I went out late morning on Friday, there might have been some bright Sun but it was freezing cold. It did mean that the Sun was in the right direction for the Snipe hiding place at High Royds, but it also meant I got very cold.
The header image is of a Long Tailed Tit at Ben Rydding Gravel Pits Local Nature Reserve.
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High Royds Pond
The reason for stopping off at High Royds Pond was to see if Snipe and Water rail were there. When I arrived I could see three Snipe at the far side. I walked around the pond and thought I heard a Water rail but didn’t see it.
I spent a few minutes leant against the fence on the West side of the pond, hoping to get closer sight of Snipe, it was then that I got cold. And no decent Snipe sightings.
I went back to near the entrance and this time I could see two more places with Snipe. That meant I could see 11 Snipe. Not bad for a little pond next to the A65.
As you can see from the photos of the Black Headed Gull and the Moorhen the pond is frozen with a light covering of water.
Back in the car I turned the heating temperature up and put the heated steering wheel on before heading to Ben Rhydding Gravel Pits.
Ben Rhydding GPLNR
On this visit to Ben Rhydding I left my macro lens behind so I was looking for wildlife not fungi. As is often the case I was spotted before I spotted birds. A Grey Heron flew off from the middle of all the teasels, three Cormorant flew off up river, but a decent sized flock of Long Tailed Tits seemed to ignore me as they went about their business.
On the next tree over was a Treecreeper but as is often the case it crept around the branches and didn’t let me get a photo of it.
While walking along the riverside path I kept seeing Blackbird sized birds fly from the trees and head further down the path so I started doing some stalking. There were several blackbirds that tried to keep themselves hidden while I went past the tree they were in. Though I was looking for birds in the trees there were others, not as dark as Blackbirds, that were suddenly flying away with me not having noticed them in the tree.
With a bit more care I eventually managed to get sight of Redwing, Fieldfare and Thrush.
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