Redcar Tarn

 Tuesday 7th October a.m.

A cloudy morning with a temperature of 13°C up at the Tarn where it was great to see the rare sight of a Little Grebe.  It looked comfortable as it moved around and diving to catch fish, there were 11 Goosanders and two Cormorants with a Grey Heron on the island.  There was an increase in the number of Tufteds with a count of 21, the usual Canadas, Coots, Moorhen & Pied Wagtail were seen.  The  Lapwing flock contained c100 birds, there were good numbers of large Gulls with plenty 1st year birds one of the Herring Gulls was potentially a Yellow Legged Gull, there were LBB, BH & a Common Gull.  Others were Mallard, Rook & Jackdaw.

Little Grebe

Goosander

Grey Heron

Cormorant

Lapwings

Pied Wagtail

LBB Gull

Herring Gull with pale legs

Common Gulls

Little Grebe with a fish, Redcar Tarn 7/10/2025

Swillington Ings

 Sunday 28th September a.m.

After some early mist the sun came out with a temperature of 12°C at one of West Yorkshires better birding locations.   As always plenty of birds to see and hear with several Cetti's Warblers being very vocal, a couple of Willow Warblers were also spotted.  There were five early returning Goldeneye seen also plenty Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler, Pochard, Gadwall & Tufteds.  There were several Snipe well camouflaged in the vegetation plus Lapwings, Cormorants, Coots, Canadas, Greylags, Gt Crested Grebes & Little Grebes.  Overhead a distant Buzzard & Kestrel were seen, a party of LT Tits went passed me and to round off a great morning three Great White Egrets were seen.

Gt White Egret

Lapwing

LT Tit

Shoveler

Gadwall

Goldeneye

Gt Crested Grebe juvenile

Little Grebe

 

Wigeon

Snipe

Cormorants

Great White Egrets showing out of the mist, Swillington Ings 28/9/2025

Leeshaw Reservoir

 Friday 26th September a.m.

A sunny start with a temperature of 7°C, there were Canadas & Greylags in the bottom field with a Little Owl on it's usual wall.  In the field alongside the res there were good numbers of Grey Partridge & Pheasants.  There were BH Gulls, LBB Gulls & Mallards on the water and the shore of the res, also plenty Meadow Pipits around.

Grey Partridge 

Pheasant

Meadow Pipit 

Leeshaw Reservoir 26/9/2025

Keighley Moor

 Tuesday 23rd September p.m.

With the sun shining again I went out for a walk starting off at Slippery Ford and going up to the Keighley Moor Reservoir the temperature was 13°C.  The first birds seen were a couple of Buzzards overhead soon followed by Meadow Pipits and a Kestrel.  As I got nearer the Reservoir there were a couple of Stonechats, there were no birds on the water of the res and just a few Greylags on the shore, heading back Golfinch were also seen.

Buzzard

Kestrel

Stonechat

Goldfinch