St. Aidans

An afternoons birding with Chris. He suggested that we go to St. Aidans and look for black necked grebe.
No sign of little owl in the compound.

As we walked along the path we could see hares running about.

A bit further along the path we saw and heard a chiffchaff and had our first encounter with a stonechat.

 

 

 

We reached the part of the reserve from where people had been watching black necked grebes and as we carefully looked for the birds, Chris found two bearded tits. They did not stay still for long as they moved through the reeds feeding.

 

 

We reached a crossroads

 

The path across the causeway was still flooded.

 

Not far from here we got our first glimpse of a black necked grebe

On our way back to the centre we passed a couple looking for the bearded tits, so Chris showed them where the birds were.

We saw a stonechat again as we went back to the car park, but did not manage to see a short eared owl.

A sewage works was our second stop, where we soon saw several pied and grey wagtails, but no sign of a water pipit. Astley Lake was our third stop but we did not see any mew birds for our day list.

 Fairburn Ings was our final stop

 

The water levels are still high after the recent fllods, and the paths are damaged in places. From one viewing screen we counted seven grey herons hunting in the reeds.

Another pleasant afternoon with Chris and my total for the year is now 128.