Fairburn Ings

 Decided to take advantage of the sunny afternoon and visit Fairburn Ings. It was just after 2.30 when I arrived at Lindike car park. A chap from Wakefield was looking for the footpath, so I was able to show him the way and told him that the hide was closed. I stopped at various places along the path to try to take pictures of butterflies, but only this comma landed in a spot I could take a picture.

From the screen closest to the hide I could see lots of birds on the water.

In the distance I could see a cattle egret, lots of mute swans, gadwall, mallard and shoveler. A few black tailed godwits were bust feeding on the right hand side of the lagoon, while at the far end of the water, lots of coots were busy feeding. A marsh harrier was hunting over the reeds near a hedge and flushed a little egret and a great white egret. A little egret came a bit closer

 A party of 5 common terns were flying about and I wondered if the adults were showing the young how to catch fish. I called in at the visitor centre on my way home.  A young blue tit and a coal tit were on the feeders near the centre.

The feeders near the Pickup  hide were full and a young jay was trying to reach the suet balls.

It flew off and landed on a post when a squirrel arrived at the feeders.

a young magpie was also around. The squirrel tried to get at the suet balls

It then realised that it could reach the food with its front legs

and so it lifted the top suet ball to the top of the cage and was able bite pieces off. A chaffinch and a robin came to the feeders looking for food.

A pleasant couple of hours and the cattle egret was number 188 on my list for this year.