Old Moor

Black-headed gulls

There was a plan for today but that was comprehensively scuppered by my train into Manchester being stuck at signals for fifteen minutes while the train I was aiming to catch went on its way. So I decided to go off on an adventure to see if I could connect with the lesser yellowlegs at Old Moor in the Dearne Valley.

It turned out to be a straightforward journey — Manchester to Sheffield, an easy connection to Barnsley and though I just missed the hourly X20 that stops at the entrance to the reserve I found that the 22x which runs every ten minutes or so stops a ten minute walk away in Brampton. Unfortunately, between the initial screw-up and the problems I'd been having with the BirdTrack app all morning I was a tad wound up so finding it hard to actually get into the reserve almost had me thinking stuff this for a game of soldiers. Luckily the volunteer on the desk in the shop told how to get in from the visitor centre and I eventually simmered down and learned to enjoy a very good, if atrociously signposted, reserve.

Knoll Brook by the entrance to Old Moor

(The trick is to ignore the entrance immediately by the bus stop, it drops down to a path along Knoll Brook which is quite nice but doesn't seem to get you into the reserve, instead walk to the little road leading to the car park. Unlike me, ignore the barrier across the footway; I have a long-standing opinion that the green credentials of any conservation organisation should be measured by the experience of the pedestrian visitor. The entrance from the visitor centre was masked by the group of people watching the workmen building a new hut for receiving visitors.)

Anyway…

Shelducks, oystercatchers, cormorant, tufted ducks, gadwalls, mallard and a lesser yellowlegs (just to the right of the fence, honestly) 

Lesser black-back

I had a couple of hours' wander round. Reed warblers and sedge warblers sang from the reeds by a couple of small pools and a Cetti's warbler exploded in song from a patch of great willowherb by the path. The larger pools were littered with gadwalls, mallards and tufted ducks.

It had been raining when I arrived, this soon passed over and the bright cloudy weather brought out the butterflies and damselflies. Large whites and brimstones worked their way along the sides of the paths in the open areas while speckled woods chased each other through the trees. Most of the damselflies were common blue damsels, I bumped into a couple of blue-tailed damsels sunning themselves on a fence.

I popped my head into the Wath Hide, which was hosting the lesser yellowlegs. It was heaving, so had a look at a couple of the other hides and came back half an hour later when it was a lot quieter.

Old Moor

There was a large breeding colony of black-headed gulls at the Wader Scrape Hide, many with young. The adults kept busy chasing off carrion crows and lesser black-backs but the latter still made off with a couple of chicks while I was there. The avocets on the margins of the colony didn't seem to be nesting. There were a few pairs of pochards with the tufties. It came as a great surprise to me to realise the duck a coot chased out into the open was a female red-crested pochard.

Heavily-cropped record shot: lesser yellowlegs with gadwalls.

Tufted duck

I returned to the Wath Hide. It was a lot quieter so I managed to get a comfortable view of proceedings. A kind lady told me where the lesser yellowlegs had got to: it had moved over to the far bank where it was showing well but distantly (a bit too far for my camera and lens combination, sadly). It spent nearly all its time feeding at the water's edge, every so often it would be chased after for no apparent reason by one or other of the mallard ducklings loafing on the bank. Even from this distance I could see that it was a greenshank-like bird, slightly darker on the wings and slightly shorter billed. There was no question of confusing it for a greenshank: the bright mustard yellow legs jumped out a mile the same way they do on a lesser black-back or a buzzard. A lifer for me, and quite a neat little bird.

Ragged robin

As I was walking back a movement on the path ahead made me stop. The stoat put its dead mouse down and we started at each other for half a minute. Then the stoat literally shrugged, picked up the mouse and bounced off into the tall grass and away, probably to a litter of hungry kits.

Guelder rose

I made a point of thanking the lady in the shop again and apologised if I'd been tetchy, explaining the problems I'd had getting in. She showed me on a map how to follow the path along the brook under the main road and into Brampton, coming out near a bus stop for Barnsley. It turned out to be a very pleasant walk and I ended up not taking the turn off for the bus stop at Brampton, instead I followed it through Gypsy Marsh and got the bus from Wombwell.

Knoll Brook, Brampton

Walking by Gypsy Marsh

The trains home behaved themselves and despite a rocky start I'd ended up having a really good day's birdwatching.