Mr Wood's Bittern .. - Dearne Valley - Old Moor & Dearne Valley

Hi friends !!

I hope that you are all well and are enjoying the lovely weather .... :- /

Old Moor was open as normal today but I was out in the wilderness watching a playful raven rolling about in the snow !! A brilliant sight :)

All was not lost though as Tree Sparrow was kind enough to phone the Visitor Centre and then email the sightings to me ..

Thanks Treespers ;-)

So .. Here is today's news ..

On the Mere were c720 wigeons, c500 teals, c35 shovelers, c270 Gadwalls, c160 mallards, 45 tufted ducks, 23 pochards, 25 goosanders, 110 lapwings, 2 male pintails, 12 golden plovers, 3 dunlins and 2 snipe...

Plenty to see there then !!

The Wader Scrape had a sparrowhawk and a wren .. Obviously that's why it's called the Wader Scrape ;-).

There were 60+ reed bunitngs on the Field Pool East and 3 snipe were seen on the Field Pool West ..

In the Bird Garden were a female sparrowhawk, male reed buntings, a long-tailed tit flock and a great spotted woodpecker ..

Over by the Tree Sparrow farm were 16 yellowhammers, 35+ tree sparrows., 20+ bullfinches, 3 linnets and 2 jays.

Outside the Visitor Centre were 3 song thrushes and there was a flock of redpolls seen by the Wildlife Ponds ..

The Bittern was seen coming into roost over by the reedbeds and a water rail was seen in this area too ..

A special mention goes out to for chap called David Wood who is an ardent fan of our 'Tweeting, Blogging and Facebooking' .. He has been getting a lot of 'stick' from many people as he has failed to see the bittern despite spending many hours trying to do so !! He has been visiting Old Moor for a long time now too ;-)

So .. as I said ... The bittern was seen coming into roost at 4:30 ... Guess who saw it !!

Well done Mr Wood .. You can now strut around Old Moor with your head held high my friend :-)

Obviously David will be having a great evening and hopefully the rest of you will too ...

Night friends !

Bert xxx