fairburn Ings(1)

dropped the family at Wakefield Station and went to find this reserve near Castleford. I spent a few hours walking the full length and seeing what I could see and photograph. The water fowl were in the main a little too distant butI will put what I found on this thread. I will start with the worst photos imaginable- almost- but the real highlight of the day. There is a kingfisher viewing spot but nothing happening there and so I plodded on slightly disappointed until at the end of the Riverside Trail just off the River Aire- a splash of blue, quite a way off sadly but its my first ever kingfisher so allow me the moment

a quick flash and it was off

a good start

overhead was a cormorant and at the time the sky was blue and sun was out

pochard?

gull!

impressing the lady? with weed!. it was nice to watch a bit of old fashioned courtship, dancing, flowers...

is that an egret? no not the big brown woolly things, that white bit near the bottom!

There was talk of there being bitterns on the Moat and a sighting of a Cetti,s Warbler or at least a hearing of one.

I dined on Pork pie and spent some time around the feeders where the usual suspects hung out, along with some nice reed warblers. I will post another couple of threads as there were some lovely robins and some very nice swan shots