After 3 days of warm sunny weather, yesterday was a bit of a shock to the system. I went to St. Aidans in the afternoon and wished that I had taken my woolly hat. As soon as I got out of the car I could hear the noise that the black headed gulls were making. Walking across the bridge over the River Aire, I could hear chiffchaffs singing.
I walked down the slope and onto the causeway. Scanning the water to my right I was pleased to see some goldeneye, a bird I had not seen this year. At the first path junction I kept left and joined other birders watching black necked grebes, however I did not get a brilliant view of them as they were close to the reeds. Whilst I was watching these birds I heard a bittern booming. I then headed for the small ponds at the "top" of the reserve as I had been told that garganey were there, wrong!
On my way back to the causeway I saw more black necked grebes. Not a good day for pictures. My friend Chris came earlier in the week when the weather was better and he got some good shots. Chris Downes Birds is his website.
I walked back over the causeway and turned left to get to a viewing point on the other side of some trees. From here I could not see the garganey that were reported to be asleep near the reed bed, however an iceland gull was a pleasant bonus. Although the bird was with other gulls and some distance away it was easy to identify.
I then called in at Fairburn Ings on my way home. Lots of sand martins flying low over the water on the flashes. I stopped at the visitor centre/
My uncle who lived in Dorset used to call this cold weather a blackthorn winter. It was very quiet on this part of the reserve. Only great tits on the feeders by the visitor centre and no sign of a kingfisher from the screen. However I added four more birds to my year list to take the total to 97.
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