Sunday 12th May, a trip to a new area for me today, Grimwith reservoir this is a Yorkshire water reservoir and very pretty, not far from the small village of Grassington. We parked in the upper car park giving excellent views of the reservoir and the surrounding moorland, bonus car parking is free and toilets are very clean. My friend Paul found this site in the “Best Birdwatching Sites Yorkshire” book these books are brilliant https://www.focalpointopticsltd.com/product-page/best-birdwatching-sites-yorkshire giving some great places to visit and what the target bird to look for is, great for beginner birders and experienced birders alike.
We were welcomed by a Willow Warbler singing on the fence post, but time to head off for a 4 and 1/2 mile circular walk around the reservoir. We decided to walk the circular route anti-clockwise as recommended in the book, the first part of the water is used by the sailing club, not much here so headed a little further down. Lots of Oyster catchers on the pebbly shore calling away in the beautiful sun and scanning around found Ringed Plover, Golden Plover, Wigeon,Common Sandpiper and lots of Greylag geese. Time to walk on a little further, the bird song was quite amazing, Paul spotted a settled Green Veined white butterfly, wings tightly closed but made for a detailed photo.
Carrying on around the reservoir and strolled off the main footpath down a muddy track to the waters edge to find a Red-legged Partridge perched on a rock, beautiful colours. Walking back to the main footpath to see Lapwings displaying and calling.
Almost to the end of the the walk to find a renovated Cruck Barn.
Almost back to the car, lovely Mallard with her ducklings and a little further on with Greylag and her goslings. All in all a beautiful sunny day in Yorkshire, I would definitely recommend this walk, Short-eared owls and Little owls can be seen here too although we were not to be that lucky.
Yvonne.
Was a great day out trying out my new Celestron bins..very impressed with them, as a bit of a newcomer to the world of birding it was fascinating to see so many different species..