Monday 20 November 2017

Leighton Moss Trip


   Decided to make the trip to Leighton Moss on Sunday
   despite being full of man flu and getting up late so had
   to rush about to get to the coach on time, the day was
   going from bad to worse as I witnessed a dead Badger
   at the side of the road on the Elland bypass which was
   sad and put on a downer for a while, anyway I managed
   to catch the coach and off we went.

   It was quiet on the water at the Eric Morecambe hide but
   I got my first sight of a Great White Egret even though it
   was far off in the distance and a Brambling made an
   appearance in a field along side the mud track along with,
   Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Reed Buntings and some
   Twite but no Yellowhammer which I was hoping to spot as
   it had been reported up there, 3 Little Egret and 3 Snipe and
   11 Curlew were also seen in the vicinity.

   I then took the long walk up to Leighton Moss itself and saw
   2 Jay flyover and Greylag Geese but no sign of the Buzzards
   or Marsh Harriers that I usually get to see, once inside the reserve
   Coal, Blue and Marsh Tits were at the feeder along with Greenfinch
   Chaffinch and a couple of Pheasant, I then proceeded to go to the
   Bearded Tit feeding trays and on the way spotted a Treecreeper in
   the first tree I passed, at the feeding trays was a bloke who'd also
   come on the same coach called David a nice fella and said he hadn't
   seen a Bearded Tit for 35 years and that was also only a fleeting
  glimpse so I stood and waited with him for a while and low and
  behold we heard some calling and 2 mins later a male showed itself
  about 20 yards away from the trays and then the female popped up
  as well, I got a fews shots of the female but the male was more
  elusive even though they were only an arms length away its nigh
  on impossible getting a clean shot through the reeds, but they were
  great to see and made the journey worth while and David was over
  the moon, lighting was poor for great pics but it was still a joy getting
  at least a few pics of them.

  Time was running out fast so we went across to the furthest hide and
  was told an Otter had just been seen but I didn't get the joy, but I did
  get to see my first Starling murmuration which was amazing to watch.
  On the way home we got stuck in traffic what seemed like forever,
  instead of 1h 30m it took us 3 hours but got to talking to a nice bloke called
  Peter who as it happened lived just down the road from me so I gave him
  a lift home and nattered about the days events.











                                          GWE is on the left, looked great through a scope



2 comments:

Bradshaw Rambler said...

Great that you got Beardies Dave.
A great bird for you there.
John.

Dave Brotherton said...

Cheers John, yeah was chuffed to see em. There were only me and the bloke called Dave there and 5 mins later about 50 people were trying to crowd around it was like a bloody scrum.