What a Fantastic Weekend!

On Saturday evening me and my Dad decided to go and have a look at the Hoopoe in Beverley. The bird was at The Old Barn, it was feeding on a small area of grass just beyond the courtyard, it was picking up and eating several leatherjackets.

When we first arrived we couldn't see it but then this man said it flew into the back of a silver birch tree a few mins ago. After around 20mins it began to rain quite heavily so we weren't to confident that it would come back out but thankfully the rain stopped and it flew out of the silver birch and then landed in a tree where we could see it a little better. Then it flew out of the tree and started feeding on the grass were it came within about 10 feet! This was an amazing sight to get it so close and to see all those colours. It was a really tame bird which didn't even seem bothered that we were there! It is definitely one of my best birding highlights this year so far. We enjoyed brilliant views of this stunning bird for about an hour and a half before heading home after a superb and memorable day!

Hoopoe

 

Today we had a visit to Tophill Low. Pretty much as soon as we arrived we spotted a juvenile Tawny Owl sitting in a tree, this was the best views we had ever had of a Tawny Owl, it was about 3 meters away! It was a fantastic sight. As we left the juvenile Tawny we saw the adult land further up it the trees. What a start to the day!

 

Juvenile Tawny Owl

 

After that great moment we moved onto a hide where we were hoping to see Otters and a Kingfisher. Sadly we didn't see either but we did get nice but brief views of a Water Vole and brilliant views of a few Sedge Warblers which were right in front of the hide. In the sky there was around about 300+ Swifts, it was great watching them take flies.  

 

Sedge Warbler

Swifts

 

After that we moved onto a small area of water where we were hoping to find Marsh Frogs but despite searching for a while we didn't see any but we did see lots of Great Crested Newts swimming under the water. Afterwards we moved on to the other reservoir at the other side of the reserve. Around the reservoir there was a hide which I think is called the Watton hide. In this hide we saw lots of Tufted Ducks, Wigeon, Black Headed Gulls, Gadwall and Greylag Geese but we managed to pick out a Ringed Plover and a cracking summer plumaged Dunlin on a scrape just beyond the hide.