Bank Holiday Walk

Just me and my not so mini me on Monday, we headed out early to Churwell for a walk in the woods. First though a little detour over the motorway bridge to make the walk a little longer. It takes us just off the patch and i've only done it once before, maybe about two years ago.

The path leads along a track by a farm which brought Goldfinch, Dunnock, Swallows and a possible Linnet but it was gone too quick for me to be 100% sure. 

We also saw quite a bit of Cuckoo Spit from the Froghopper on various plants with lots of it on the Cow Parsley.

At the bottom of the track there is the option of going back under the motorway and into Churwell Woods but we headed left and followed a path down the side of a field. Right away I heard birdsong high above us - Skylark! We saw 3 or 4 of them as we walked and you can just about hear them on this video, mostly you can see flies and my shaky camera work but listen it's a beautiful sound. 

At the end it caught the sound of another bird, a Pheasant, we didn't see it as the field is quite high with grasses. The path itself is a little overgrown with Hawthorn and Cow Parsley but it was gorgeous.

Again the path lead to a track beside a farm and then down under a bridge and out onto a main road. That was as far as we went before turning back. Another path leads off across the fields, i'm not sure where that leads so we only explored a little way and discovered Lapwing there, fantastic to have Skylarks and Lapwing in walking distance from home! In the trees were Goldfinch, Bullfinch, Great Tits, Woodpigeons and overhead a few Swifts too. 

Lapwing

Bullfinch

Skylark

I'm really pleased we took the detour it was a nice walk and it'll be interesting to see what else I can find there. So back to the motorway and underneath it to get into Churwell Woods and back on the patch!

The Pit Hills are looking a bit better after last years fire

The woods are quite lush and green now and there were lots of flowers too. As we set off along the path into the woods I could still hear a Skylark, it didn't even register at first because we'd been hearing them for the past hour or so but we were back on the patch now! I stopped to look and saw one hovering just over the edge of the pit hills almost over our heads! A fantastic patch tick and one I hadn't even thought would be a possibility previously. I don't always walk down this far when I call into the woods before work due to lack of time but maybe I should!

Blackbird

Tadpoles

First Sparrow fledgling seen this year

My daughter spotted a couple of Thrush in the trees which looked like they had been bathing in the stream.

Squirrel

It was a beautiful morning and I ended up with 17 species through the woods plus the Swallow, Bullfinch, Lapwing, Pheasant and Dunnock seen on the little off patch walk too.

This Collared Dove was guarding the entrance to the woods!

Walking back towards the town centre and home we passed through the park and saw this Magpie taking off

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.

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!