Far Pastures & Burdon Moor

I started at Far Pastures yesterday morning. The bird ringers were in the carpark, one of them said there had been an Otter seen from the hide but that was, he said, an hour ago. I wish I had gone straight into the hide instead of walking up the lane because when I did go into the hide I saw an Otter out of the left hand window. I do not know how long it had been there but it was hidden some of the time by the tall reeds however, I managed a few shots. It then walked along the bank and into the pond right in front of the hide. It was under water and I could see the trail of silt as it swam along the bottom of the pond. I thought great its going to come out onto the island right in front of me but no it didn’t it did not come out at all, where it went I don’t know but it wasn’t the island. I waited for a further 30mins but did not see it again. There was also a pair of Little Grebe, Mallard, Canada Geese, Coot, Moorhen and a pair of Tufted Duck on the pond. The Mallard had a couple of chicks, which given the presence of the Otter I do not hold out much hope for them. Red Kites were also flying around up the lane.

Otter

Little Grebe

Moorhen

Mallard Chick ( I wonder how long it will last)

Red Kite

Early afternoon I had a walk around Burdon Moor. There wasn’t much about but I got a few shots of a couple of Skylark and a pair of Whitethroat.

Skylark

This one is looking a bit bedraggled

Whitethroat

Having a shake