Summer bird watching

The past two months have been really busy and so our bird watching endeavors have been pretty low key.  But we've been practicing to spot birds amongst the dense leaves of summer and enjoying all the baby birds spotted on the water.

Today was a short trip to Thorpe Perrow where we saw 2 clutches of young Little Grebes, a dozen juvenile mallards and a group of baby Tufted ducks.

Yesterday we stopped in at Fountains Abbey at the large pond nearest the deer park.  Not as many birds here now as there usually is but a selection of the typical residents with juvenile Black Headed Gulls, Tufted Ducks, Moor Hens, Greylag and Canada Geese and a few Mallards.  And the Jack Daws were braving the busy cafe eating area to scrounge for crumbs.

Last weekend we stopped in at Marshfields Reserve, just in passing, not expecting the size of the place once we got out and started walking around.  There were loads of birds and young on all the ponds.  Definitely a place we'll go back to and spend more time.  Spotted maybe a hundred Mallards, a pair of Great Crested Grebe, Swans, Greylags, Moor Hens... we didn't get to all the ponds though.  We also saw Chiff Chaff zipping about in the hedgerows.

On the weekend before this (June 29th) we stopped by Nosterfield late in the day and though the water line was low there were plenty of birds.  Nothing new for us but we did get some really good close views of sedge warblers along the path and the baby Great Tits were out and flitting from bush to bush.

Shawnna

Le Camargue

African Sacred Ibis

A holiday to the south of France this past week gave us just one day of bird watching and we opted for the Parc Ornithologique just outside Avignon and recommended to us by local friends.

The inner estuary is a haven for flamingos and we saw plenty of those along with several types of heron nesting on small islands.  Smaller birds were harder to spot but we identified a Cetti's Warbler among all the sparrows.

And lastly, just before leaving while sitting at the cafe overlooking the water we spotted an African Sacred Ibis.

Shawnna

Kettlewell to Arncliffe

We repeated our walk from earlier in the year up over Old Cote Moor and back from Kettlewell.  It was a glorious sunny day and busy on the paths but we managed to see 3 new birds for our UK list, Skylark, Meadow Pipit and Common Sandpiper.

Shawnna

Little Grebe

Spring Day at Staveley

Sedge Warbler

It's been a few weeks since we've been able to get out bird watching, just too many other chores getting in the way! 

But a few weeks back we did spend a morning at Thorpe Perrow Arboretum where we spotted a Little Grebe on the ornamental pond.

Today though we went back to our local reserve and encountered a whole new range of bird song.  The water birds weren't plentiful but we were treated to 2 warblers, Sedge and Willow alomg with the Lesser Whitethroat and the Blackcap.  There were also Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martins all flitting over the water for insects, making it easier to spot the differences in flight.

Shawnna