On Sunday the sky was clear for a while so I went out to see if Snipe were visible at High Royds Pond, and Yes, they were. The header image is of the reeds, looking South, with the sunlight on them.
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High Royds Pond
As expected there were plenty of Mallard, Moorhen, and Black Headed Gulls at the pond. Mandarin Ducks were conspicuous by there absence but I did spot a couple of males in their breeding plumage well hidden in the reeds. A couple of Teal were also spotted doing their best to keep out of sight while on the water. I scanned the edges of the reeds with my binoculars but didn’t spot any Snipe.
I walked around the pond and at the far side I was sure I heard a Water Rail but I was not surprised that I didn’t see it.
A little further round I spent some time looking through my binoculars. There seemed to be a few places where the reeds looked as though they could be resting birds, but then I spotted some movement and there, near a male Teal were 4 Snipe. Something disturbed them and 2 took flight while the other two just disappeared. I tried to watch were the two flew to and walked round to near the entrance to look back to the far side for them.
Looking right across the pond I could see what looked like Snipe, some of them very well camouflaged. Zooming in on the photos revealed seven. At one point a Moorhen went through, and two of the Snipe took flight. Moorhens are small but it looked large compared to the Snipe.
The last photo shows the view through the 800mm lens without any cropping.
Denso
On the way home I had a quick walk through Denso Marston Nature Reserve. Things were quiet but I didn’t spend long enough in any one place to see if things would show themselves.
Blue Tit, Siskin and Chaffinch.
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