher, Gadwall, Goosander, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, Shelduck, and then right over at the other side in with the Great Crested Grebes was the Slavonian Grebe, talk about being distant, but close by in the reed edge were Bearded Tit and a Cetti’s Warbler, by this time I was getting hungry, so I headed back towards the car park, stopping off at the Eastern Reedbed on my way, here I found Meadow Pipit and Water Pipit along with Pied Wagtail and Grey Wagtails and a Common Snipe, I missed the Jack Snipe, that was seen here. Over the hillside were a couple of Red Kites along with Common Buzzards.
After dinner, I decided on going around the back pathway to try and get closer to the target birds, the plan worked, I got better views of the Slavonian Grebe, and a surprise find whilst I was here, was the Red Crested Pochard, a nice ending to the day
Video of the Day can be seen HERE
Birds Seen: Bearded Tit, Black headed Gull, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Cetti’s Warbler, Common Gull, Coot, Cormorant, Gadwall, Goldeneye, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black backed Gull, Great Crested Grebe, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Wagtail, Greylag Goose, Herring Gull, Kestrel, Lapwing, Lesser Black backed Gull, Little Owl, Magpie, Mallard, Marsh Harrier, Meadow Pipit, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Pochard, Red Kite, Red-crested Pochard, Robin, Shelduck, Shoveler, Slavonian Grebe, Snipe, Stock Dove, Teal, Tufted Duck, Water Pipit, Wigeon, Woodpigeon (49) (96/200) 7 added
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