Jay and Kingfisher

After completing H&S checks I spent two hours in the Pickup Hide at RSPB Fairburn Ings.

A jay was on one of the bird feeders

 

A pleasant lady called Anne joined me in the hide. She is very enthuiastic about wildlife and loves spending time at Rodley Nature reserve in Leeds.

She spotted a male kingfisher sat on the sand martin bank.

It dived into the water and returned with its catch.

After digesting this it dived into the water and caught a fish.

A grey heron arrived and frightened it away.

Meanwhile back at the feeders, a great tit family had arrived.

They had waited until a grey squirrel removed a part of a suet ball from the feeder.

The jay returned and found a piece of the suet ball on the floor and flew off with it.

Blackcaps , chiffchaffs and blackbirds were singing. Swifts were flying overhead and great spotted woddpeckers were also flying about. A very pleasant 2 hours, with excellent company to help forget about the rain. 24 birds on my list for the day.

Green Sandpiper

 

 YWT reserve at Staveley at 7am this morning.

A red-legged partridge was sheltering underneath this mobile unit and it ran off along the path as I walked towards John's hide. Not a lot to be seen from here so I walked back along the path, and disturbed a red-legged partridge again as I past the mobile unit. From Bob's hide I could see a barn owl hunting in the field across the lagoon.

It rested on top of a fence post 

then the rain started and I lost sight of it. Plenty of warbler activity in front of the hide.

reed buntings as well.

I then walked to the Church Hide from where I was able to watch swifts, sand and house martins and swallows. Lots of lapwings, some with young.

Oystercatchers were flying about making a lot of noise, while ringed and little ringed plovers were chasing each other on a shingle bank. A green sandpiper was a pleasant surprise, my first of the year. Was it a non breeding bird returning from further north already?

A bittern flew towards the hide but was mobbed by gulls so took refuge in the reedbed. I returned to my car at lunch time and then returned to John's hide. No sign of a partridge but a family of mute swans.

A barn owl was now out hunting in the field to the right of the hide. Did it have young and had the reent wet weather forced it out to hunt at 2pm?

From Bob's hide I watched common terns feeding a young tern.

Lots of orchids

A very pleasant day with 53 birds on my list

Blackcap versus Garden Warbler

 I visited the Pickup hide at Fairburn after completing the H&S checks. Not long after I arrived a Spoonbill flew out of the far reedbed and headed for the nesting sites. A Grey heron landed shortly afterwards

The arrival of this deer spooked it

Lots of birds flying over the area including green and great spotted woodpecker, female sparrowhawk, red kite, buzzard, cattle egret, common tern avocet, shelduck and lots of cormorants. It was equally busy at the back of the hide. Although there are no bird feeders at the moment plenty of birds in the area. Great, blue and young long-tailed tits.

A male blackcap and a garden warbler were singing very close together. A young blackcap arrived followed by a male, then the garden warbler.

A very productive 2 hours with a bird list of 31 species, despite no bird feeders.

Old Foss Beck

 

The vegetation is now so high I cannot see the dog!

Lots of whitethroats and goldfiches. Blackbird and blackcap singing, while swallows and swifts hunt insects just above the crops in the fields.

Little stint

 My view over Village Lake at 7am this morning, a few sleeping ducks and geese including these egyptian geese.

This greenfinch was calling from the top of a tree.

Not much activity from the East Hide so I went to the Turret Hide.

Warblers in the reed bed below the hide.

As I walked along the path towards the North Hide I disturbed a green woodpecker. It flew off, calling as it went and landed on a fence post.

Long tailed tits and whitethroats in the North Hedge.  The Dennis Wood hide was my next stop, from where I saw a Little Stint, you might just be able to see it in the photo.

Lots of common terns flying about.

I walked a little further along the lane and saw this in a field.

A Carrion crow had built a nest in a nearby tree.

Lots of butterflies

From the South Hide I was watching some Black-headed gulls when I got a very pleasant surprise, my friend Chris Downes came into the hide. After a chat Chris set off to look for the Little Stint and I resumed watching the gulls.

Young gulls were on the water and stretching their wings.

An adukt gull kept attacking one of the young gulls when it came begging for food. It did however regurgitate food for the other young gull.

A very pleasant morning.

Water rail at North Duffield Carrs

 

I arrived at 1630 when it was a little cooler and had the place to myself. Not a lot of action when I first arrived. No birds to be seen on the scrape, just a water rail screeching.

The whitethroats appeared and had food for the young in the nest.

A young stonechat was flitting between a bramble and the grass as it hunted for food.

A deer ran in front of the hide.

A sedge warbler was hiding in a hawthorn bush.

Mr and Mrs Gadwall flew in for a bathe.

Several butterflies and damselflies.

One more bird species than my last visit, but surprisingly 8 different birds, bringing my year total for the reserve to 81.