Trip reports

Sunday Morning Outing to Bowesfield Marshes

Jim Curwen

Sunday, 15 January 2012

I got up bright and early today, to get to the marshes early so I could find the birds in advance of leading the walk. The weather that greeted me was a white-out of hoare frost and a grey mist covering everything. Oh dear. Nothing changed by the time the walk began.

A crowd of 15 members gathered by the car park, overlooking the frozen lakes - a good turn out, but almost another "Nosterfield" in terms of weather and birds (see previous reports!).

A small patch of unfrozen water held a sizeable group of duck and gulls, including tufted duck, teal, mallard, pochard and gadwall. A few common gulls looked particularly smart in the mist.
On the next pond we managed to get shelduck and shoveller on the list together with mute swan, coot and more teal.

There were very few small birds around as we made our way to the river. Wren and greenfinch were pointed out to me by those with sharper hearing.

Over the lifeless river were great tit and blue tit, a few wood pigeon and someone spotted a fox. I think all in the group managed to get a reasonable view of it.

Hoping for greater things, we plodded along the path by the river, disturbing the odd reed bunting and enjoying the frost covered catkins of hazel, alder and birch.

A couple of rowing boats sped past just to finally dash our frivolous hopes of goosander and kingfisher.
Other sightings reported included cormorant, robin, bullfinch, stock dove, goldfinch and curlew.
JS had an image of jack snipe but I don't think he located it again to confirm his sighting and little else showed.

It was an enjoyable outing despite very few birds as it was nice to be able to chat with group members. It was good to meet a few old friends and also to meet a couple of new members. Thanks to everyone who showed up for a good morning out.

Trip Report by Steve Hunter