Adel Dam

We had a family gathering for my nieces 1st birthday a couple of Saturday's back and had time to squeeze in a visit to Adel Dam beforehand.

A quick look at the lake in  Golden Acre first where the Mandarins have made themselves at home with the rest of the ducks, coming running for food!

The birds were out in force at the Marsh Hide, Nutchatch, Chaffinch, Tits, Jays, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Mandarin and lots of Squirrels on the floor.

Great Tits

We sat for a while at the Lake Hide, it was a warm day and the views are lovely. We had a brief flash of blue as a Kingfisher flew past and off to the side by the feeding station we saw Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Tits, Dunnock, Woodpeckers and overhead a Red Kite. 

A volunteer from the YWT - Dave - came in whilst we were there and we discovered he was the person who makes the lovely log feeders at the feeding stations and we ended up putting in an order for one. Someone had gone into the feeding area here (despite the locked gate) and jammed a stick into one of the log feeders - presumably for photo opportunities - it hadn't registered it wasn't meant to be there until Dave mentioned it!

This Squirrel kept sticking his head in the hide and at one point a Great Tit flew right through it just missing my husbands head by centimetres!

Chiffchaff I believe, there were a few young ones in the bushes

Mandarin on the lake, there were Little Grebe, Mallards and Black-headed Gulls too

Nuthatch

A couple of Mallards were bathing in front of the hide

A Mandarin in slightly odd plumage for the time of year?

Great Spotted Woodpecker.

We followed the path through the woods avoiding many tiny Froglets on the way. A couple of Squirrels were by the gate as we left and one of very few Butterflies we saw during the morning (Speckled Wood and Meadow Brown) was sat in a little patch of sun.

Adel Dam

On Saturday morning we took the bus to Golden Acre for a nice but cold walk around the park and Adel Dam. The Gulls were barely awake (just like my daughter!!) and still huddled up on the grass. The ducks of course were straight up to have a nosey.

Mallard

Black-headed Gull

Mute Swan

Tufted Ducks

We walked straight through to the dam and went the 'wrong' way round, we always start off by going to the hide and then on in a circle via the lake hide, my daughter suggested going the other way for a change, which worked in our favour really as there were some big cameras heading towards the Marsh hide, which is quite small, they were gone by the time we'd worked our way there.

In the woods we saw a couple of flocks of Bullfinch in the trees. It was not a good day for photos, very dull and grey! We also saw a couple Jays and Great Spotted Woodpeckers too.  We had the lake hide to ourselves. As we walked in a Robin was sat on a bench in the hide and a Sparrowhawk had been sat right in front of it (the hide not the Robin), it flew across the lake.

Distant Bullfinch!

Robin

Jay

We watched, Teal, Mallards and a Shoveler on the water and off to the side at the feeders Long-tailed, Great, Blue and Coal Tits, 6 Robins - there were a few ructions there! A charm of Goldfinch flew over the lake.

Blue Tits

Shoveler

Blue Tit

Moving on we stopped at the marsh hide, all the usual birds were at the feeders plus Nuthatch too. Lots of squirrels were around the bottoms of the feeders. We didn't see any Mandarins today, which is unusual.

Walking back through Golden Acre we stopped at the little feeding area for a while, more squirrels, Chaffinch, Tits and up in the trees Jay and Woodpigeon. Eventually everything was scared off by several dogs so we made our way out of the park.

We did see some fungi as we walked around including Dead Mans Fingers, spotted by my daughter, the first time i've seen it.

Patch Update

The first patch bird of the year - a Magpie, heard from the comfort of my bed!

I started off with a couple of walks around the patch on New Years Day (due to late nights, getting up early and getting out for a day of birding is not something that's going to happen in my house anytime soon!). Still I was up and out before anyone in the house stirred and it was a quiet but damp walk around town.

I managed to disturb a Pied Wagtail, which flew off chirping crossly! Overhead I had a flock of 7 Pink-footed Geese, a Sparrowhawk chasing flocks of Feral Pigeons and Starlings, Black-Headed Gulls and Crows. Lots of other birds around too, it was such a dull day though every bird almost looks black and white!

In the park the trees were full of Blackbirds, there was a large flock of Redwings too, but they scattered pretty quickly. Lots of Goldfinch in the treetops, their song accompanied me around the park. 

I saw that the Kingfisher had been spotted again down by the dipping pond in Churwell Woods so in the afternoon I went to have a look. Of course no luck, really there was too many people out for a walk at that time of day. Walking the length of the woods brought plenty of other birds including Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldfinch, Long-tailed Tits and my first Greenfinch in months. 

Then a bird appeared on a tree that i've not seen on the patch before - a Treecreeper! It was running around the trunk and posed beautifully. That made up for the lack of Kingfisher, such a cracking little bird.

Since then i've picked up a few new birds over the past week or so on my walks to work and a couple of short visits to the Woods. The Kingfisher has eluded me and i'm not sure it's been seen again.

It's been a dreary foggy dull wet week this week but every morning about 6.30 i've heard a Robin singing and today despite all the damp fog for the first time in a while I walked to work surrounded by birdsong, the dawn chorus is on it's way!

So far my total is 31 birds, which is a big chunk of my overall total from last year so a good start? We'll see how it goes!

Old Moor

This is from a visit last Thursday, which I didn't get chance to post till now. It was a gorgeous sunny day despite the icy nip in the air and it made for some lovely views around the reserve.

The garden and Tree Sparrow Farm were both busy with the usual small birds, a couple of Moorhens and a few Squirrels.

We took a walk around the Reedbeds and Bittern hide seeing a GS Woodpecker in a distant tree, from the hides we saw Gadwall, Shoveler, Coots, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Teal and Snipe.

If you look closely you can just see 4 Snipe under the reeds between the Shovelers

Robins followed us around all over the reserve

Walking up towards Wath Ings we stopped in the hides along the way spotting, Teal, Cormorant, Swans, Heron, Shovelers, Wigeon, Goosander, Black-headed and Common Gulls and at one point a Peregrine flew over the mere to the left of the family hide spooking some of the birds up off the water. 

It was good to get out and walk off some of the Christmas excess!