16 folk enjoyed a gorgeous morning at Annesley, sunny but not too hot. This relatively new reserve seems to get better with every passing year. All told we Identified 50 species of bird of

Black-necked Grebe

which the best were the Black-necked Grebes, a Little Ringed Plover, a Kingfisher and a small number of Hobbies. Sadly we failed to see the Wood Larks which had been seen by others who had arrived earlier. In addition to the birds, many of the group were interested to see the Emperor dragonflies, Black-tailed

Black-tailed Skimmer

Common Blue Damselfly

Skimmers and Common Blue damselflies. The reserve is rightly well known for its wild flowers of which Common Spotted, Early Purple and Bee Orchids got the most attention.

Common Purple Orchid

Thanks to Joyce Sawford, David Griffin and Philip Buxton for the photos. 

13 members managed to get to Budby in spite of delays due to road works and flat tyres. The group set off at about 08:40 in still but cold, dull weather. Expectations were raised by an early sighting of 2 Goldcrests but when we arrived on the Common, all was deathly quiet. And so it remained as we walked around the perimeter of the entire area the only joy other than a chance to have a chat with each other, was the distant song of a Chaffinch. Three quarters of the way round, a couple of late comers were spotted on an intercepting path. Upon meeting up, they had the cheek to report that they’d seen 2 Green Spotted Woodpeckers, a Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Stonechat. The group then retraced this pair’s steps hoping for a repeat of their sightings and preying for at least one view of a Woodlark. Sadly, none of this came to pass and we arrived back at the cars with very little in the notebook! We then moved on to the Welbeck Raptor Watchpoint where our luck changed with the sighting of a pair of Goshawk flying together and displaying the massive difference in size between the male and the much larger female. As a bonus, we also got occasional views of the Russian White-fronted Geese when they poked their heads above a

White-fronted Goose – Martin Smith

distant bank and also a single Pink-footed Goose amongst the Greylags. Thanks to Martin Smith who somehow managed to get this photo of one of the White-fronts in appalling weather about a kilometre distant.
The dynamic duo from Budby then turned up and to add insult to injury, had the audacity to tell us that they’d also seen 3 Woodlark, one of which had been singing. (I’m going with them next time.)
And then the forecast snow arrived, which in keeping with our earlier level of luck, was an hour early so we all ‘ran for the hills’.

We think it’s time to go

39 species in all.

The 07:30 arrival time for the early birds seemed to be quite frankly ridiculous while driving up the M1 in heavy traffic and pouring rain and to make matters worse, it was dark. The leader messed up by being half an hour late and even then, it was difficult to discern much from the Broomhill Flash hide in the gloom. The 3 stalwarts who had got there on time did have quite a list of wildfowl to report including Pintail, Goldeneye and Pochard.
Undaunted by the rain that was continuing to fall, we decided to move on to Wombwell Ings where a half kilometre walk brought us to the anti vandal hide (constructed from breeze blocks). Here we had a greater variety with a large flock of Golden Plover and

Whistling Wigeon

The two giants ignoring each other

Lapwing, Wigeon whistling and Meadow Pipits hunting in the grass. This place in better weather certainly deserves more time spent there especially in view of the improvements made by the RSPB recently with a lot more fencing keeping grazing livestock in and  humans out.
At 09:30, the full group of 8 assembled at Old Moor and after some direction from the RSPB meet and greet team, set off for the Family Hide (should be renamed the “little Children’s Hide because most of the seating is only 1 foot high) with a prize for the first person to spot the drake Scaup. However, it was one of the locals who finally spotted the elusive ‘diver’ and then at a distance and briefly because it promptly disappeared behind an island. Also of note were the 3 Great White Egrets.
Down at the Wath Ings Hides, the highlights were the the large flock of Golden Plover, 10 Dunlin and 3 Green Sandpipers.

Green Sandpipers

To finish the day off, 5 members moved on to Edderthorpe Flash just north of Old Moor and accessed from a lay-by off the busy A6195. This is definitely worth a visit although sadly the people that pass by have turned the short approach into something resembling a landfill site. A brief walk of 30 metres brings you onto the line of an old railway with a good view of the Flash. Here we had sightings of a couple of Ruff, 3 Spoonbill, a very large flock of Golden Plover, Dunlin, Snipe, a single Avocet, a Peregrine and a Green Woodpecker.
In total, 61 species – not a bad haul for such a poor day.

Photos thanks to Val Jones who persevered in spite of the appalling light.