Category: Wetlands

Saltholme

Saltholme

We took a break at the RSPB Saltholme wetlands reserve on our way to, and back from, Northumberland last week. The panoramic windows of the first floor cafe look out over one of the lagoons, so we were watching dunlin, godwits and gadwall as we ate our lunch.

gadwall

On the return journey the birding highlight was a pectoral sandpiper a migrant that was a long way off course as it headed south as it breeds in Arctic Canada.

pectoral sandpiper

To the south east Roseberry Topping makes a craggy a punctuation in the looming bulk of the North York Moors.

Roseberry Topping and the Hanger Bridge
Roseberry Topping and the Transporter (not Hanger) Bridge

Roe Deer Rutting

roe deer

On our way north along the M1 near Garforth we glimpsed two roe deer standing facing each other in a large stubble field. As we drove by they clashed antlers (10.20 a.m., 15 September).

A Parliament of Crows

We almost gave up on this morning’s walk at RSPB Fairburn Ings as the rain seemed to be setting in but as it was so quiet there we were able to get good views of two roe deer, grazing just 50 yards from the Roy Taylor trail. This was the best of my iPhone shots, on the others they were heads down, white rumps towards us.

The reeds festooning the trees are an indication of flood levels but this morning most of the paths had dried out.

Confession time: the Parliament of Crows is a collage of four photographs. There were more crows than shown here but I couldn’t get them all to pose together for their group photograph.

Pectoral Sandpipers

wader field sketches

Two pectoral sandpipers feeding in shallow water on the Eastern Reedbed at RSPB St Aidan’s are migrants, probably blown off course by an Atlantic low on their migration from their breeding grounds on the east coast of North America to their wintering quarters in South America. They’re slightly larger than the dunlins feeding by the small muddy islands nearby.

Some of the dunlins have slightly indistinct black bellies as they moult out of their summer breeding plumage into the ‘dunlin’ – the name means ‘dull brown’ – winter plumage.

animal run beneath fence

We’re encouraged to make gardens accessible to hedgehogs by ensuring there’s access for them under fences. This animal run under the perimeter fence at St Aidan’s serves the same purpose. It looks about rabbit size but apparently foxes can make their way through a hole no larger than a fist, so this could be a multi-species animal highway. If it wasn’t so far from home, I’d be tempted to set up my trail cam here.

weir

We walked beyond the boundaries of the reserve on our circuit today, taking the path alongside the River Aire as far as the weir below Lemonroyd Lock.

Chimney, Methley, drawn during our coffee break at the Rivers Meet cafe.

Hobby and Little Stint

reedbeds, St Aidan's

Dragonflies zoomed around us and rested briefly on the path as we made the full circuit of RSPB St Aidan’s reserve. They were flying high too and a hobby was making the most of it, arcing high above the reedbeds to catch and eat them on the wing.

A few spoonbills were resting amongst the reedbeds by one of the lagoons.

michaelmas daisy
Michaelmas Daisy and drone fly.

Alongside three ringed plovers on one of the lagoons was a little stint, a wader no bigger than a robin.

VR postbox

We took a break halfway around at the Rivers Meet Craft Cafe, crossing the railway at a level crossing by the former station and passing this Victorian postbox.

craft cafe
Craft Cafe
Mobile Haberdashery

Just in case you couldn’t find everything you needed in the craft shop at the Rivers Meet, the Mobile Haberdashery van had called.

old farm buildings
Redevelopment of old farm buildings, Methley.

Spoonbill

bittern

On Friday at St Aidan’s we saw spoonbill, ruff, heron and bittern. A birdwatcher suggested that the adult spoonbills from the small colony at Fairburn Ings fly over to St Aidan’s to take a break from the juveniles.

As the ruff had a black bill, it was probably a female. We’re now into the autumn migration, so hopefully we’ll see a few more waders at the shallower ponds.

Designer Phragmites

Growing by watersides, reed canary-grass, Phalaris arundinacea, looks like a diminutive version of the common reed, Phragmites, and has been dubbed canal grass. At this time of year, some of the seedheads are flushed with purple, so it deserves its nickname of designer Phragmites.

Gipsywort

gipsywort
common blue

Growing alongside the Phalaris, gipsywort, Lycopus europaeus, which has been in herbal medicine and to produce a black dye.

There are dozens of dragonflies about and a few butterflies, including this common blue, taking a brief rest on the path.

Lagoon

lagoon
Original sketch about 3×3 inches square.

It’s been a good year for the pink-footed geese at St Aidan’s. Two families swam by along one of the drains with a total of 16 goslings between the two pairs.

tree

Not so visible were swallows, which I expected to be zipping around above us during our walk, but the warden explained that they do seem to come and go and that the sand martins were still busy at their colony in the sand martin wall.

The kestrels have yet to hatch any young and it’s possible that a grey squirrel seen on the jib of the huge dragline excavator where they nest has done a bit of nest-robbing. There’s still time for them to start again.

The Mob

birds

“As we head down the track we spot a buzzard being mobbed by a magpie and kestrel. As it dips and soars fending off the two birds another buzzard soars carefree over the ridge.”

From Barbara’s nature diary, 30 January 2020

I needed to inject a bit of drama into my next (January 2021) Wild Yorkshire diary for The Dalesman, so I’m illustrating the incident Barbara described, along with a male stonechat perching on a fence post. The pen and watercolour of the reedbed and lagoon will go right across at the foot of the double-page spread. I was busy with Sandal Castle and the Rhubarb Festival last January, so I’m having to recreate what my sketchbook might have looked like if I’d had time to draw on the day.

lagoon

Alder

alder cones

The alder is the nearest that we get to mangroves as it produces adventitious roots above ground which enable it to grow in very wet ground, even at the water’s edge. These female woody ‘cones’ are ripening and will attract seed-eating birds such as redpolls and siskins.