Blacktoft Sands

Sunday September 30th a.m.
 I was very tempted to go to Ogden this morning but with poor weather forecast we
decided to go East to Blacktoft Sands where better weather was forecast.Sure enough
as we left the Pennines behind we went into dry but cloudy weather with a temperature
of 14°C on our arrival.Things started well in our first hide with a Little Egret & Grey Heron
near to us.On one of the distant islands we spotted three Snipe among the stones.It was
also good to get a close view of a Greenshank and the chance to take a couple of reasonable
snaps.At the next hide we had distant views of 61 Lapwings and in front of them several
Pied Wagtails were flitting around.Among these we also got our first sightings of a couple of
Yellow Wagtails we watched these for a while also seeing c30 Goldfinch before moving to
another hide.Next we saw a Cormorant,good numbers of Teal and Shoveler as well as a
couple of Little Grebe. Overhead we saw a couple of skiens of Geese, probably Pink footed
but we couldn't be sure, the warden told us there had been a 1,000 or so over the reserve.
Other birds seen were a Kestrel,Tree Sparrow,Pheasant,Swallow,Moorhen and Mallard.

Greenshank

Tree Sparrow

Little Egret & Grey Heron

Geese

Grey Heron