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.

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.

Rodley Nature Reserve

The week before the snow hit we spent the afternoon at the reserve. It was a gorgeous spring day and we saw plenty including a Mandarin duck on the river as we drove in.

There were the usual Coots, Moorhens, Mute Swans, Mallards, Herons, Canada Geese and Cormorants. We also saw Teal, Tufted ducks, Pochard, Great Crested Grebe, Gadwall and my favourite spot of the day a pair of Snipe by the Kingsfisher hide.

Unfortunately I couldn't get a good shot of the Snipe.

There were frogs everywhere in the ponds a few large groups (not sure of the right term) of frogspawn too.

My daughter spotted a couple of Red Kites circling overhead with a flock of Black Headed Gulls

Final shot from the managers garden.