After our visit to Harden Moor we were compiling our report when we looked at Brian's West Yorkshire Birding blog which said there were over 200 Whooper Swans at Mixenden Reservoir.
We have seen good numbers of these at Martin Mere near the West coast in Lancashire where they over Winter.Since we started birding in 2011 we have been trying to get some of these on passage during Autumn & Spring.We have rushed off to Ogden & Mixenden in the past after seeing reports only to miss them so we were beginning to think we were not going to get some local birds.
This meant after reading the report we dropped everything & raced to Mixenden Reservoir which is six miles from home.As we approached we stopped to look across the valley at the reservoir to see if they were still there, the answer was YES!We drove down to the reservoir & made our way quickly to the banking to be greeted with the wonderful sight of 244 Whooper Swans as counted by Brian.
We made our way down the plantation side to a good viewing spot and enjoyed this amazing spectacle, Whooper Swans honking, splashing around bathing in the water & some occasionally flapping their wings.Hope you enjoy some of the snaps we took, & a big Thank You to Brian for his prompt report which gave us the opportunity to see them.
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| Whooper Swans |
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| Whooper Swans at Mixenden Reservoir 22/3/2015 |
Glad you got them lads, great photos, an amazing sight.
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