The third and final of our new team of blogging volunteers is Gael - she recently started photographing wildlife and hasn't looked back! Here's her experience of a blustery walk around St Aidan's with me before Christmas:'One of my few memories of primary school is a lesson where we were given a selection of pamphlets about birds, and had to choose one and write about the bird. I chose lapwing, and because I finished my work quickly I then got the leftover black-headed gull. If that lesson sowed a seed, it took a very long time to germinate. It was 45 years before I bought my first binoculars, and another few months before I succumbed to the temptation of a camera.
Now, I rarely leave the house without my binoculars. I even chose my handbag for its capacity to carry my indispensable glasses.
When I saw that RSPB Aire Valley was recruiting a blogger & social media volunteer, I jumped at the chance. What an opportunity! To be able to wander around St Aidan's watching wildlife and that big sky, taking photographs, then writing about it and sharing my enjoyment with other nature lovers – a great way to avoid the housework on my day off.
So, here I am, four decades on from primary school, and writing about birds again. And on my visit this week I saw plenty of lapwings and black-headed gulls. Serendipity or synchronicity? Whichever, it was a delight to see them.
Under a threatening sky, I accompanied St Aidan's Abbie Sellers on a walk down through the reserve, along the edge of the beautiful Eastern Reedbed to the Causeway. Stonechats caught our attention almost from the moment we left the Visitor Centre. Pause as you stroll and there's a chance you'll spot one perched at the top of a reed or a post.
Stonechat - Rob Parsons - Swillington Ings Bird Group (sibg1.wordpress.com)
The reedbeds are a rare treasure. They form a habitat that has disappeared in many places due to changes in land use, water abstraction, and drainage for agriculture. Those that remain are a vital home and refuge for many birds, mammals, insects and fish, and are carefully managed at reserves such as St Aidan's. I'm looking forward to hearing booming bitterns in the spring. On this visit, although there were few birds to see, the wind hushing in the reeds and the quality of light from the low winter sun were quite magical.
Crossing the Causeway gave views of Lemonroyd Lake to the west, and Main Lake to the east. Both were busy with mute swans, great crested grebes, coots, moorhens, wigeon, tufted ducks, mallards, and a variety of gulls. No kingfishers for me today – but that just gives me something more to look for next time.
Is that wigeon waving at me?
From the Causeway we took a left onto a muddy path (wellies are recommended!) and headed through the Warren along the south side of the lake. There's a feeding station tucked away here, providing that bit extra in the bleak midwinter for the birds of the trees. Reed buntings flitted in and out under the watchful eye of a robin and a blackbird. This is another species that loves the watery habitat of the lake borders.
Before the rain arrived and sent us scurrying for the shelter of the Visitor Centre, we saw a song thrush and a dunnock pop by for a snack, while a willow tit waited in the wings. It's a popular spot!
I'm not lucky enough to have a woodland garden of my own – although I love watching the starlings and house sparrows that visit the feeder in my urban backyard and will be counting them for the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch at the end of January. Maybe the local blue tits and robins will call by too, if they can get past the rowdy starlings!'
Other sightings this week include: great white egret, curlew, wigeon, teal, goldeneye, little grebe, kingfishers and plenty more woodland birds.