I spent a happy hour or so sitting in a hide playing 'What's that duck?' at the Rodley Nature Reserve. I was quite a competent birdwatcher in my youth.... until motherhood arrived and the incompatibility of bird-watching and life with a lively toddler became apparent. It's a simple pleasure and one that I am seeking to pick up again. Hampered as I am by deafness, hearing and then spotting the myriad tree-hopping 'little brown jobs' (as we used to call the warblers and finches) is tricky. Wildfowl and waders are much easier, as they tend to stay in more or less the same place for long enough to work out what they are!
My list at Rodley included the ubiquitous mallard ducks, black-headed gulls, coots and moorhens (all of which I can spot around the canal in Saltaire) and some rather more interesting things too: little grebe, wigeon, gadwall, a solitary teal, Canada geese and a string of young mute swans gliding around. Some species are resident, some over-wintering and others just passing through, so what you see depends to some extent on luck. Of course that's what makes birding interesting.
The birds were too far away for close-up photos without a very long lens, but I had my binoculars.
What a beautiful and peaceful place !
ReplyDeleteI agree. BEautiful and so peaceful.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of bird watchers in blogland and now there is another one. I find them hard to photograph.
ReplyDeleteThe best (and only!) kind of hunt i like!
ReplyDeletePS: Congrats: you were the only one to get the pun with "50 shades of grey"! :o)
Sounds like a lovely hour. It appears warmer there than here just now. A nice day for a sit by the pond. Thank you. Gin
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a good birding list.
ReplyDeleteIt's a wonderful hobby...I love bird watching!
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