Golden Acre, Adel Dam & a Dip

Saturday morning was spent walking around the park and dam. We were harassed a little by a Muscovy Duck by the lake that seemed intent on untying my husbands shoelaces!

The birds on the lake were on form as usual, the noise from them was a little overwhelming, they were expecting food of course.

We stopped at the little clearing where the birds and squirrels are fed, it was a little quiet but there were Jay, Nuthatch and various Tits around in the trees. We spoke to a chap there who was a regular at the dam and had a chat about the birds around the area. 

At Adel Dam we sat and watched the feeders a while from the first hide - GS Woodpecker, Tits, Squirrels, Chaffinch, Mallards and Robins. Overhead a Red Kite flew past.

Elsewhere it was quiet no sign of any Mandarin or Kingfisher. A few Teal were in the distance on the main lake.

It was a pretty miserable day and we took time to have a cuppa in the cafe before heading out. We were on a Hawfinch hunt now and headed across to Ilkley using the scenic route, hoping for Curlews in the fields but there was nothing. 

Hawfinch have been seen on and off at Ilkley cemetery for a while and today of course they were off!! We spoke to a guy who saw one earlier in the day and also saw the guy from Adel Dam but as far as I know they weren't seen again that day. Still we had a wonder around and saw quite few Goldcrest in the trees. It was raining a little and we decided to call it a day!

Yeadon Dam

We had a quick walk around the dam on Sunday morning on the way to my parents. It was bitterly cold so we didn't linger too long!

There were quite a few small flocks of Starlings in the grass on the entrance road.

The birds didn't flock to the jetty for a change, they must have been well fed over the weekend. The usual birds were there - Mallard, Canada Geese, Swans, Coot, Moorhen and quite a few Tufted Duck. Out in the middle a lone Great Crested Grebe and further round a pair of Pochard, not a bird I see there often. The Tufted Ducks came quite close to the banks and we could actually see them swimming under the water, narrowly missing the Mallards, my daughter loved that!

At the top end there was a single Cormorant and lots of Black-headed Gulls. I scanned them all and couldn't find a single Common Gull for a change.

A short visit but it added some of the more common species to this years list.

Fairburn Ings

As usual my blog has been neglected with life taking over and blogging heading way down to the bottom of the to do list. 

So i'm making an effort and throwing up a few posts covering some nature reserve visits over the year. Maybe.......just maybe this might just get me posting a bit more regularly!

First up is Fairburn Ings back in early February, we didn't stay that long, it was so cold but as always it's a joy to wander around.

There were plenty of birds on the feeders and we even managed to catch a couple of Kingfishers through the screen.

At the lake the Black Headed Gulls were out in full force along with a few ducks.

From there we headed home to warm up!