Thursday 11th September a.m.
A sunny starting turning cloudy later with a temperature of 12°C and a strongish wind blowing up at the Tarn. Here there was a flock of c75 Lapwings in an adjacent field, a mix of Black Headed, Lesser Black-backed & Herring Gulls were on the water. Others included the resident Grey Heron on the island, Tufted, Canadas, Coots, Moorhen, Pied Wagtail, Rook & Jackdaw.
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| Lapwing |
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| Grey Heron |
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| Pied Wagtail |
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| LBB Gull |
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| LBB & BH Gull |
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| Tufted |
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| Lapwings |
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| Canadas at Redcar Tarn 11/9/2025 |
Tuesday 9th September a.m.
A sunny morning but cool at just 8°C, I had a good start with a charm of Goldfinch lifting from the seed heads to a distant tree as I approached. A couple of Swallows were overhead & a Cormorant flew over, a couple of Stonchats kept me occupied for a while. On the grassy area where model planes are flown there were Mipits, Goldfinch, Skylark & Pied Wagtail. A distant bird looked different to the usual with a pale buff chest & an eye stripe, looking at the pictures I decided on a young Stonechat but also the thought of a Siberian Stonechat did cross my mind. Good to see a flock of c50 Lapwings in the roadside field as I headed home.
P.S. After another look at the unusual bird I have changed my mind and gone with Whinchat.
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| Stonechat |
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| Cormorant |
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| Juv Goldfinch |
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| Meadow Pipit |
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| Pied Wagtail |
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| Skylark |
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| Whinchat |
Sunday 7th September a.m.
A cloudy morning but mild with a temperature of 16°C, starting off at Astley Lake where it was good to see a Spoonbill. Others here were Lapwing, Gadwall, Little Grebe, Gt Crested Grebe, Little Egret, Shoveler & Cormorant. In the reed bed area four Ruff were seen plus another three Spoonbills there were also hundreds of Canadas. Also seen were Stonechat, Kestrel, Pied Wagtail, Swallow and when returning to Astley a Great White Egret rounded off the morning.
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| Ruff |
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| Spoonbill |
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| Little Egret |
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| Shoveler |
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| Gadwall |
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| Gt Crested Grebe |
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| Gt White Egret |
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| Ruff |
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| Swillington Ings 7/9/2025 |
Sunday 31st August a.m.
A bright sunny morning with a strongish wind blowing and a temperature of 13°C as I took a walk around Hewenden Reservoir. Not much to report with regards to birds, plenty BH Gulls & a distant Common Sandpiper plus a Kestrel. A good walk though with a Wall Brown Butterfly and a couple of Swallows keeping the interest going.
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| Distant Common Sandpiper |
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| BH Gulls & Geese |
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| BH Gulls |
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| Wall Brown |
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| Top end of the res |
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| Dam Wall of res |
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| Hewenden Res 31/8/2025 |
Wednesday 27th August a.m.
A bright sunny morning with a temperature of 16°C as I arrived at Leeshaw seeing c50 Canadas in the lower field. The water level keeps falling here and four Red-legged Partridge were on some of the exposed shore. Also a couple of Grey Herons & a Cormorant, Gulls, Little Owl, Goldfinch, Mipits, Lapwing & Linnet.
I then went to Leeming Res on my way home where House Martins & Swallows were flying around. There were a good number of BH Gulls on the far shore with 10 LBB Gulls & a Herring Gull. Also Kestrel, Grey Heron, Red-legged Partridge, Goldfinch & Chiffchaff.
Little Owl
Goldfinch
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| Red-legged Partridge |
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| Mipits |
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| Linnet |
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| Cormorant |
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| Kestrel |
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| Grey Heron |
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| LBB Gulls |
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| LBB, BH & Herring Gull |
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| Leeshaw Res |
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| Leeming Res 27/8/2025 |
