Wheldrake Ings

I wanted to find somewhere to go on the way back from Bempton to make the most of our day out and decided on Wheldrake. It's the most difficult place we've had to find yet, not a single sign post though I suppose that does keep it more protected.

We walked over a bridge and checked out the information board before taking the walk around the meadow. I managed to spot a Chiffchaff in a tree after pinpointing the singing and waiting patiently a few minutes. It didn't hang around long enough for a photo unfortunately.

The first hide we came to overlooking the meadow was two storey and pretty impressive, don't think i've seen one quite like it! There were House Martins and a few Swallows flying overhead and in the distance we could see a couple of Herons. A male Pheasant was trying to attract the attention of a nearby female who seemed completely disinterested.

There are four hides altogether and we walked to each one, a walk which there and back is about 3 miles. The third hide overlooking the water gave us views of a few Mute Swans, Coot, Moorhen, Tufted Duck and what looked like a Redshank in the distance.

We walked through the boarded path through the reed beds and saw a couple of Swan nests. At the last hide again not much to see though we could see a few geese far away but I hadn't brought the scope out of the car so I couldn't tell for sure what they were. As we headed back a little mouse ran along the path and hid under a Dock leaf, it was off before we could get a proper look to see what sort it was, though the tail was very stumpy.

The meadow that the path winds around looked beautiful.

On the walk back to the car we saw Chaffinch, Goldfinch and Long Tailed Tits, lots of birdsong all around us but the foliage is getting a bit too thick now to see properly and I can't id from just the song unfortunately. A long day for us especially my little one but she had lots of fun and loves looking out of the hides!