North Cave Wetlands

Early Sunday we headed over to the Wetlands for a walk in the freezing windy winter sun! I think it got colder too as the morning went on!

Still we had a good walk and parts of the reserve where chock full of birds! At the feeders we saw Tree and House Sparrows, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits, Robins, Dunnocks, Blackbirds, Reed Buntings and Moorhen!

Great Tit

Goldfinch & Tree Sparrows

Long-tailed Tits

Reed Bunting

Tree Sparrows &  Goldfinch

Dunnock

Blue Tit

On the water I saw the some of the largest flocks of ducks i've ever seen - Shelduck, Pochard, Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Shoveler, Gadwall, Teal, plus Greylag Geese, Herons, Little Grebes, Black-headed and Herring Gulls, Redshank and a large flock of Lapwings.

Shelduck

Ducks as far as the eye can see!

Overhead a Marsh Harrier was flying about, we also saw a couple of Fieldfare and Cormorants fly over.

We were looking out over the many ducks on the lake when I saw some birds in the tree nearby - bright yellow - Siskins - there were both male and female, around 8 birds hanging from various branches. It's not a bird I see often so quite a treat to see so many at once.

Don't let the sunny photos deceive, it was bitter and even I'd had enough by the time we'd walked round! It's always worth getting out though, regardless of the weather.

Ferrymoor Flash

On the way back from Old Moor my husband spotted a large pond at the side of the road so we stopped for a look. According to a sign on the board it was called Ferrymoor Flash. Just as we got out of the car he saw a pair of  Kestrel fly over, I managed to miss them though.

Straight off a flock of birds swam up to the edge, clearly used to being fed, in fact some families were feeding them further along. Some of the ducks were not native, two beautiful black/purple/green ducks followed us around, they got out at one point and reminded me of Indian Runner Ducks?

There were plenty of native birds though, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Coot, Moorhen, Mallard, Canada and Greylag Goose, Black-headed Gull.

In the trees around the water Reed Bunting and Long-tailed Tits.

The grass by the path was full of Daisies.

We didn't stop long but after checking it out online later, it looks like it links up to Cudworth Common so it'll be worth going back for another look. The sites are looked after by The Conservation Volunteers.

Pontefract

On Sunday we went to a Kustom car show at Pontefract race course and we made a detour to walk around the lake there. When looking it up afterwards it seems we missed a nature reserve in the North part of the park!

It was full of the usual birds - Mallard, Coot, Canada Geese, Black-headed Gulls, Tufted Ducks and a Cormorant too.

Unfortunately someone drove a radio controlled boat at the birds and another person had their dog in the lake spooking them so I wasn't able to check them out properly but I don't think I missed any.

Overhead were more BH Gulls and a few Herring too. Magpies and Woodpigeons were picking through the fallen leaves.

It's beginning to look quite autumn like now!

Another place to go back to so we can check out the reserve.

Farnley Balancing Reservoir

I've been past here on the ring road so many times over the years and never stopped but I have done a couple of times recently, just out of curiosity as there are always a lot of birds on the water.

The water is quite low at the moment and unfortunately it is not in the greatest of shape, the things that have been dumped in here, the mind boggles as to why people would do so?! It's also awash with bread packets and soggy bread and even a slice of toast was stuck in a tree!

Despite that the reservoir is teeming with birds -

Black Headed Gull
Canada Geese
Coot
Farmyard Ducks
Grey Heron
Greylag Geese
Herring Gull
Lesser Black-Backed Gull
Mallard
Moorhen
Mute Swan
Teal
Tufted Ducks

This Swan had some pink on it's wing feathers, it looked a little like blood, you can't really tell from the photo but I couldn't see any injuries. There was also a Mallard with a damaged wing.

I haven't walked around to the other side so of course there could be plenty I missed.

The banking near where you can park on Butt Lane often has Geese and Gulls on it and many pigeons too.

This one I think is a hybrid?

After a little bit of digging online I found out the reservoir was built in 1973 to help prevent flooding in the area, Farnley Beck runs in (and out) of it. It looks like it had a tidy up back in 2002 but I can't find anything since.

It's definitely a place i'll be stopping at more often, maybe I can figure out who to contact about cleaning it up - though i'm not holding my breath on that one!