My First Visit to Tophill Low Nature Reserve

I had a fantastic day at Tophill Low Nature Reserve in East Yorkshire today. Although some two and half hours drive away, I was drawn there by some wonderful photographs on the Tophill Low Facebook groups, particularly of Kingfishers, Greenshank and Green Sandpipers. There's a members' hide which is set up for photography being only about a foot above the water level and for once well-positioned to take advantage of the afternoon sunlight, which so often isn't the case.

Hopefully these photos will soon be followed by a longer report.

Old Moor RSPB

Paul Pennington, Kevin Forde, David Shallcross, George Pike and I went to Old Moor RSPB in South Yorkshire this week to do a reccy for an upcoming L.O.S. Fieldtrip next week. The weather was great and there was a good variety of birds from woodland and farmland to wildfowl and water birds. We met up with two of the local birders there (Dek Roe and Ian Unwin) who were very friendly and helpful.

Unfortunately none of the three star attractions (Bittern, Bearded Tit and Peregrine) showed up for us but we did have two Green Sandpipers, Water Rail, Kingfisher, Tree Sparrow, Brambling, Pochard, Gadwall, Shoveler, Little Grebes (in abundance), a distant Barn Owl plus all the 'usuals' and a very interesting three-way spat between a Lesser Black-backed, Black-headed and juvenile Great Black-backed Gull. A grand day out as they say with a few decent shots and some record shots below.

Old Moor RSPB has good facilities including a visitors' centre, toilets, cafe, flat paths everywhere, at least six hides and mobility scooters can be hired if needed.