Tuesday December 5th.
Once again………NO… not this
time… not Attenborough!!!
Chris and I decided to go to
another of our favourite birding locations – RSPB Old Moor, near Barnsley. This is normally Amanda’s patch where she and
Noel volunteer. Amanda helps the public with bird identification, whilst Noel
gets his hands dirty! However, as they
were both still on holiday in the Far East, we had to do our own spotting!
We started off with a visit to
the Garganey Trust bird hide overlooking Broomhill Flash. Nothing outstanding,
although there were c25 Shovellers. A local birder told us that agreement had
been reached for the Garganey Trust to extend the site by the addition of a
large adjacent field, combined with a path enabling visitors to get further in
to and round the site.
Old Moor was busy with a good
number of bird-watchers, including a group from N Derbyshire. Water level was
at a good level for waders, the main spot being 3 Green Sandpipers. Although surprisingly we found no Great Crested Grebes
nor Goldeneye, we added Redshank, Snipe and 1 male and 4 females Goosanders.
After a good lunch, and in
view of the news that a Bittern had been seen at 12.30, we staked out the
Bittern Hide for an hour…..abortively!
However, as a consolation the local Peregrine Falcon was circling The
Mere, returning to a perch on some sticks immediately in front of the Wader
Scrape Hide. Even from the Bittern Hide, we had a good view of this superb
raptor.
Not the best of photographs,
but you get the idea! 41 species was a good count for a cold day!
Saturday December 9th
Started off the day with an
e-mail from Volunteer Lorna, who asked me to add Parrot Crossbill to her 200
club list. I knew this would have meant that she had been to the Upper Derwent
Valley where they have been reported.
Lorna tells me that people park at the lay-by with a blue 7km marker on the last bend before The Kings, then climb up North West to The Ronksley South Plantation. She says that it was quite a climb up on to the
moors. If you decide to go no doubt the centre will have the latest
information.
I’m just hoping the snow may
vanish to give me a chance. As my daughter has just rung to say that they are
snow-bound in Oxon, what chance up on the Derbyshire/Yorkshire Moors!!
This is not specifically about
our wildlife, (well it could be!) but a volunteering colleague at Carsington.
To-day 20 volunteers sat down
for our annual Xmas lunch at the restaurant at Carsington. It was an excellent
meal, and I put a festive quiz sheet on each of the 2 tables, for anyone to fill
in if they felt inclined. No prizes, just fun.
But before the meal we met in
the Henmore Room, for a presentation to Brian Woods, and his wife, for the 20
years he had been a Volunteer at Carsington.
Dan Taberner (the Big white
chief at Carsington) did the eulogy, sorry tribute, to Brian and after giving
some flowers to Elaine, he gave Brian a large picture with 9 memorable
photographs commemorating and remembering some of his days as a Volunteer. The main
picture, of Brian and Jim lying on a pile of hay, was a very apt centrepiece.
Sunday
December 10th One look
out of the window, and that was enough to see that Volunteers were unlikely to
be at Carsington, let alone the public. So I decided that was it for today, and
I’ll leave you with our plastic robin with a white coat. Albino?
Happy Birding.
Old Moor is another of my favourite places. It's a good job you went when you did. A few days later and I doubt that you would have got there let alone got in!
ReplyDeleteHave you had the bittern yet this year? If not, a good day to look for it, with little traffic, would be 25th December.
Perhaps better not let your Editor read this...