Old Moor

I spent the day today at Old Moor RSPB, volunteering at an optics demonstration. It quite a quiet day – I think the downpours of the morning put a few people off – but hopefully we managed to give a few people some scope-buying advice.

I didn’t have much time to look round the reserve, but the highlights were a few greenshank hanging around Wath Ings, which were the first of the year for me, and a turnstone, a species that’s quite rare this far inland, and was buddying up with a ringed plover, which it seemed to never leave the side of! Elsewhere green sandpiper, ruff, little egret and common tern were the best of the rest.

Sadly the garganey that’s been sighted for the last few days wasn’t playing – I’m starting to think this will be one summer visitor I won’t chalk up this year. Also the breeding Med gulls (the first for South Yorkshire!) have moved on. Hopefully they’ll do so again next year and I’ll get chance to see them.

A spoonbill at Old Moor

I’ve had a fantastic day today! I was volunteering at Old Moor, helping lead guided walks showing people baby birds around the reserve to tie in with Springwatch. Plenty was there to see, including coot, little grebe, Canada goose, mallard and black-headed gull chicks, and lapwings and kestrels on the nest.

Adding an extra dimension to it all, however, was a spoonbill, which landed on the reserve half way through the first walk, just in time for me to take our group to see it! It then handily stayed in the same place all day, and I must have shown it to about 40 people throughout the day. It was for me a life tick, and for once I was in exactly the right place at the right time for a rarity.

I also picked up two year ticks – reed warblers were chattering away in the undergrowth, only showing the tiniest glimpse, and a few common terns were on the reserve, often engaging in aerial dogfights with black-headed gulls. But, of course, the spoonbill wins today!

At last!

Finally got some migrants today, but I cheated by going to Old Moor. Almost instantly I got willow warbler on the Trans Pennine Trail near the reserve, at exactly the same spot as I first saw one last year. Other highlights from that path included a pair of bullfinches, a sparrowhawk, several chiffchaff and a singing skylark.

On the reserve the migrants continued with large flocks of wheeling sand martins, and I managed to pick out a single swallow and a couple of house martins among them. There were also some very obliging ringed plovers and little ringed plovers, stood on adjascent islands just to help you compare their differences!

Other highlights today included a little owl, a pair of willow tits, a pair of stock doves at the feeding station, more bullfinches, a few oystercatchers and redshanks, several great crested grebes, a single little grebe, and a pair of kestrels that are nesting in a nest box by the Field Pool hide.

Today’s rather long list: