So what better way to celebrate finishing my last exam than a trip to Broomhead Reservoir to hopefully catch-up with some 2 Barred Crossbills. My final exam finished at 10.00 and then it was all systems go birding. I made my way quickly up to Broomhead, since I was later than I had been before. And this time I had a new piece of kit. With my Christmas money I had invested in a new 500ml lens, and now was eager to put it through its paces with some birding.
I arrived at the lower reser with not much going on, a winter Great Crested Grebe, 4 Cormorants and a usual assortment of mallards. The top reser, Broomhead, was much quieter. I reached the spot where the TBC had been but there was no sign, so made my way round to the feeding station since I had not visited the site last time.
On the way I bumped into a Bradford birder, who had already seen them that morning. Shout out to Fred Drake, it was nice to see a familiar face. At the feeding station there were good numbers of common crossbills in cracking light, so I was able to get some record shots of them, finally!
-Common Crossbill
Sadly no TBC's but I really had wanted some photos of common crossbills. After a bit I made my way back to the larches, nothing doing there over lunch. I then returned to the feeding station where I learned that the TBC's had turned up after I left, but they had also since departed.
I made my way there anyway and got cracking views of Coal Tits and Long-Tailed Tits especially, but also Nuthatch, Great Tit, Blue Tit and GSW. after that I made my way back to the larches, nothing doing so I decided to head home, not a bad afternoon to celebrate though...
On the reser on the way back there were a few gulls starting to roost, all 3 species present were year ticks:
Herring Gull
Greater Black Backed Gull
Lesser Black Backed Gull
So that was good too. Overall a really good day, despite missing the TBC's
No comments:
Post a Comment