Lovely day out at Old Moor today

It's been a few weeks now since I visited my closest RSPB reserve Old Moor, so I thought it was about time I did something about that, so I set off reasonably early to get there when it opened and made my way first of all to the Bird Garden hide where there was already a GSW on the feeding pole.  So that was a good start to the day!

There always seem to be plenty of bulfinches there too and today was no exception, and this pair were obliging enough to sit on the same post for me!

Also on the grass a speckled wood butterfly

And a smart looking reed bunting.

This magpie made me smile - it hurled itself two or three times at the wooden pole that has holes cut out of it and filled with some type of suet or similar, trying to get at it like the woodpecker, but he was just too big!  He had to make do with clearing up the seed from the ground!

It must have been lunchtime here - the ground looked so colourful with the chaffinches and bulfinch.

After spending some time in the bird garden (and being fortified with a scone and latte in the cafe - highly recommended!!) I went off the the far end of the reserve.  I didn't spend an awful lot of time at the Mere but came back to the wader scrape to watch all the goings on!  FIrst of all a beautiful oystercatcher digging in the grass.

A black  headed gull was determined to tug this stick out of the lake!

Whilst others were just having a nap at the waters edge!

There was a lapwing looking lovely in the sunshine.

I think it's displaying here - there was another one flying around it in the sky.

And on top of all that I had been hearing chiffchaffs all over the reserve all morning, but just before I left I decided to sit in the sunshine at one of the benches in the playground area and have a drink before setting off home, and once again I heard a chiff chaff.  I looked up and it was sat there chiffchaffing away in a nice branch of a tree with no leaves on. Just how obliging is that?!!  So I managed to grab a couple of pics.

So, another really enjoyable visit to Old Moor - such a lovely reserve.