A Trip Over the River Into Foreign Territory.

 As we approached the Humber Bridge all we could see were the towers poking out of the sea of fog below.  We descended into it and then as the road curved up over the river we were clear but could look down on the sea of fog around us.  What an amazing sight.  Brian and I were venturing over the river into Yorkshire for a birding visit to the excellent Noth Cave Wetlands, a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve in a series of old and fairly new as well as working gravel pits.  As each pit is worked out it is taken over by the Trust and developed into another section of the reserve. It was clear and sunny as we drew into the car park and at only -2C very cold, in fact most of the pits were frozen over.  We began our visit with a drink from the Little Butty Van with welcome hot chocolate for me.  Sitting in the covered eating area with our drinks overlooking the Village Lake allowed us to make a good start on our list with wildfowl, geese and waders being present as well as a plethora of small birds making use of the feeders.  

Warmed by our drinks, it was time to begin our circuit of the reserve.  I was delighted when only 100m from the start we found some superb siskins feeding on alder cones along with goldfinches.  Blackbirds, redwings and a songthrush were all feeding among the leaf litter.  A little further on we came to the feeding station over looking the Maize Field, a field allowed to go to seed in order to attract seed-eaters, a source of food rarely found now with modern methods of agriculture.  The highlight here was the large numbers of tree sparrows in attendance.

Continuing on past the dragonfly pools we came across a superb pair of stonechats and a little further on enjoyed watching the tawny owl basking in the sun sitting on the edge of its hole.  Surprisingly there was very little to see from Crosslands Hide, Dryham Ings being largely frozen over.

We soon found ourselves back the Little Butty Van and decided it was time for bacon and sausage buns - wonderful.  Before leaving we headed back to the Maize Field feeders as we had heard reports of goldcrest and lesser redpoll.  We dipped on the redpolls but the goldcrest perfomed magnificently for us.  We also had wonderful views of 3 male greenfinches along the path sitting high in silver birch and spotlit by the sun.

As we wandered back to the car the fog was just beginning to roll in and I reflected on superb day.  It was refreshing to leave the big lens behind and just bird watch for a change.

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Fog rolling in over Village Lake.