Adwick Washland

Reed bunting

I had literally no idea what I was going to do today. I knew I wasn't up for an early start for a couple of trips out that I feel need doing soon. I also knew it probably wasn't wise to have another long walk through grassy countryside on a high pollen count day two days running, the precautions worked yesterday, I shouldn't push my luck. I decided I'd use one of my Delay Repay compo tickets on a trip into Yorkshire and go and have a look at Adwick Washland just outside Bolton-upon-Dearne. I've not been there before, it's not a long trip out and the maps reckoned it was a quarter of an hour's walk from the station. So off I went.

The Northern train to Sheffield stops at nearly all the stations, which was fine because it meant there was only a ten minute wait at Sheffield for the Leeds train that goes through Bolton-upon-Dearne. Along the way the Peak District was busy with jackdaws and carrion crows.

The most difficult part of the journey was finding my way out of Bolton-upon-Dearne Station. After that it was literally a matter of walking straight down the road and there you are. It actually came as a shock how easy it was, the last house down the road is next door to the first, small, pool on the Washland.

Black-headed gulls and jackdaw

English (left) and Japanese honeysuckle 

It was a bright, warm day, fine for a walk. Everywhere was the scent of honeysuckle (I very much like the scent of honeysuckle but my eyes and sinuses aren't keen, which is a shame). 

Just having a nosy to see where the path goes

As it was my first visit I thought I'd best have a wander rather than just walking down the main path that runs straight through the reserve. My first side track run straight beside the edge of the main pool and ended at a gate overlooking a smaller one. The hedgerows were busy with house sparrows, goldfinches, blue tits and singing chiffchaffs. Large whites and gatekeepers fluttered by the wayside and a broad-bodied chaser zipped across the path. A lapwing and a family of coots padded round a large puddle in the corner of a field on one side while skylarks sang in the background. There were considerably more lapwings and coots on the large pool, together with dozens of black-headed gulls and their youngsters.

Avocet

A couple of avocets were feeding on the small pool at the end of the path.

Avocet

Juvenile black-headed gulls

Adwick Washland 

Canada geese and goslings

I retraced my steps and rejoined the main path. The hedgerows quickly receded and the path became a causeway between pools lined with reeds and thin willows. And the birds, by and large, didn't care in the least that people were walking close by. Little egrets stalked the margins, croaking and gronking horribly whenever an avocet or black-headed gull decided it had come to close to their nest or youngster and gone in for the attack. Mallards and gadwalls had ducklings, coots and moorhens had youngsters ranging in age from tiny chicks to just short of full-grown. Pairs of shovelers and tufted ducks cruised about unaccompanied, unlike the caravans of Canada geese and greylags chugging across the pool. Every so often there would be a grand kerfuffle as families of greylags hurried across to the far bank to socialise, like the gathering of parents at the school gates. There were plenty of lapwings about and the adults made sure they were conspicuously well away from their chicks. The chicks' whereabouts were usually betrayed by the juvenile pied wagtails feeding with them

Gadwall and ducklings

Juvenile pied wagtail
That plumage that jumps out at you from a plain surface like a car park or lawn disrupts the bird's shape on broken ground.

Lapwing chick

There was an abundance of reed buntings and sedge warblers. The reed buntings only stopped singing to move a couple of feet into the wayside reeds and teasels if I accidentally got within about a foot of them as I moved aside to let people and dogs go by. Once that precious couple of feet's space was made they'd resume singing. The sedge warblers were more circumspect, but not by much. One of them singing on a branch just above my head added to my portfolio of photos of where a warbler was a moment ago.

Reed bunting

Adwick Washland 
A noisy pair of dabchicks are in the reeds by the near bank of the drain.

I was hearing dabchicks but they were hard work finding. I finally got lucky with a pair of them fishing in the smaller of the two pools though they spent most of the time underwater. A little further on a very noisy pair were fussing about in the reeds in the pathside drain but I couldn't see whether they had chicks to look after or were just particularly noisy.

Large skipper

Another side path was accompanied by skippers large and small, the small skippers hardly stopping still long enough for me to recognise them for what they were. The large skippers posed for the camera like troopers. As I was chatting to a chap in the seating area at the end of this path there was a bit of a commotion going on in the marsh ahead. I couldn't see what was causing it but a couple of lapwings flew off in a panic, a family of greylags ran out of the area and a pair of teal flew out, wheeled round a couple of times and settled back whence they came. I couldn't see an airborne predator so I can only think a stoat or similar was rummaging about on the ground.

Mallard and ducklings

Nesting avocets

The clouds rolled in but there was no appreciable chance of rain. The mugginess held onto the scent of honeysuckle and the clouds of midges over the pools and paths. Swifts, swallows and house martins swooped in to take advantage of the latter. I returned to the main path and walked on. A couple of avocets were sitting on nests while others stalked around feeding. A muddy corner was productive: both a ringed plover and a little ringed plover were skittering about and redshanks waded along the water's edge. I kept being distracted by the shapes zipping about just above the water's surface. Most, if not all, were black-tailed skimmers but I dare say I missed several somethings in the mix.

Mallard, avocet and little ringed plover

Lapwing

I took another side path, this time leading to a pool choked with flowering reeds, sadly still only in bud, I had a look at the map and decided to carry on to the main road just outside Harlington, just to see what was on the other side really, then make my way back for the train.

Flowering rush

Leaving the Washland the path becomes a road through wooded fields, grazing for horses (and some very pretty foals). Pheasants, woodpigeons and rabbits fed in the fields and the usual woodland choristers provided a suitably rural backing track. 

Heading for the main road

I decided not to spoil everything by walking far along the main road. Instead, I turned on my heel, walked back and did it all again. Which was splendid.

Dabchick

I seriously contemplated hopping off the train at Moorthorpe and having a wander round South Kirby, it's been years since I last visited. Common sense prevailed, I'd had an extremely good day, there was no call for kicking the icing off the cake by being greedy 

A big dog fox, battle-scarred by the looks of him, sat and watched the trains go by as we rattled into Leeds. I wished him well.

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.