Phew, what a dull miserable, windy and wet morning. I had a good dog walk earlier today with Meg and Gracie needless to say we all returned home wet through from top to bottom!

I decided after breakfast to head over to the reserve at Fairburn for the morning, my thought being that with the weather being so bad there wouldn’t be as many people there.

I arrived at the reserve quite late it was 9.45am when I arrived in the visitors centre car park, the temperature was 9C, the rain had stopped for the time being and there was only a small handful of cars in the car park, the majority of them being dog walkers. I popped into the visitors centre for a coffee and update from the wardens before I headed over to the ‘Pick up hide’. 

There was nobody else in the hide so I set the camera gear up, zipped up the winter jacket, put the gloves on and drank my coffee. There was quite a bit of activity on the lake this morning, Coot, Moorhen and Mallards all busily going about their business on the water’s edge. A pair of Jackdaws landed on one of the small islands but a strong gust of wind soon made them airborne again.

Looking over the fields to the right of the hide a Buzzard was perched in the old tree with the Owl nesting box on, though within a few minutes the crows had spotted it and after a barrage of dive bombing it took off and headed towards the visitors centre. Under the same tree that the Buzzard had just flew from was a huge flock of about thirty plus Greylag Geese, all huddled closely together, they looked to be getting some shelter from the strengthening North Westerly wind. 

There were more Cormorants flying about today than usual, the water in the lake opposite the ‘Pick up hide’ isn’t really deep enough for them to land here which is a shame, they tend to fly between the far Lin dike lake and the Coal Tip lakes which are much deeper. A Grey Heron landed on the far side of the lake in front of the hide and patrolled the water’s edge for about fifteen minutes before flying off. Over in the same field as the Greylag Geese a huge flock of Woodpigeons landed and started grazing on the grass, amongst them were about a dozen Magpie’s, I have never seen as many birds in this field before and am sure they were taking shelter from the strong winds which were probably gusting between thirty to forty miles per hour.

The wind and rain certainly affected the behaviour of the smaller birds visiting the feeding station to the right of the hide. There where all the usual visitors, Hen Pheasants were scavenging under the feeders, three Grey Squirrels were around for most of the morning. The Long Tailed Tits visited the fat ball feeder for all of a minute before they disappeared into the undergrowth. The most frequent and hardy visitors today were the Tree Sparrows and Great Tits, they contently fed and took food no matter what the weather. The biggest change in behaviour though was with the Finches, the Greenfinch and Chaffinch are usually quite bullish around the feeders but today with the wind blowing as it was they spent most of the morning anchored deep into the undergrowth with the Goldfinches, only coming out to feed when there was a temporary lull in the wind speed. This change in behaviour was quite fascinating to watch, today was probably one of wildest days weather wise that I have had at the reserve.

There was no let up with the wind it just got stronger and wetter as the morning progressed. By 11.30am I had had enough, the wind had tried to rip the camera out of my hand several times so I decided to call it a day, pack the gear away and make my way back to the visitors centre for a coffee and some respite from the wind.