Hello there, I'm actually away for the weekend but after a text from Karen, our assistant warden, I offered to blog. She'd tried to write them up, but the blog isn't ready as yet for her words and wouldn't let her post...So, I offered. Yes, really I did!

So via Karen, some sightings from Old Moor: flying bitterns (including a male) were seen flying from reedbed 1 to reedbed 3. Two med gulls were on island…

Today the Dearne Valley experienced one of those fairly typical spring days that are exactly in two halves. Until midday, it was overcast and wet; from midday, beautiful spring sunshine.

It was just the excuse some of us needed to drag our heels a bit this morning in the hope of better views this afternoon.

Yet, there were watchers out early, braving the downpour to bring us the sightings.

An arctic tern over the…

Hello there, I have a full book of sightings to report so off I go.

I'll start with the news that there hasn't been any sign of the black necked grebes at Bolton today.

Starting with Twitter and the sightings today via the Barnsley Birders...

Broomhill Flash this morning -  2 mute swan, 2 great crested grebe, 2 kestrel, 2 oystercatcher, 1 little gull, 7 herring gull, 2 LBB Gull, 1 shelduck, one buzzard, one red…

This spring isn’t half blowing hot and cold. And today in the Dearne Valley it was the latter, with chilly north easterly winds cooling things down for much of the day.

Not that this slowed the pace of the spring activities around the reserves. In fact for some newly arrived migrants, it was a chance to show off their superb aerial skills. From Old Moor’s Wath Ings Hide first thing this morning, visitors were able…

Spend any time watching birds and you’ll come across the phrase, “little brown job”. Watchers use it to describe a whole range of small birds that are hard to identify. And they don’t get much ‘littler’, browner or more ‘jobby’ than a garden warbler!

One highly respected authority on birds describes garden warblers as having a “lack of features". Another calls them, “anonymous…

My title, well, it was cold at Old Moor today despite being 10°C on the gauge in my car. The wind was bitter and I'm afraid I gave up after about an hour and a half. Thankfully there were a few hardier souls than me and I have quite a lot to report both from the sightings book and from Twitter.

I'll start with a couple of fabulous photos which were taken by Kev Dunnington (@Cerbykev) this week and shared with…

Hello again, what a difference in temperature from this time last week...Thankfully however it was warm for the latest WEX group meeting last Saturday. Their theme this time was 'Signs of Spring.'

As always, our young bloggers have done a fabulous job in writing up their findings. I'm sure you'll enjoy reading their work. I did, very much!

From Evelyn... Her enthusiasm just shines through in her writing…

Sometimes the rewards of this job are self-evident. Take today for example, I was wandering Adwick Washland and fell into conversation with a visitor who said,

“I’ve never been here before, but I’d read about it being good so thought I’d try it.”

And was ever the right day to ‘try it’!

Near ‘the mound’ at the back of reserve was the place to see what Pete Walsh

Old Moor and the other reserves in the Dearne Valley welcomed the return of a familiar, scythe-like silhouette to the skies above them today. Yes, the swifts are back in numbers!

Actually, the sticklers among us would point out archly that the first swift appeared over Old Moor a few days ago. But those few were just passing through. What was different today was that a small ‘shriek’ of five or so swift arced over the…

In the bird world, April is the cruellest month – there’s tons of great stuff coming through on migration precisely at the same moment that the leaf canopy fills! Ah but then that’s when a new strategy is called for.

Trail behind any of the experienced visitors to the reserves and you’ll see them stop and appear to be doing nothing. What’s really going on is that they aren’t so much bird-watching as…

Hello there, here's a quick blog just to let you know of a few highlights from yesterday from Old Moor.

There was a great white egret on Wath Ings yesterday. It was right at the back on the right hand side and was keeping company with a little egret and a heron. Every now and then it came out of the foliage so watchers had a  better view. 

Also seen from the hide at Wath Ings yesterday was a sedge warbler. It was…

Hello again, what a gloriously 'fabulously sunny' day! At last! I'm just back from a lovely evening out and about in the sunshine, but not Old Moor so the sightings today are from the book (surprisingly sparse) and from Twitter.

First of all from the book at Old Moor. On the Mere/Wader Scrape there was a little gull and a sandwich tern. A lesser whitethroat was seen from the car park and a yellowhammer was…

We mammals know that hot weather requires us to take greater care of our skins and the same principle holds true in the bird world. Except, of course, for birds it’s their feathers that need to be in top condition.

Be it in dust or water, bathing plays an important role in feather maintenance. One famous experiment compared starlings in flight through an obstacle course of suspended strings. Amazingly, the ones…

With the rigours of winter’s harsh weather now firmly behind us, spring surges forward. Suddenly everything changes - and daily it seems. Yesterday it was little gulls, today it was the turn of… well, terns. There were also one or two other surprises as well.

The first news of the day was in fact a piece of very late news from dusk, yesterday. Jeff Wragg caught me out by posting a sighting just as the light…

I knew it was going to be a good one even before I set off for the Dearne Valley this morning. It’s a Wetland Bird Survey (or WeBS) day which means that the valley receives a very thorough scrutiny from our most experienced watchers.

And they’d started early.

Karen Williams, Old Moor’s Assistant Warden, posted a message well before eight o’clock that a common whitethroat was on the Trans Pennine Trail between…

Hello there, after what seems an age, the sun came out around lunchtime today and you could almost hear the cheering from the visitors, the birds and the bees, insects, flowers and butterflies...and me!

It was a bit grey this morning as I wandered down to the reedbeds but I needn't have doubted the forecast. The sun, and warmth, definitely arrived today. The sightings today are just from Old Moor. For further info about…

Old Moor’s Tree Sparrow Farm is walled, sheltered and conveniently near a well-managed grassland that’s cut regularly to provide a fresh sward. Great for visitors and… well, the rabbits and foxes think it’s top notch too!

So much so that they have chosen this site over recent months for their own excavations. Sadly, ankle-snapping holes and regular foot traffic don’t mix so, as was reported yesterday…

Hello again, it’s not been a great day weather-wise but despite that, there is a full book of sightings to bring you. Thanks very much to whoever it is that wrote them down today. I can’t quite work out the initial but if it was you, then thanks very much!

I’ll start though with the news that the Tree Sparrow farm is ‘closed’ for a few days whilst the reserve team sort out the floor.

So…

But first a correction. In last night’s blog I wrote that I was pretty sure that breeding Mediterranean gulls would be a first for Old Moor. Thankfully, a birder with far greater local experience, kindly set me straight. Keith Pickering pointed me towards a record of successful Med. gull breeding on the Mere’s island one in 2010.

Back then – and for the first and only confirmed time - the Meds bred. They…

Complete the sentence – ‘You know spring is in full swing when you see...?’

Well, for me it’s a small blur of brown and white; a confident flyer with a forked tail and a distinct brown breast band. It always takes a moment for me to remember, having not seen them for six or seven months. But then that’s the way with sand martins - here one minute and then zipping off to Africa all too soon.…

Hello there, I'm afraid I don't have sightings from the book from today but I do have those from yesterday so that's where I shall begin this eve.

Thursday 5th April - Sightings Part 1

Thursday 5th April - Sightings Part 2

As you will no doubt have read, there was quite a lot! The Barnsley Birders (@Barnsleybsg) tweeted this morning that the red kite sightings were of two different red kites which is…

In between the April showers, spring was officially announced today in the Dearne Valley by the real experts – the birds of course. Rising temperatures and periods of sunshine provided all that the spring singers needed: chiffchaff, dunnock, robin, blackbird, wren, reed bunting and – to give a bit of bass – bittern, were all announcing the change of season.

The day’s news began with the headline that…

It was a sight to make a heart glad – despite the grey and chilly weather, Old Moor’s car parks were full to overflowing! Donned in winter woollies and (wisely) wellies, visitors of all ages took time out from their Easter Sundays to enjoy nature in the Dearne Valley.

And it was a good day to do it too. Today is the first day the reserve stays open until 8pm – though the Visitor Centre does close at 5 o’clock…

Hello there, I'm a bit late with the sightings from yesterday but no matter, there's lots to report from a full book.

I'll start with a couple of photos of a male bearded tit which were taken at the reedbed screen yesterday. They were taken by Mary Wilde and as you can see, she got a very good view indeed of this most gorgeous bird.

Thanks for sharing your lovely photos with us Mary, it's not often that…

Hello again, here are the sightings from today so far. Thanks go again to Gerald for sending them my way.

On the Mere today there were sightings of 1 med gull, 2 shelduck, 1 black tailed godwit, 2 redshank and one sand martin flying over the water here.

We had more booming from the two male bitterns today - from the reedbed screen and the reedbed hide. A bittern was also seen in flight - flying from the monitoring hide…