St Aidan's

We had a couple of hours at S Aidan's last weekend, luckily we were able to pick a time when it wasn't raining - a rare thing a the moment! I'm still busy with work, which is just exhausting plus fighting a cold so we weren't out as long as i'd hoped but I was glad of the fresh air!

It turned out to be quite a nice day and got warmer as we walked. We even spotted this fresh looking Painted Lady by one of the lakes.

Quite a few Starlings were flying over the hillside, smaller groups kept joining up and then breaking away again, every now and then they'd land but not for long. 

Lots of noisy Greylag and Canada Geese too and 5 Red-legged Partridge on the same hillside, too far for a photo though.

This Whooper Swan was preening itself in the sun, I found out it's a resident due to having something wrong with it's wings, it can fly but not far, there are worse places it could stay though.........

We were just commenting on the lack of Gulls when all of a sudden they came flying in from all directions, landing on the water and the fences.

The Causeway was flooded, not that it bothered some, we watched one guy take off his shoes & socks, roll up his trousers and wade across!

We saw a few Linnets and Stonechat, Lapwing, Kestrels, Buzzard and lots of Shovelers amongst others. A good afternoon.

Roundhay Park

I saw on twitter recently about a Whooper Swan on the lake at Roundhay Park, it had been injured last year and once released had stayed with the Mute Swans there. So Saturday morning my daughter and I jumped on the bus and headed over there.

It was freezing but so beautifully sunny it didn't really matter about the cold. There was a park run happening when we arrived with the finish line not far from the top lake where we usually walk first so we bypassed that and went straight to the main lake.

There were a lot of corvids all over the park - Jackdaw, Rook and Crows, they were not in the least bit bothered by the people around, in fact one strutted it's way down the path towards us like we weren't even there.

At the lake straight away we were honked at by a farmyard Goose that was with all the Canada Geese along side the fence. We had bought some food from home (not bread), my daughter was in charge of that......do you ever grow out of feeding the ducks?!

As soon as we got past the fence the swans and ducks headed straight for us and you really couldn't miss the Whooper, the bright yellow beak a stand out against the others but then the noise it made was quite unique and to be honest had my daughter in hysterics. It was quite a fiesty little thing and held it's own amongst the Mute Swans, they were all a bit nippy with their beaks. A few Mallards and Moorhens made a bit of a half-hearted effort at going for the food but they didn't stand a chance - too many long necks

I must admit I took an awful lot of photos of the Swans and the noisy Black-headed Gulls that descended, they looked quite beautiful in the sunlight.

We walked around part of the lake and saw Cormorant, Tufted Ducks, Coots, Moorhen and one Teal hidden in the overhanging branches.

On to the top lake were more Swans, Mallards, Tufted ducks, Black-headed gulls, also a pair each of Gadwall, Goosander, a single Herring Gull and overhead a Sparrowhawk.

Waiting for the bus outside the park entrance a Sparrowhawk dashed across the road in front of us and a Red Kite was flying above the trees. Perfect way to end our visit.