A Good Weekend

A couple of hours at Fairburn on Saturday and Sunday morning at St Aidan's made up our weekend outings (I'm mostly trying to dodge the worst of the sun and stay cool at the moment, me and this never ending heatwave are not getting on too well!).

At Fairburn we had a wander over to the Spoonbill viewing point spotting Greenfinch and Tree Sparrows on the way, with Sand Martins and Swallow flying over the field and surrounded by damselflies and butterflies - a beautiful day. The sound of Grasshoppers was everywhere though we never managed to spot one. A Kestrel flew over. 

Tree Sparrow

Cinnabar Moth Caterpillars on Ragwort

Greenfinch

Meadow Brown

Large Skipper

Common Blue Damselfly 

The 'teaspoons' were sat up in nest with one of the adults, there are up to 12 Spoonbills in the area now, we spoke to a chap who'd seen adults flying in but it was pretty quiet whilst we were there. 

We spent a while sat in the hide watching the Sand Martins fly in the wall, a Heron and Little Egret were fishing on the water and I spotted my first Treecreeper at Fairburn in about three years! A Collared Dove watched from the side and a Comma butterfly was sat in the sun.

As is the way we just missed a Kingfisher at the viewing screen and instead saw a Pheasant fly across. In the trees were Ringlet butterflies and more blue damselflies everywhere you looked. We only walked as far the Big Hole stopping to see what was down there - Little Grebe, BH Gulls and Lapwing.

Ringlet

Common Blue

By the visitors centre I saw my first ever young Pheasants, two were with the adults round the feeder.

On Sunday I was hoping for a Black Tern on Astley Lake at St Aidan's but no joy though we spent a thoroughly enjoyable time watching Common Terns fishing, a Reed Warbler catching flies and around 55 young Greylag Geese on the river, they point blank refused to go over the weir, almost looking like they'd put their brakes on when the got to it! A Buzzard and a Kestrel flew over.

Again everywhere was covered in Butterflies - Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Small Tortoiseshell, Skipper and Damselflies including beautiful Banded Demoiselle's.

Cinnabar Moth Caterpillar 

Meadow Brown

Skipper

Banded Demoiselle

Small Tortoiseshell

A couple of Little Owls were showing quite well on the Dragline by the visitors centre, I think the best views i've had of them. I met Leeds Birder who posts wonderful videos on twitter and volunteers for the RSPB though I didn't realise it till afterwards. He does have a lovely video of the Little Owl on twitter if you search!

We took a shorter and more shaded walk, the route we took on the bat walk, hearing Chiffchaff, seeing Linnets, Swifts and Blackcaps and only passing a couple of other people. 

Another beautiful day

Old Moor

Despite Friday's late night we were up and off to Old Moor early Saturday morning. A much better day weather wise, back to warm temperatures and sun.

Now apparently the Bitterns are flying around the reserve at the moment, of course not when we were watching, three times we just missed them. We even sat at the Bittern bus stop for half an hour and stilled missed one that flew up briefly after being mobbed by birds......we'd been tracking a small bird, which turned out to be a Reed Bunting, a beautiful bird............but not a Bittern. Oh well.

We did see lots of damselflies and butterflies though including my favourite - the Brimstone.

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Azure Damselfly?

Speckled Wood

Not sure on these two?

And my first ever Dingy Skipper

This Heron was in one of the pools

There are lots of Gulls on the reserve, mostly Black-headed, also Lesser black-backed and Herring. The Gulls were spooked at one point but we were too far away to tell by what.

A couple of Shelduck were asleep

At the Field pool west hide a family thought they had views of a Temminck's Stint, they'd heard at the visitors centre one had been seen but my id skills with waders aren't the best and it was just too distant for good enough views with the binoculars. Luckily a nice chap with a scope came in and he and a second chap who soon followed confirmed it was indeed the Stint and we had a lovely view through the chaps scope! We watched it walk up and down a small strip of sand in the middle of the water, it was only when a Gull landed in the same place you realise just how tiny the birds are.

The Stint is on the tiny strip of sand in the middle of the water!!

We moved on and discovered an exodus happening from the Wader Scrape hide, I think the family had shown the photos they'd got of the Stint and everyone was off for a look. So the hide was very quiet in the end. We managed to find the two Sanderlings that had been seen on yet another strip of sand, they were again too far for my camera but they were there..........

My husband spotted a single Avocet amongst the Gulls.

Moving on to the Field Pool East Hide we sat watching a few Tufted Ducks, Gadwalls, Coots and Swans, with a couple of Lapwing flying around off to the side. A chap sat there commented he thought he had a Black-necked Grebe, we got on it and yes it definitely was, a single one, near the back of the pool. It stayed up that end mixing up with the Tufted Ducks. 

This Coot held a bit of a squabble with some of the birds then displayed it's tail feathers at them all!

It was I think past lunchtime by now so we had a picnic near the entrance, a Holly Blue flying around the bushes by us as we ate. We had a great morning and I added two lifers to my list!