Hello there, I'll start with the 'fabulous list' bit of my title and save the jellyfish on ice for a bit later....
Dave, our warden, was out and about early on as per usual and saw or heard the following before 9:30am!
A booming bittern, Cetti’s warbler, bearded tit, water pipit, little egret (all Old Moor), hawfinch, barnacle goose, white fronted goose (Broomhill), firecrest, yellow browned warbler, water pipit and meadow pipit ( at Wombwell) and pink footed geese (at Adwick).I'm sure you'll agree, a great list to get the day going.
Firecrest today at Wombwell taken by John Clarkson - thank you John.
Talking of bitterns... I heard one lot of booming around 12:30pm to the left of the reedbed screen and Karen, our assistant warden, was delighted to find a few bittern photos on the reel from the remote cameras.
Here's one of them and it might well be a young male bittern but it may also be a female or an adult male who is not in breeding condition. Time will tell us know doubt. Info from assistant warden Karen.
So there is a possibility, as per a few weeks ago when 2 bitterns were heard booming at the same time from different places, that we have two booming males at Old Moor. Watch this space as they say.
A pic of the field pools today. As you can see, pretty frozen...
Seen on the Mere today were three shelduck, cormorants and a dunlin and there were six goosander on the Wader Scrape along with two knot.
Fieldfare were spotted form the screen along Green Lane and five snipe were on the Field Pool West.
Both marsh tit and willow tit were seen on Warbler Way today.
John Seeviour was at Bolton Ings today and tweeted the following sightings, thanks John. Two mute swans, one great crested grebe, one little grebe, 6 mallards, 71 gadwall, 67+ shovelor, 18 tufted duck, 26 pochard, 2 goldeneye (male and a female), a little egret, a buzzard, a kestrel, a marsh tit, a willow tit, 3 song thrush and a grey wagtail.
Chris Harris updated us with sightings from Wombwell via Twitter - the hawfinch was at Broomhill again at 12 noon, the YBW and the firecrest were showing very well on and off at Wombwell. Also at Wombwell Chris told us of sightings of chiffchaff, stonechat and goldcrest but he also told us that there had been no further sign of of the water pipit and no reports of the Richard's Pipit. Thank you Chris.
Karen then tweeted further sightings from Old Moor from the farmhouse bird table. A willow tit with red/blue colour rings, 2 siskin and a female yellowhammer.
The bird garden today had all our usual suspects, as did the Tree Sparrow Farm.
I'll end with the news that today was a great day to go 'tracks' spotting around Old Moor. The prints of various animals and birds, including humans, were clearly visible.
Karen started us off with her photo of a few tracks. Why not see if you can ID them? :)
I then spotted a few too :)
I'll end with my 'jellyfish on ice.' I opened the window in the reedbed hide and saw this icy being. Definitely jellyfish with toes in my book :)
That's it, Andrew tomorrow :)