Tuesday 26th August 2014

Sightings today included the following;

Castle Lake - 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Kestrel, 1 Ruff, 9 Dunlin, 1 Redshank, 6 Green Sandpiper, 1 Wood Sandpiper, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Skylark and a male Blackcap.

A1 Flashes - 3 Ruff, 1 Snipe, 1 Greenshank, 1 Green Sandpiper and 1 Common Sandpiper.

Wildlife Garden - 2 Willow Tit, a singing Willow Warbler and a juvenile Grey Wagtail.

Alan's Pool - 2 Little Egret.

The juvenile Grey Wagtail is very approachable as this photo proves.

Sunday 24th August 2014

Today's sightings with thanks to John Olley.

Castle Lake - 14 Black-tailed Godwit, 12 Dunlin, 1 Wood Sandpiper, 4 Green Sandpiper, 2 Common Sandpiper, 400 Lapwing, 2 Little Egret, 120 Sand Martin, 42 Pied Wagtail, 2 juvenile Kestrel, 1 juvenile male Sparrowhawk, 1 Buzzard, 34 Little Grebe, 210 Coot, 5 Garganey and 104 Gadwall.

Saturday 23rd August 2014

Another excellent selection this afternoon with eleven species of wader seen;

A1 Flashes - 9 summer plumaged Black-tailed Godwit (later eight made a brief excursion to Castle Lake before flying off back towards the flashes), 3 Ruff, 2 Snipe, 100 Lapwing, 1 Green Sandpiper and an overflying Common Buzzard.

Castle Lake - 2 Wigeon, 5 Shoveler, 2 Pochard, 1 adult Great Crested Grebe, 4 Cormorant, 3 Little Egret, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Kestrel, 1 juvenile Little Ringed Plover, 400 Lapwing, 2 Ruff, 10 Dunlin, 1 Snipe, 64 Curlew, 2 Greenshank, 7 Green Sandpiper, 2 Common Sandpiper, 1 Wood Sandpiper, 20 Common Gull and a Kingfisher.

Winter visitors are returning slowly including Wigeon and...

...Curlew.

Wednesday 20th August 2014

Sightings for Wednesday come from Steve Evans, thanks Steve.

Stoneybeck Lake - juv. Whinchat, 6 Corn Bunting, 6-7 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Green Sandpiper, 450 Greylag Geese.

Castle Lake - 1 Wood Sandpiper, 3 Common Sandpiper, 4 Green Sandpiper, 2 Ruff, 8-9 Dunlin, 2j Little Ringed Plover, 1 Snipe, 120 Lapwing, 74 Curlew, 2 Kingfisher, 3 Little Egret, 3 Garganey, 204+ Coot, 2 Shelduck, 3 Cormorant, GC Grebe incubating, 50+ Pied Wagtail, 7+ Yellow Wagtail, 1 Grey Wagtail, juv. Sedge Warbler, Little Grebe with very small young.

Mainsforth Stell - 2 Kingfisher, 2 Little Egret, 2 Yellow Wagtail.

A1 Flashes - 4 Green Sandpiper, 2 Common Sandpiper, 9 Snipe, 140 Curlew, 27 Teal.

Alan's Pool - 1 Little Egret, 4 Snipe, 2 Skylark.

Fishburn Lake - 1 Kingfisher, 1 Little Egret, 2 Jay.

Tuesday 19th August 2014

Today's sightings;

Castle Lake - 29 Mute Swan (probable new site record), 2 Grey Partridge, 3 Cormorant, 1 Little Egret, 1 Common Buzzard flew over, 1 Kestrel, 1 juvenile Little Ringed Plover, 3 Ruff, 8 Dunlin, 60 Curlew, 10 Green Sandpiper (a new site record), 1 Wood Sandpiper, 3 Swift, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Yellow Wagtail.
The wildlife garden produced a Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Willow Tit, at least two each of Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler and 2 Grey Wagtail (a new breeding species for Bishop Middleham?).

A few pictures from today;

juvenile Grey Wagtail

juvenile Wood Sandpiper

some of the many Goldfinch around at the moment

Little Egret

Monday 18th August 2014

Today's sightings with thanks to John Olley.

Castle Lake - 1 Wood Sandpiper, 6 Green Sandpiper, 6 Dunlin, 150 Lapwing, 2 Little Ringed Plover, 7 Ruff, 3 Little Egret, 32 Little Grebe, 4 Garganey, Wigeon, 12 Swift, 5 Buzzard, 4 Yellow Wagtail, 48 Pied Wagtail and a juv Kestrel.

Sunday 17th August 2014

Sightings from today;

Stoneybeck Lake - 4 Ruff, 2 Shelduck and a Pochard.

Castle Lake - 3 Shelduck, 2 Wigeon, 1 Pochard, 1 Little Egret, 7 Ruff, 6 Dunlin, 2 Greenshank, 4 Green Sandpiper, 1 Wood Sandpiper, 2 Common Sandpiper, 130 Black-headed Gull, 3 Swift, 4 Yellow Wagtail and a charm of c100 Goldfinch.

The Wood Sandpiper remained typically elusive and distant for most of my visit, but it eventually showed well at the northern end of the lake.

This Green Sandpiper found the area below the hide to its liking.

A1 Flashes - 5 Shelduck, 2 Grey Heron and c100 Curlew.

Friday 15th August 2014

Sightings from the last two days with thanks to Adam Jones, John Olley and Joe Hughes.

Thursday 14th August
Castle Lake - 6 Garganey, 2 Little Egret, 3 Little Ringed Plover, 8 Dunlin, 1 Wood Sandpiper, 1 Green Sandpiper, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Greenshank, 3 Snipe, 1 Kingfisher and 1 Wheatear.

Friday 15th August
Castle Lake - 9 Ruff, 8 Dunlin, 400 Lapwing, 4 Green Sandpiper, 2 Common Sandpiper, 8 Shelduck, and Garganey.
A1 Flashes - 200 Curlew, 2 Green Sandpiper, 2 Buzzard and 2 Kestrel.

Wednesday 13th August 2014

Sightings for today included the following;

Castle Lake - a Marsh Harrier flew through at 13:45 mobbed by Lapwing before drifting off to the north, waders included 1 Little Ringed Plover, 2 Ruff, 15 Dunlin, 9 Snipe, 1 Greenshank, 2 Green Sandpiper and 3 Common Sandpiper, others were a pair of Great Crested Grebe nest building (!), 2 Little Egret, c400 Black-headed Gull and 4 Yellow Wagtail.
A Kingfisher was seen at Fishburn Lake.

Just a small proportion of the 400 or so Black-headed Gull's at Castle Lake this morning, no doubt brought in by the work of a nearby combined harvester.

One of today's Ruff.

Saturday 2nd August 2014

As water levels continue to fall, Castle Lake is starting to return to its former glory.

A pretty decent selection on offer today, the highlight being a Wood Sandpiper on the far side of the lake directly across from the hide.
Other sightings included 7 Mute Swan, 9 Shelduck (8 of which were well grown juveniles), 5 Garganey (an adult accompanied by 4 well grown juveniles), 1 Grey Partridge, 30 Little Grebe, 1 adult Great Crested Grebe, 4 Cormorant, 1 Little Egret, 2 Oystercatcher, 2 juvenile Little Ringed Plover, 100 Lapwing, 1 juvenile Dunlin, 5 Snipe, 4 Curlew overflew, 3 Green Sandpiper (all located in the partially flooded bowl between the north end of Castle Lake and the wildlife garden), 2 Common Sandpiper, 40 Pied Wagtail, 2 Yellow Wagtail, 2 Grey Wagtail, a Wheatear in the south-east corner an a singing Corn Bunting.

The two juvenile LRP's.

The A1 Flashes held 2 Grey Heron, 3 Little Ringed Plover, 4 Snipe, 5 Green Sandpiper and a single Common Sandpiper.
A quick look at Stoneybeck Lake revealed 25 Mute Swan, c500 Greylag Geese and another singing Corn Bunting.