After a week of sub-zero morning temperatures it felt quite topical this morning on the early morning dog walk. The temperature gauge in the garden was reading a barmy 8C at 6.15am, the downside to this being that the warmer temperature had melted the top layer of ground frost leaving a thin layer of soft mud on the woodland walk around the Barff, consequently when I returned home from the dog walk my trousers from the knee downwards were covered in mud! The Tawny Owls were very vocal earlier today, one was very close to the main path close to the old pumping station and its mate I could hear calling from the other side of Tap Hill a good five hundred yards away. They will be pleased for the respite in the cold weather.

After breakfast I headed over to the reserve at Fairburn for the rest of the morning. By the time I arrived at the visitor’s centre it was just after 10.00am and after a quick coffee and natter to the wardens I made my way to the ‘Pick up Hide’ on the ‘Discovery Trail’. The sun was beginning to break through morning mist and some blue sky was quite visible over the lake, there was still a light covering of ice on the lake although it had melted in the middle and a Coot and pair of Moorhens were busily going about their business. There was a bitterly cold North Westerly wind blowing through the hide window which made life a little unpleasant, fortunately I had my heavy winter jacket and thermals on so I was well protected from the cold blasts. 

I had a pleasant chat to several members of a birding club who had come over from Ilkley and Otley area for the day to visit the site and had stopped off at the hide on their walk around the reserve. 

As soon as I have set the camera up and it is secure I usually get the bino’s out and scan the entire area, looking on the lake, around the edges and fringes of the lake, check the reed beds and fence posts, then scan across to the Cormorant tree and the fields just in front of the Cormorant tree. The reed beds and fence posts were clear this morning, I counted twelve or so Cormorants in the tree, all sat upright, wings open drying them off in the strengthening Northerly wind. In front of the tree though I counted a large flock of at least thirteen Curlew, busily feeding in the field, closely followed by a smaller flock of about eight Magpie, great to see, I haven’t seen as many Curlews as this together for a long time. 

Closer to the hide three Hen Pheasants were busily picking up the pieces from the spoils of the Grey Squirrels as they hung upside down trying in earnest to get the nuts and seed out of the feeders. All the finches were regular visitors to the feeders this morning, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, it was nice to see the Male and female Bullfinches too, I don’t often see them at the hide so they were great to see this morning and quite photogenic. Other regular visitors were Great Tits and Blue Tits, the Long Tailed Tits made two appearances, the first quite early on, a group of four birds arrived first, they had their fill of food on the fat balls then an hour later a group of six birds flew in and did the same, one or two preferring the sunflower hearts to the fat balls, which I had put out earlier in the day. The Willow Tit visited at least twice this morning, it flew in from the right-hand side of the hide, landed on the fence post, picked up a couple of sunflower hearts and was off again back into the undergrowth as quick as a flash, certainly too quick for me to get a photograph of it. Robins and Dunnocks were around all morning, they are great birds to photograph, a bit more resilient than the Long Tailed Tits or Willow Tits and seem quite content to stand and pose for a photograph. 

The Northerly wind was beginning to strengthen significantly since I first arrived at the hide and had been blowing in my face all morning, as the time was approaching noon I reluctantly decided to call it a day and head back to the visitors for a coffee and get warmed through before the journey home. Before I left I walked over to the swan feeding platform on the main lake, the lake was still quite badly frozen over but there were still a lot of male and female Mallards close to the water’s edge. It has been another great morning at the reserve.