There was a cold nip in the air this morning. I had been out with the dogs earlier in the morning and had a good walk on the Barff for a couple of hours returning home for 7.30am. After breakfast I loaded the car with the camera gear and winter jacket etc. and headed over to the RSPB reserve at Fairburn Ings. It is just over a month since my last visit and whilst I had been away the reserve had been closed for several days due to flooding. It was just after 9.00am when I parked the car in the visitors centre car park. The visitors centre for some reason or other doesn’t now open till 9.30am so I missed out on my cup of coffee and made my way round to the ‘Pick up Hide’. It was nice to see the hawthorn bushes in flower with tiny little delicate white rosettes. I was quite shocked though by the amount of debris including some huge tree roots the flood water had left deposited in front of the hide and how it had damaged the fencing, some of the fence posts are over five inches in diameter and left askew as a result of the flood damage. The only consolation was that there was plenty of water in the lake in front of the hide. A pair of Mute Swans contently sat in the middle of the lake, busily preening, they looked to be in really good condition, their beautiful white feathers shimmering nicely in the early morning sunlight. The calm and serenity was short lived though when a noisy pair of Canada Geese flew onto the lake and they too started to preen themselves. Along with the Mute swans and geese it was nice to see two pair of Teal busily feeding around the water’s edge. 

Closer to the hide and the area around the feeders it was relatively quiet with not a great deal of activity at all. A couple of Hen Pheasants were scavenging for food under the feeders, only being rewarded with a treat from the spillage being caused by the Grey Squirrel as it hung upside down trying in earnest to extract food from the feeder. Several Robins kept visiting the area although they tend to avoid the feeders, preferring to feed off the woodland floor. Tree Sparrows and Great Tits were regular visitors though along with several Chaffinch and Greenfinch, It was good to catch site of the Reed Bunting, I could only see the male bird this morning, I am sure its mate wouldn’t have been far away. Dunnock’s visited the area several times, one of them spent a few minutes perched on a tree branch singing its head off, it was lovely to listen too. 

The new leaves on the trees and bushes are just beginning to open up after the winter months, although many are slower to open than others at the moment, certainly by the end of the month there will be a full canopy of green leaves making it more difficult to spot the birds and certainly photograph them. There was no mistaking the Goldfinch this morning when they arrived on the feeders though, their distinctive face markings and colourful bodies always put a smile on my face, I think it is a shame that they are really poor at housekeeping  especially in and around their nests.

As the morning progressed so did the strengthening southerly wind, although there is some protection in the hide it was making it a little unpleasant and cold. The occasional bright sunny periods were only short lived and as the time approached 11.00am the sky was looking decidedly like rain so at that point I packed the camera gear away and head back to the visitors centre for a coffee.