Staveley and Nosterfield

 

I woke up early and so took the opportunity to go out birding at Staveley.

Lots of greylag geese flying on to the first lagoon was my noisy welcome.

As I reached the first part of the woodland I saw a family of blackcaps hunting for insects and then a short while later a family of spotted flycatchers, the first ones I had seen this year I had just sat down in the first hide when more greylag geese arrived which disturbed a grey heron which in turn disturbed this great white egret.

From the second hide I could see a pair of great crested grebes. One had young on its back, which the other adult was feeding.

Several warblers in the reeds in front of the hide.

I cannot make out what the object on top of the birds beak is, I was thinking it could be a beetle?

A pair of common terns have two young on one of the rafts on the lagoon. The adults went fishing and then returned to feed their young.

I like this sign on the outside of the far hide.

From this hide I could see lots of lapwings and a pair of avocets chasing other birds including a red kite away. I returned to my car and drove north to Nosterfield.

As you might be able to see from the photo the water level is quite low. Lots of greylags and lapwings on the exposed sand and lots of sand martins flying around searching for insects.

My last stop was at the other part of the nature reserve. I decided to stay in may car and listen to the test match while looking at the birds. Again the water levels are low but I managed to count 165 curlews on the other side of the lagoon.

A pleasant morning in this part of Nidderdale.