Two Good Days

Saturday June 6 and we decided to have a ride over to Fairburn Ings. It had rain through the night quite heavy, and light rain was still falling as we left home. However this was nothing compared to what we ran into at the eastern end of the A66, it rained so hard we could hardly see were we were going. We pressed on though and eventually the sun came out just as we got stuck in a jam on the A1M for an hour.We finally reach Fairburn about 11 later than intended. It was our first visit to the Ings, and while not as luxurious as some of the RSPB reserves it was interesting. There was a good variety of birds about including Common tern, there was also a good selection on the feeders, the highlight being young GS Woodpeckers.

Today the 8th we had a run down to Martin mere , and for a change had beautiful sunshine all day. There was young waders and ducklings all over the place. The was quite a few Avocet chicks, Little ring plover chicks, Redshank with three chicks. then there was the more common things with young such as Moorhen, Coot , Mallard, and Shell duck. There was also a Marsh Harrier seen from the Ron Barker hide. One of the best sightings was not a bird but a Hare as it sat just under the big windows of the Harrier hide , but moved off before I could organise my camera. I couldn't resist aiming the camera at the Moorhen chicks and the Mallard ducklings before relocating to Pennington Flash staying till 4pm before making our way home . At Pennington we missed out on the Black tern but had good views of the Garganey All for now.