Here’s a summary of the birds seen at Old Moor today…

At Adwick Washland this morning there were fifteen avocet (including nine juveniles), two grey heron, one sparrowhawk, one oystercatcher, seven little ringed plover, three ringed plover, one common sandpiper and one snipe. With these were lapwing, swift, skylark, swallow, house martin, sedge warbler, reed warbler, song thrush, linnet and reed bunting…

With crickets buzzing and butterflies over the meadows, it was another glorious summer’s day at Old Moor. Here’s the summary of the today’s bird sightings…

The Bittern Hide was busy today and no wonder. In the cool of the hide, watchers saw: bittern, kingfisher, tern, peregrine, reed warbler and great crested grebe with their ‘almost adult-sized’ young. There was also a good amount of dragonfly…

Hello again, there have been very few sightings in the book today and also yesterday so the bird news is pretty much the same as in the blog from Andrew on Weds (not sure re redstart or the ruff) - found here. 

So the blog today is about little things that I saw this aft on a quick walk around the ponds.

I again stopped at the wonderful patch of lavender just before the courtyard. It was buzzing and humming with life…

Hi Folks! Here is a summary of today’s sightings from Old Moor (and one sighting from Adwick)…

Just down the road from Old Moor, at Adwick Washland, the day began very well with a male redstart. This could be found on (or near) the fence adjacent to the hawthorn hedge that borders the field, opposite the gate to the viewpoint.

A handsome male redstart from this morning at Adwick

Also at Adwick today…

Hello again, here are the sightings from the book at Old Moor today. If you click on the image, you'll get a bigger view.

To add to those sightings I have butterflies seen today for you. They were: Comma, small tortoiseshell, small skipper, gatekeeper and ringlet.

That's it and quite a lot of sightings there if you are thinking of visiting tomorrow. 

There is a very vibrant patch of very purple lavender to…

Hello again, here are the sightings from the book at Old Moor today. If you click on the image, you'll get a bigger view.

To add to those sightings I have butterflies seen today for you. They were: Comma, small tortoiseshell, small skipper, gatekeeper and ringlet.

That's it and quite a lot of sightings there if you are thinking of visiting tomorrow. 

There is a very vibrant patch of very purple lavender to…

Hi Folks! A hot but exciting one in the Dearne Valley today. Here’s a summary of what was seen at Old Moor…

Now the eagle-eyed among you would have noticed from the summary that there was one very unusual bird over Old Moor today – a honey buzzard. Seen by Dave Waddington at 12:05, the bird did not stay around long and left heading East.

But wait, there was more unusual news in the form of another…

Let’s start with a quick thank you to all you OM blog-readers out there for your feedback on the recent change of blog format. Almost everyone who has spoken to me or the Visitor Centre staff, thinks the combination of summary and (when possible) further observations, works for them.

So, without further ado, here’s a summary of what was seen at Old Moor today…

Still reading? Well, one of the things…

Hello there, I've got a quick update of sightings from the book for you from yesterday.

Here's what was in the book. If you click on the picture, you'll get a larger view.

Added to those sightings from the book are the following sightings which come from the Barnsley Birders on Twitter  (@BarnsleyBSG).

1 Black Tailed Godwit, 3 Little Ringed PLover, 1 Common Sandpiper, 5 Oystercatcher, 55 Lapwing, 3 Redshank…

A misty start was followed by another hot day and some great news (more on that in a moment). First, here’s a summary of what was seen today at Old Moor…

The main news today from Old Moor is that this year’s juvenile bittern count now stands at eight – with more to come!

You may recall that this year we’ve had three bittern nests and that, to this point, we were confident that there were four…

Hello there, it's been another scorching day in the Dearne Valley and there's still an hour or so to get down to OM and enjoy the evening sunshine.

From today at Old Moor.

I'll also add a few recent sighting from me around the ponds.

I've seen 4 spotted chaser dragonflies, common blue, meadow brown and ringlet butterflies and then dazzling ruby tailed wasps on a couple of wooden posts. 

As you might…

Blimey, a summer scorcher of a day and no mistake! This afternoon the temperature at Old Moor was a toasty 30°C with boundless sunshine. Just the excuse we needed to cast off those overcoats and enjoy some remarkable wildlife.

Here’s a summary of what was seen out there today…

As you scan down the right-hand side of the graphic above, you may notice that a mammal has scampered into the list today…

Another warm day at Old Moor today with end-to-end sunshine and plenty of bird and insect action. Here’s a summary of what was seen…

Butterflies seen today included: skippers, meadow brown, ringlet, small white, common blue, speckled wood, male brimstone and burnet moth.

Dragonflies noted today included four-spotted chaser and banded demoiselle.

An impressive, lesser black-backed gull. One of twenty…

It was a beautiful summer's day in the Dearne Valley today: hot, cloudless and with only a slight breeze. Perfect for appreciating midsummer wildlife.

Here’s the summary of what was seen at Old Moor today…

One very helpful visitor did a survey of the butterflies and day-flying moths that can be found at nearby Gypsy Marsh – just a short walk from Old Moor along the Trans Pennine Trail.

They…

Hello there, it was the monthly WEX meeting last Saturday and their theme this month was pond dipping and both of our wonderful bloggers, Freddie and Evelyn, were there. 

Once again they have written beautifully and have equally beautiful sketches and also a few photos. It's amazing to think that they are only 9 years old. 

Do enjoy their work, we definitely do. :) 

From Freddie....

Brilliant writing and…

It took a while for those clouds to move but, when they did, it turned into a glorious day here in the Dearne Valley. At the moment, Old Moor's reserve stays open until 8pm so there’s plenty of time to visit.

Here’s what you might see at the moment…

My favourite part of my visit today was when those bitterns proved the experienced watchers right, almost to the second.

In the Wader Scrape hide…

A change is as good as a rest they say, so if you arrived at this page from a link on Twitter, then you’ve already seen a summary of today’s sightings.

If however, you have this page stored as a bookmark (and why wouldn’t you?), then the summary of today’s sightings at Old Moor is shown below in a handy graphic. I’m just trying something out and wondered what you – loyal blog readers – thought. Any feedback…

If you’d asked me this morning what the surprise sighting of the day was going to be, I’d never have guessed it. Yet, among the mass of bird sightings today there was one that slackened everyone’s jaw.

Over at Adwick Washland, there was – with photographic proof to back it up – a fieldfare. In June. World’s gone mad I tell ye!

Joking aside, this is more than a bit unusual. We think…

Hi all, we've been watching bitterns all over the site today including some tentative flights in reedbed one from a juv..... I reckon we'll be seeing them popping up around the reserve soon. 

Adwick Washlands is the best place in the valley to get close up views of some young birds......

There are also broods of shovler and pochard showing well.

The guys from Broomhill Flash saw some cool raptors.....

Hello again, I'm afraid that I don't have the sightings from the the book at Old Moor, but I do have sightings from a few satellite sites via Twitter.

UPDATE: Old Moor this eve via the Barnsley Birders (@BarnsleyBSG) -  1 med gull, 3 little egret, 3 adult bitterns with 4 juvs (fantastic) 21 teal, 1 wigeon, 1 pochard, 2 ringed plover, 5 oystercatcher and 6 redshank. 

So off I go...

John Clarkson was around the…

And then a spoonbill dropped in!

Yes, that one took everyone by surprise this morning. Spotted on Old Moor’s Field Pool early on, sadly this remarkable visitor stayed only a short time. While it was here, it was best viewed from the Field Pool West hide. Shortly after 10:30 the bird left, heading in what looked like direction of Adwick.

Staff from Old Moor working at Adwick Washland this morning, began to get…

There are times when Nature makes my job easy and this was one such day.

Today the Dearne Valley was brimming with wildlife sightings and many of them very exciting indeed. I’ll start with the unexpected - an osprey flew over Old Moor at 17:47 and at first headed towards Broomhill Flash. It then turned south towards Wentworth and was lost to view around 18:20.

I don’t think anyone had predicted that one.…

… as usual, it seems quite a lot when I start to look back!

I say Spring, but we start this blog in Winter so here’s a roundup of the reserve team’s activities since last time.

Water lilies

Loading up the boat at the pond-dipping platform.

January is a good time to stick your hands in water, get muddy and … no maybe not, but that’s what we did. Repotting water lily rhizomes, weighing them down…

Although it took a bit of time to get going, it turned out to be another glorious summer’s day in the Dearne Valley. The sun shone; insect life took to the wing; and many contented visitors were thrilled by some of the best wildlife that can be seen at the moment.

In fact, now I’ve mentioned insects, let’s start with the lepidoptera. Butterlies seen today at Old Moor included: dingy skipper, male brimstone, speckled…

Its all go in the Dearne, the first nest of bittern juvs seem look nearly ready to fledge, they've been sitting up in the reeds and looking interested in what's going on. Previous years makes me think that it won't be long until these inexperienced birds are showing themselves in some odd places round the reserve - keep an eye out for the gulls mobbing them!

A single black tern has been hanging around at…