Category Archives: Uncategorized

Another trip down to Manvers to call into Old Moor RSPB  with hopefully a few warblers knocking about. On departing from the car on arrival we were greeted by a Common Whitethroat from the nearby bush, good start in then to the reserve itself stopping off at the feeders whilst we waited for the rest of the group to gather. From here we saw Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Bullfinch, Robin, Pheasant, Woodpigeon, Collard Dove, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Dunnock, Reed Bunting enough comings and goings whilst we waited.

When the group had formed we made our way to the family hide from here we saw Black-headed Gulls, Tufted Duck, Gadwall, Coot, Moorhen, Great Crested Grebes, .

After a while in the family hide we slowly made or way on to the Wader Scrape hide where we did see a couple of waders, there were a number of Lapwings, an Oystercatcher and a few Redshank

From here we also added Mallard, Gadwall, Shoveler, Tufted Duck, Little Grebe and Great Crested Grebe, we added Teal from the Field Pool Hide and caught up with Swallow over the Dragonfly ponds as we made our way back to the cafe for dinner. Buzzard we saw on our travel back home when it came over the Motorway

The Day list in No particular order :-

Common Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Greenfinch,Great Tit, Blue Tit, Robin, Dunnock, Tree Sparrow, Reed Bunting, Woodpigeon, Pheasant, Black-headed Gull, Pheasant, Oystercatcher, Moorhen, Coot, Mallard, Shoveler, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Lapwing, Mute Swan, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, Wren, Buzzard, Blackbird, Starling, Crow, Jackdaw, Gadwall, Swallow

With a phone call from a friend on the 12th my mind was made up as to where I was going on the 13th….Cheesegate Nab why? Ring Ouzels had made a return to one of their stop off points whilst migrating. Ten  minutes after arriving and clocking site of Curlew, Linnet, Kestrel, Skylark, Green Woodpecker on my way I had found five male Ring Ouzels, they were distant and didn’t come further down the hillside whilst I was there, I did manage a distant photo.

I made a return journey along a road that is visited by Wheatears on migration alas I didn’t see any so they must be lagging behind somewhere. With an unexpected phone I had to cut my watching a bit short this week but not before catching a few photos of Pied Wagtails on my thru the Broadstones area

It was good also to hear the sound of Willow Warblers back on their local breeding grounds, not many bird species today but it was good to hear Willow Warblers again and see Ring Ouzels on migration…is summer making a return???

Family day out once again out to our favourite place near Doncaster the YWT flagship reserve in Potteric Carr.  On arrival we were greeted by a fine male Blackcap singing out his presence around the visitor centre area the Decoy hide gave us Black-headed Gulls, Tufted Duck, Shelduck, Mute Swan, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose and a Cettis Warbler. We then moved off  to the cafe for dinner after which it was the turn of the Willow Pool hide where we saw usual Great Tit, Blue Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Willow Tit, Reed Bunting, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Little Grebe, Mute Swan, Tufted Duck, Pheasant and Moorhen.

Hawthorn Bank Hide was our last port of call where we were soon put on to a splendid Male Garganey, he did spend most of his time hidden in and amongst the reed base but came out nw and again to say he was still there. Whilst here we picked up a few Sand Martins moving thru

List in no particular order 🙂

Gadwall, Mallard, Shelduck, Tufted Duck, Moorhen, Coot, Chaffinch, Blackcap, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, Black-headed Gull, Cettis Warbler, Mute Swan, Jackdaw, Dunnock, Robin, Wren, Coal Tit, Willow Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Reed Bunting, Magpie, Pheasant, Little Grebe, Chiffchaff, Shoveler, Teal, Lapwing, Sand Martin, Garganey

Once again out to Old Moor for a couple of hours away from the rat race, this is a great place to relax and watch wildlife go by and meet interesting people. On arrival I planted myself again in the photography part of the first hide near the visitor centre and watched and took pictures of Reed Buntings, Goldfinch, Dunnock, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Wren, Robin, Collard Dove, Woodpigeon, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, and Blackbird. After a couple of hours I moved off onto the reserve and saw a couple of butterfly species Orange-tip and Comma were once again on the wing, from the wader scrape hide I saw Oystercatcher, Redshank, and plenty of Black-headed Gulls. I was once again out of time and still had seen no summer migrants 😦

Day List in no particular order 🙂

Blue Tit, Great Tit, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Collard Dove, Woodpigeon, Mallard, Robin, Dunnock, Blackbird, Black-headed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Coot, Moorhen, Redshank, Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Jackdaw, Crow, Great Crested Grebe, Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Canada Goose, hoveler, Gadwall, Pheasant, Comma, Orange Tip

The plan was to have a quiet day out at Potteric Carr and it was, the forecast was good, I think the word warm was in there somewhere but it wasn’t, plenty of Chiffchaff making their presence known now fresh in from sunny/warm Africa. We watched a family of Squirels near the visitor centre, three young ones playing chase, doing tumbles and acrobatics, fun to watch, they moved high into the trees then with Mum and Dad so we moved on resting in the Old Eaa Hide (Map Link), here we saw Gadwall, Teal, Shoveler, Tufted Duck, Black-headed Gulls, Coot and Moorhens. Willow Pool hide was our next stop before dinner, this is the best place to see small birds has they come in to feed Reed Bunting, Willow Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Robin, there was also a Great-spotted Woodpecker today.

It was on our way home, we had to come back home a different route due to the M18 south being shut, that we decided on a detour to Blacktoft Sands for some raptors so we headed North seeing a Buzzard coast over the motorway just after leaving Potteric as we did so.

Blacktoft Sands RSPB is near Ousefleet, the other side of Goole and on the South side of the Humber not on the North bank like the village, first mistake back in 1986 and is one of my top 5 reserves. Tree Sparrows greet you now at Blacktoft has you park the car up and along with Greenfinch and Pheasants at the feeders we were soon made welcome has we made our way onto the reserve. We settled in to the Townend Hide (Map Link) watching out for raptors, it was now about 5:30pm and we had seen plenty of Marsh Harriers male and females coming and going with Avocets overhead, then we caught site of a different bird following a couple of female Marsh Harriers a different flight, long rounded wings, small body, a welcome sight of a Short Eared Owl, this turned out to be the highlight of the night as we saw no Hen Harriers or Merlins, we left at 6:15pm stopped off for tea in Ousefleet then headed home 🙂

The day list (in no particular order) :-

Long-tailed Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Willow Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Dunnock, Moorhen, Coot, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Greylag Goose, Little Grebe, Tufted Duck, Shoveler, Gadwall, Mallard, Teal, Blackbird, Robin, Reed Bunting, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Pheasant, Magpie, Crow, Black-headed Gull, Chiffchaff, Wren, Jackdaw, Shelduck, Shoveler, Buzzard, Tree Sparrow, Greenfinch, Marsh Harrier, Short-eared Owl, Avocet, Shelduck, Cormorant

Willow Tit

Female Marsh Harrier

The place to be for me at the moment is Old Moor with camera in hand I enjoyed another day here. There are now Chiffchaff on site but that’s the only summer migrant at the moment, so once again I had a play time with the camera , I did see at the feeder hide, lots of activity here, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Pheasant, Stock Dove, Blackbird, Bullfinch, Wren, Reed Buntings and the Mallards. Plenty to see on site as well with loads of Black headed Gull, Canada Geese, Redshank, Oystercatcher, Great Crested Grebes along with Little Grebes, Jackdaws, Crows, Magpies lost sheep (ya you read right see below). So plenty going on and lots off noise and activity with nest-building pair bonding etc a great time of year

The Day List (in no Particular Order) :-

Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Robin, Blackbird, Dunnock, Pheasant, Collard Dove, Woodpigeon, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Lapwing, Reed Bunting, Pheasant, Black -headed Gull, Mallard, Gadwall, Wigeon, Coot, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Sparrowhawk, Redshank, Shoveler, Yellowhammer, Tufted Duck, Teal, Jackdaw, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Oystercatcher, Stock Dove

Great Crested Grebe

Black-headed Gull

Well I have definitely spoilt myself this week with another trip out to Old Moor, on arrival the visit took on basically the same format as yesterday with my first port of call being the new photographers hide. From here I watched  another territorial fight this time between Robins (another first) this one didn’t last as long as the Pheasants from yesterday but again was still great to watch on and see this behaviour. Moving on I made my way around the reserve taking a different route than yesterday and headed out towards the Reedbed/Bittern hides where I found Tufted Duck, Pochard and Great Crested Grebes.  I then ended up back at the Family hide were most of the action was with plenty of wildfowl Mallard, Teal, Gadwall and a few Wigeon, there’s now plenty of Black-headed Gulls about which has made the reserve a little bit noisy, no Mediterranean Gulls about today. At the wader scrape hide there was still plenty of Redshank and Oystercatcher to watch.

That was very much my couple of days at Old Moor I spent a great time watching the wildlife on site (no dogs!!!) and taking photos, no summer migrants as yet for me although Sand Martin have passed thru along with Chiffchaff being heard on warbler way

Todays list (in no particular order) :-

Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Robin, Blackbird, Black-headed Gull, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Canada Goose, Woodpigeon, Grey Heron, Gadwall, Pochard, Mallard, Mute Swan, Wigeon, Lapwing, Redshank, Coot, Moorhen, Pheasant, Magpie, Cormorant,Teal, Oystercatcher, Green Woodpecker, Jackdaw, Crow, Starling, Reed Bunting, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Dunnock

With the safe arrival of a new family member over this last week it was time for play time, so with camera and binoculars in hand Old Moor was my destination. On arrival I soon settled into the first hide near the visitor centre watching Great Tits, Blue Tits, Chaffinch, Bullfinch, Robins, Woodpigeon, and Blackbirds coming and going to the feeders. Whilst I was here I watched a sight I had never seen before with two male Pheasants battling it out over territory, this lasted about 20 mins in all, it had me tired watching them never mind about how tired they must have been after such a battle.

I did move on to more of the reserve stopping off at the Family hide to see Redshank,Gadwall, Pochard, Lapwing, Black-headed Gulls, to name but a few. On at the Field Poll Hide I found Little Grebe, Wigeon, Little Egret and a fly thru Kingfisher. My last stop was at the wader scrape hide were I saw more Redshank, Oystercatcher, Lapwing and Black-headed Gulls, it was here that I heard a Green Woodpecker and was told it was in the cuckoo tree which the Kestrel was sitting (Kestrel I saw)

The Day List (In no particular order) :-

Black-headed Gull, Tufted Duck, Coot, Magpie, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Cormorant, Tree Sparrow, Yellowhammer, Dunnock, Pheasant, Mallard, Wren, Robin, Blackbird, Redshank, Gadwall, Canada Goose, Stock Dove, Oystercatcher, Jackdaw, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Kingfisher, Little Egret, Wigeon, Mute Swan, Lapwing, Moorhen, Pochard

I decided on visiting some friends locally today so rather than take the car I used my legs and hoped for some local bird species I wasn’t dissapointed.The walk took me about 3 hours with the bird highlights being Bullfinch, Green Woodpecker, Mistle Thrush, Coal Tit, Long Tailed Tits, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Pheasant, Greenfinch, Jay and Nuthatch (2).

Rather a good week at work as well with Coal Tit, Treecreeper and Goldcrest seen