Swillington Ings

 Friday 24th July a.m.

A sunny start with a temperature of 16°C as I walked across the site Swifts & Sand Martins were flying above.  A quiet start then another birder was looking at something so I asked what he could see, a group of Yellow Wagtails was his reply.  He showed me where they were and I got a good view of them through the bins, very difficult to get pictures though.  Then he said have you seen the Cattle Egrets and pointed them out to me, wow a lifer for me so I spent a while here and counted 14 birds. Also close by was a Curlew, Snipe, Little Egret & Redshank a good numbers of Common Terns were also seen.  Back at Astley Lake I spotted a  couple of Spoonbills and another birder with a scope pointed out two Green Sandpipers.  A great morning here with plenty of birds which included Little Grebe, Gt C. Grebe, Shoveler, Kestrel, Gadwall, Pochard, Linnet, Reed Bunting, Grey Heron & Cormorant.

Cattle Egret

Yellow Wagtail

Little Egret

Spoonbills

Common Tern

Linnet

Shoveler

Cattle Egrets

Cattle Egrets following the Cattle at Swillington Ings 24/7/2026

TMR

Monday 20th July a.m.

A warm sunny morning as I walked up towards the Reservoir with a temperature of 15°C. There were good numbers of Swallows overhead, many of them juveniles, good to catch up with the juvenile Redstart which was playing hide & seek.  At the res a Common Sandpiper was at the waters edge, the Tufteds were present as were Canadas & Greylags.  There were c200 LBB Gulls, c100 BH Gulls, Herring Gulls & a Yellow Legged Gull.  Others near the res were Kestrel, Stonechat, Pied Wagtail, Red Grouse & Meadow Pipit.  On the way back to the car I saw Willow Warbler, Goldfinch & Wren. 

Juvenile Redstart

Willow Warbler

Common Sandpiper

juvenile Goldfinch

Pied Wagtail

Stonechat

Swallow

Tufted

Wren

BH Gull

LBB Gulls

LBB & YL Gull at TMR 20/7/2026

Harden Moor

 Sunday 19th July a.m.

A sunny morning with some cloud cover and a temperature of 13°C, the model planes were being flown this morning so I took a different route.  This led to the stone ring Cairn which is from the Neolithic period (4100 - 2500BC) from which there are some good views of the surrounding area.  On the way I saw Stonechats, Linnets, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler & Bullfinch.  Others were Swallow & House Martin with the morning being rounded off well when a Barn Owl flew by.

Barn Owl

Stonechat

Linnet

Harden Moor

Neolithic stone ring Cairn, Harden Moor 19/7/2026

Leeshaw

 Thursday 16th July a.m.

After the early morning fog had cleared I went to Leeshaw where it was sunny with a temperature of 17°C.  There were House Martins & Swallows flying around, a Little Owl was in its usual area and a Kestrel landed on the Dam wall.  There were Canadas & Greylags in the fields with more on the res, on the shoreline were Lapwing, BH Gull, LBB Gull & Oystercatcher.  In the distance was a Buzzard & a Pied Wagtail was resting on a wall, also plenty Butterflies including Comma, Small Tortoiseshell, & Meadow Brown.  As I got back to the car there were a couple of Swallows on an overhead wire, then a couple more birds arrived which were House Martin & Sand Martin,  it was good to see the three species together.

House Martin

Sand Martin

House Martin & Sand Martin

Swallow & Sand Martin

Buzzard

Kestrel

Lapwing

Little Owl

Pied Wagtail

Comma

Meadow Brown 

Small Tortoiseshell 

Swallow, House Martin & Sand Martin

Hirundines at Leeshaw 16/7/2026