Ladywalk NR

As I've mentioned previously we have recently joined the West Midland Bird Club, so yesterday took us an another trip of exploration and we visited Ladywalk NR, one of a number of reserves in the Tame Valley Wetlands. We had a fabulous afternoon, once we mastered the combination lock to the car park, that took us a while! We went on the circular walk talking in all the hides, the weather was great if a little blowy, but the sun stayed out for the most part.

We had some great sightings, especially of a couple of cuckoos that we of course heard before we found them. But I'll start at the beginning or the imaginatively called 'Hide A'. At this hide there were a number of feeders attracting Greenfinch, Reed Bunting, Blue and Great Tits and this wonderful pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers:

We walked from Hide A to the Rudd hide, hearing Cuckoo's along the way and catching a brief glimpse in a large Oak Tree behind the hide. But as we left and headed for the River Walk Hide, one flew past a couple of hundred yards away, and landed behind a bush. We could see it, but it was partially obscured by the bush, I took a few photo's trying to get a focus through the foliage, but to no avail, then a big gust of wind swung the leaves out the way and I managed a couple of shots, one not completely out of focus or obscured:

As we walked on there were butterflies and dragonflies everywhere, absolutely fantatstic, I managed a few photos, that I'll share:
This could be a female Red-eyed Damselfly, but then it might not!!

 On safer ground this is a Comma Butterfly,

 a Gatekeeper Butterfly,

 the Comma again,

 a Red Admiral, if anyone wants to identify the insect flying in feel free!

 A Small White Butterfly,

and a Peacock.

We were having a great time with all the activity, we also saw Grey Wagtail along the river and a pair of Linnet on the pebbles:

The River Walk hide was fantastic with great views over the reserve, we added Green Sandpiper again only visible when the wind blew the reeds out the way. Little Egret, Black-tailed Godwit, a female Mandarin (on the left), sitting alongside a couple of Grey Heron;

There were Cormorants eveywhere;

a few female Teal were about, at least one female Gadwall, Grebes, House Martins skimming through, Lapwing, Moorhen, Coot, Mute Swan, Canada Geese, the list goes on!

We finally carried on to the Bittern hide where we had a very late lunch.We carried on to Hide B then back to the car, with of course a few more photos in between.
Little Egret,

 a Small Tortoiseshell Buuterfly,

 another Little Egret and

 a nice view of a Great Crested Grebe.

We loved it!
In the past we have always gone to the RSPB reserve (Middleton) just a few miles along the river, but this was much more enjoyable, so unless something 'special' turns up at Middleton, Ladywalk is the place that we will be visiting in the future.

Calke Abbey NT

On Thursday we arranged to meet our good friends Wendy & Tim at Calke Abbey National Trust in Derbyshire, which is about halfway between us. We had a great socially distanced few hours walking around the estate and having a good catch up.

Probably due to the catching up not much birding was done! With just 21 species being seen. We did add one to the year list for us though taking us to the dizzying heights of 121 so far.
So I'll start with a Butterfly, a Ringlet (at first I thought it was a Meadow Brown, but have just found a good Butterfly ID website, so have corrected this to a Ringlet)

 Juvenile Crow with parent,

 Mallard,

 Roe Deer,

 Chiffchaff,

 number 121, a female Mandarin Duck with three ducklings

 and a Red Admiral.

There weren't many photo opportunities as you can see, but today was all about having a nice time, in a lovely place with some good friends.

Wharfedale , Yorkshire Dales

We went to spend the weekend up in Yorkshire, stopping with our good friends Tim & Wendy.
On the Saturday we went for a walk along the River Wharfe starting out from Addingham.

We had some quality sightings on the walk, starting with a Kingfisher just a few minutes into the walk,

 we were to have four separate sightings as we progressed, but this was the best of them, though it was on the other side of the river.

 There were quite a few female Mandarin Duck about, no sign of any magnificent males though.

 A couple of Grey Heron were seen too.

 As well as plenty of young Goosander, seen in two different places, so that was a total of about 20, unless it was the same group flying up river and sneaking past us!

 At least 3 Grey Wagtail were seen

 and two Dipper sightings although I do think that may have been the same bird,

 the second was in very bad light under some trees, so difficult to say, but it was only about 200 yards from the first.

So a lovely afternoon with 20 species seen in total.

Eymore Wood

On Friday we took the opportunity of some nice weather to go to Eymore Wood, unbelievably we haven't been over there since August 2014, so it was long overdue. We normally walk down to the reservoir first and circle around along the River Severn and back up through the woods, but we decide to live dangerously and go around the other way through the woods first.

We hoped there might be some Crossbills about, as we had seen them there before and I had seen a report of them earlier in the month. But it was very very quiet, it was about 20 minutes before we even saw a bird of any kind and that was of course a Robin, followed a bit later by a blackbird.

We found a fallen tree to use as a bench and had a coffee, we sat for a while and waited hoping to see anything, but only a some overflying Crows and Woodpigeon were seen. We thought that we might have seen a Falcon, but it was above the canopy and disappeared before the binoculars could be brought to bear.

We carried on down to the river, the paths were terrible, good job we had boots on, although our trousers were covered in mud by the end, walking was very difficult in places. Along the river we added a few Mallard and a solitary Moorhen. Thing livened up a bit as we left the wood and crossed the open area towards Trimpley Reservoir, seeing a number of Blue, Great and Coal Tit. We continued walking along the river and found the Mandarin Ducks. There was 11 of them tucked in under the trees on the far bank of the river. This didn't make for great photographs as it was very gloomy under the trees despite the lovely sunshine.

From here we scaled the reservoir embankment to find a bench for lunch. The top reservoir had a few Cormorant, Feral Pigeon and Black-headed Gulls. While we were having lunch a at least one Goldcrest put in an appearance in the conifers behind us, but that was a very fleeting view.

The lower reservoir had a number of Goosander, but by the time we walked down that way they had all departed. So we crossed the Severn Valley Railway line and climbed back up to the Car Park with only a Grey Squirrel adding to our sightings for the day, until a Song Thrush appeared on top of one of the pines.

So all in all a lovely if somewhat muddy walk, perhaps we will leave another visit until Spring and let the paths dry out a bit!

Attenborough NR, Notts

Thursday saw us meet up with our good friends Wendy & Tim at Attenborough NR. After a spot of lunch in the visitor centre we went for a walk around the reserve on what was a cold and mostly very dull (weather wise!) day. The birding was far from dull, not many species seen but some quality close ups starting with some Egyptian Geese:

and Great Crested Grebe:

There was quite a variety of ducks around the reserve, Shelduck, Shoveler,

Pochard, Wigeon, Tufted Duck,

Goldeneye, Mallard, Gadwall,

Teal and a solitary female Mandarin

Plenty of Cormorants were about

The smaller birds were very difficult to find, Tina had a glimpse of a Kingfisher, some female Reed Bunting put in a distant appearance,

keeping the Little Egret company,

The only other bird that gave me a decent photo opportunity was a Long-tailed Tit

I had hoped we would see some winter thrushes but sadly none put in an appearance, hopefully we will see plenty in Norfolk in a couple of weeks time, plus here's hoping that the Waxwings and Shorelarks that are there at the moment hang around for us! Fingers crossed.

Attenborough is a great reserve and well worth a visit if you are in that neck of the woods (I would avoid weekends though as it can get busy)