Hello again, it's been a lovely day at Old Moor, particularly from 3pm ish. The sun came out fully and gave everything a particularly golden glow which was just gorgeous!
This is what I mean...
Here is the sightings map from today. As per usual, click on the image for a sharper and larger view.
The reedbeds seemed to be the place to be today and I spent most of my visit here too. The Cetti's warblers were singing away in the reeds, but could I see one? Nope... One lucky visitor managed to however and it was from the reedbed hide. Bearded tits were pinging away all day long which enabled many visitors to get fleeting views...including me! They were pinging all along the path to the reedbed hide and screen as well as the reeds to the left of the screen and to the left of the reedbed hide. A few visitors were asking how many there might be. I'm not aware of any answer to that but from my experience today, a few little groups seemed to be around.
The other star of the reedbeds today were bitterns - maybe the same bird, maybe not. I had three sightings of a bittern in flight and others told me of theirs too. Maybe the same sightings but maybe not!
Here's a bittern from today which was flying over the reedbeds.
I'm also really enjoying watching the wildfowl form the reedbed hide, particularly the wigeon. How lovely to see and hear them 'whistling away.'
Here's a photo of a stunning male in 'mid-whistle.'
What else to report? There were approx 50 pink footed geese flying west over the VC today and also 12 fieldfare doing the same.
There's a little patch of fly agarics around the ponds near the path to the bittern hide.
And finally for today, this little group of starlings was flying towards the pylons as I walked back to the VC around 4:30pm.
Fingers crossed for a murmuration this year...
That's it for today - so have a lovely evening and if you'd like the sightings from our satellite sites, then look at the Twitter feed of @BarnsleyBirders.