YWT Potteric Carr - 27 January 2013

The 6 inches of snow that we woke up to yesterday had been removed overnight and we work up to a world of colour again. Heading south we braved the roadworks between the M18 and Doncaster, enjoying the reflections of the sun in the flooded Carr Lodge to the left of the approach road and shortly arrived at a sunny Potteric Carr. This is one of the Trust's largest nature reserves and will soon get even larger as the Trust takes on both Carr Lodge and a further piece of land.

Sedum House and entrance to Potteric Carr YWT as viewed from the overflow car park.


We parked in the overflow car park as a guided Bittern event had led to an influx of visitors keen to see this Potteric speciality. Through the entrance we enjoyed the newly redesigned shop and binocular bar that overlooks a new feeding station, which was a hive of activity, vibrant with Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tits. A lovely touch is a video camera which relays images on to a screen in the shop - the kids loved this! We headed south round the green trail admiring the new dipping station and fun Dipping In interpretation board.

The kids really enjoyed the new Dipping In interp, though the legs could have been a bit shorter!

With the sun shining and a brisk wind blowing the nature reserve looked stunning with the reedbeds shimmering in the light. Few birds were about but I noted that the local Great and Blue Tits were singing away heralding the distant spring. We noticed some Alder catkins too.

After an enjoyable walk which was facilitated by the well-surfaced paths and good signage - important for us as we had a push chair with us today - we arrived at the cafe. Siskins flew around overhead and we enjoyed a rest and lunch overlooking Willow Marsh, which has been made possible thanks to the efforts of the reserves team who have cleared some trees. The cafe was busy and Bev and Ellis were busy serving the masses.

The view across Willow Marsh from the Cafe. A Bittern has been seen flying over the reedbed here in the last week.

Visitors enjoying their lunch.

After a rest we continued round the green trail and back to Sedum House. Tired little legs prevented an exploration of the eastern end of the site which I knew would hold most birds. A Bittern had been seen on Decoy Marsh this morning so we kept our eyes peeled, but sadly it didn't show as we passed by. Hopefully some of the other visitors will have  had more luck. The kids enjoyed the reedbeds and the dipping platform back near Sedum House and I enjoyed taking a few photos. A gang of Long-tailed Tits purred in the bushes as we arrived back at the entrance/exit and we headed home having had an enjoyable couple of hours.

Views of Decoy Marsh

YWT Spurn and Kilnsea Wetlands - 22 January 2013

A meeting at Spurn always gets me out of bed in a morning, as previous work trips have led to encounters with Roller, Subalpine Warbler and Red-throated Pipit among other things in between meetings etc.

The roads were largely clear of snow as I headed south towards Selby and then east on the M62. Beyond Patrington, they got a little worse though were still passable with care. After a productive meeting at the Blue Bell, I was chatting to my colleague, Harry, when I looked out of the window and noticed a large white bird heading towards the building . What was it? It was clearly large, but was flapping too fast for any swan. As it neared it conveniently turned side on, flashing black wingtips, a long neck and a huge spatulate bill - a first winter Spoonbill! This bird had been seen on nearby Kilnsea Wetlands earlier but having been in a meeting I hadn't heard the news. So this was a major surprise. Not the rarest of birds, but pretty unusual on a snowy mid-January day.

A little later, Harry and I headed down the peninsular enjoying close views of thousands of waders busy tucking into the invertebrates swarming in the glorious Humber mud; Bar-tailed Godwits, Dunlin, Curlew, Knot, Redshank and Oystercatcher. A throng of Shelducks punctuated the flats and a few Brent Geese flew by. Down at the Point a decidedly parky wind was blowing as we parked at the VTS and walked round to the gun emplacement where we are planning to build a viewing platform. As we approached, we flushed two Woodcocks out from under the Black Poplars. Standing up on top, I was surprised for the second time today by the Spoonbill as it came flapping past at close range and strangely decided to land on top of one of the ruined barrack blocks no more than 50 metres away. Bizarre! We took a couple of photos with our phones and then left this exotic bird to its snooze.

You always see something unexpected at Spurn! Spoonbill below the VTS Tower, Spurn Point.

On the way back to York I dropped in at the brand new Kilnsea Wetlands nature reserve. This is a brand new wetland site lying just outside of Kilnsea before you go over the Long Bank chicane. There is a good car park and a footpath which leads to a hide and viewing screen overlooking the main lagoon. To compensate for the loss of adjacent Beacon Lagoons due to sealevel rise, the Environment Agency built Kilnsea Wetlands last summer as compensatory habitat for roosting waders. With the support of a management group, the site has been given to Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to manage. It is very early days and the Trust is working hard to establish a grazing regime for the grasslands around the lagoons and to control water levels. The site got off to a great start when Avocets bred immediately after work finished! On my first visit I found a Harvest Mouse and on the day of the Roller, I saw a Golden Oriole in a bush near the hide!
Today, the site was covered in birds. c500 Brent Geese were on the lagoon, whilst 50 Wigeon grazed on the grass in front of the hide. Over the road which is also part of the project area, hundreds of waders were present, including Curlew, Golden and Grey Plover, Dunlin and Snipe. Fantastic. The paths were waterlogged today due to all the snow melt, so I didn't get to the hide, though you can see plenty with a scope from the car park.

A very gloomy view of Kilnsea Wetlands nature reserve looking north from near the car park.

YWT Askham Bog - 20 January 2013

A frosty visit with Solomon to the Trust's first nature reserve inspired my article in the York Press yesterday (26th January). Plenty of common woodland birds present, mainly along the first section of boardwalk, where visitors had put out food on the fenceposts. This attracted all the tits, including a couple of Marsh Tits. Nearby a noisy Treecreeper showed well climbing up an Alder, and a exquisite Goldcrest flitted along the wire mesh of the fence inches from Sol and my's faces. Beautiful. We headed for the pond seeing a wheezing Willow Tit flit past and a few Siskins called overhead as they moved between crops of Alder cones. The cold got the better of Sol's toes so we headed back to the sound of a Tawny Owl.

A photo of a Willow Tit I took in Askham Bog last March. Note the extensive white cheeks and the plain black bill, without a pale spot on the base of the upper mandible characteristic of Marsh Tit.

YWT Adel Dam - 5 January 2013

As a young birder back in the mid-eighties, I remember taking a bus to Adel Dam just north of Leeds where we were met by a man with a key, who would let us into this little woodland gem nestling alongside Golden Acre Park. I remembered the lake, mixed woodland and mud! Not much has changed, though you don't need a key any more, but you do still need your boots if you want to go further than the first hide at this time of year!

Adel Dam is a truly lovely site. It has become well known locally for almost guaranteed sightings of Kingfishers, but with two noisy little 'uns in tow, I doubted we would have much chance...

Adel Dam lies three miles north of the Leeds outer ring road on the A660 Otley Road. Turn left into the Golden Acre Park car park and then follow the footpath out of the southern end of the car park under the A660. Turn immediately right after the underpass and follow the level surfaced path for 1/4 mile around the right hand side of a lake. Soon you will have the opportunity to cross a fast flowing beck and further down the path you will notice a wooden structure, looking like a large shed, or shelter. The entrance to the nature reserve is just past this building, through a special access kissing gate. The shelter provides a good spot to have a rest or a picnic, especially if it is raining and there is plenty of information here about what to see on site. I was delighted to meet my colleague Amelia here, who was busy enthusing people about the wonders of Adel Dam and the work of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust - a good effort on a Saturday afternoon!

Above - the entrance and the surfaced path leading to the Marsh Hide. The muddier path off to the right takes you on a loop round the nature reserve and also leads to the Lake Hide.

We followed the surfaced path to Marsh Hide (about 100metres) and were told on arrival that a Kingfisher was showing - boom! And yes, there it was very close to the hide, surprisingly high-up in over-hanging willow twigs. For once in their lives, my kids remained quiet and actully seemed quite spellbound. After a few minutes, the Kingfisher, a female, dropped out of the tree and hovered over the pond, literally a few yards in front of us - wow! A few minutes later she repeated the performance but this time dived in to the water with an audible splash. Sadly she didn't catch a fish, but landed very close by showing off her dazzling turquoise back stripe, which sparkled even in the dull woodland light. Great stuff! Hopefully, this will have ignited an interest in my kids and the hide full of visitors. The hide also provided good views of a bird feeding station, full  of finches and tits and attracting Moorhens and a Grey Squirrel. On the pond there were a couple of Mandarins adding to the Kingfishers touch of the exotic.

Female Kingfisher. This photo was taken with my little digital camera handheld to my bins. Not a bad result considering the poor light.

The kids decided they wanted to build a habitat pile for bugs and so I walked on to the next hide which overlooked the large lake. Here I saw a male Kingfisher who remained silently perched the entire time I was in the hide, and a large Common Carp cruising along the surface of the lake. A male Sparrowhawk sparred with a couple of Carrion Crows overhead, but sadly it was time to head back and pick up the kids. A couple of Redpolls (presumably Lesser) called overhead and a Treecreeper was peeping in the trees somewhere.

This is another lovely spot and with a large park next door, plenty of room to excercise your kids or dog afterwards if you are that way inclined. We even managed a January ice cream back in the car park!

YWT Little Beck Wood - 1 January 2013

 

On to Little Beck Wood near Sleights just off the Whitby Road. This was my first proper use of Discover Yorkshire's Wildlife and the directions were spot on. It is a very steep descent down to Little Beck and the numerous grit bins suggest it is treacherous in snowy or icy conditions. Fortunately, today was a balmy 6 degrees so we had no problems with traction, despite the heavy load of Christmas-food-stuffed passengers and dog!

We parked just before the ford by a Little Beck interpretation sign, adjacent to the Methodist Chapel. Note this area should be kept clear 2-4pm on a Sunday for chapel goers. The entrance to Little Beck Wood was over some stepping stones which would have been tricky if the beck had been in spate. Willow was quite happy walking through it up to her belly, but I had to toss the kids over, much to their delight.

Despite the glorious sunshine, the wood sits in a valley bottom and so the sun was not reaching us as we ambled up the sloping rocky path. Before the first bend in the path, we enjoyed a small waterfall along the beck. There are Dippers round here - we didn't see or hear any, though it does look good for them. The woods are truly magnificent with some really tall Ash and other trees. Lots of Holly and Cherry in the understorey too, plus a bit of Honeysuckle. Among the plants noticed were Opposite-leaved Golden-saxifrage and Wood Sorrel, still recognisable in the depths of winter. There were a lot of impressive ferns, a group I am rubbish at identifying - maybe I will learn them this year! I did recognise the large clumps of Hart's Tongue Fern by the entrance however - see the second photo - above. Not sure what this one below is though!

Bird-wise, quite quiet as you would expect at this time of year, but Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Marsh Tit all noted, plus the usual common woodland stuff. At the top of the slope we warmed ourselves in the weak sunlight and had a squidge in the mud. Amazingly, nobody fell over in it, though Willow got filthy. She washed off in the beck by the car though, so was quite happy.

All in all a lovely site in a spectacularly picturesque location. We all vowed to come back in the summer, when the wood will undoubtedly be alive with birdsong and full of flowers.

YWT Fen Bog - 1 January 2013

Nipped in to Fen Bog on the way up to Little Beck Wood. The site is easily accessed on the Pickering to Whitby Road, just on the left before the bends shortly after Fylingdales. There is parking for several cars. The nature reserve is a short walk down a track into the valley, towards the steam railway.

I plan to come back here in the summer to look for Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries and Large Heaths but as the sun was shining, I thought it was worth a quick photo. The moorland colours were lovely in the winter sunshine, but not a lot about, apart from a few hardy Meadow Pipits.

Happy New Year!

Just before Christmas the book we had been working on for ages was finally published.

Discover Yorkshire's Wildlife is a guidebook to Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Sheffield Wildlife Trust's nature reserves. Following a few ales on New Year's Eve, we decided (my wife, Vicky, and I) that we would attempt to visit all of the sites contained within this book within 2013.

The book lists 96 sites although there are a small number of tiny sites close to other sites which are mentioned by grid reference only. We might pop in if we have plenty of time. Apart from a bit of fun, this will also help me get some new photos of these sites for my colleagues at the Trust to use in their work and also for me to check out the access and signage which is part of my job. In addition, it will be a good way of deciding whether we need to make adjustments to information in the second edition of the book.

I hope that my blog entries and pics will inspire you to buy a copy of this book and get your boots on and get out and visit these fabulous wildlife havens.

Happy  New Year!
Jono Leadley 1 January 2013