A cold frosty night again only 1°C when we set off this morning heading for Yeadon.
The skies where clear and the sun although low in the sky was breaking through. We
decided to stop off at Lister Park on our way to check out the pond on the off chance
of seeing a few Mallards. As we approached the pond we could not believe the numbers
of birds,Mallards,Tufted Ducks and Gulls along with Coots and Moorhen. There were
two male and two female Goosanders and we spotted a Heron on the island. Parts of
the pond were frozen so the mainly BH Gulls were walking on the ice.There were good
numbers of Canadas feeding on the grass these later came onto the water. We even
spotted a Squirrel eating a nut in a tree. A great find for us I think we may well be coming
back again.
c - 300 BH Gulls
c - 150 Mallards
60 - Canadas
32 - Tufted Ducks
13 - Coot
7 - Common Gulls
6 - Moorhen
4 - Goosander
2 - Robin
1 - Grey Heron
 |
| Tufted Duck |
 |
| Moorhen stuck up a tree |
 |
| Heron |
 |
| Goosanders |
 |
| Squirrel |
 |
| Canada Goose |
 |
| Tufted ducks |
 |
| Canadas and BH Gulls |
 |
| Lister Park 1 |
 |
| Lister Park 2 |
That is very good. Upto 2000 this was my local patch and I cannot ever recall Goosander nor Tufted Duck turning up. I did get some surprises tho' like breeding Little Grebe; Mandarin and Shelduck. Sadly, the latter had clipped primaries so couldn't be counted as wild. Oh and a Blue Winged Teal!
ReplyDeleteThanks Nigel,you give us even more reasons for
ReplyDeletereturn visits in the future, I think the surprise
comes from very little reporting about this location from fellow birders.
It was cold this morning but I'm sure not as cold as Soil Hill, but then you do get the advantage of the Snow buntings up there in recent weeks.