Widdop Resevoir.

While at home in June I managed to visit a number of different areas in out locality.  It rapidly became clear that I was only scratching the surface of what is in our area and a brief scan over the maps and a search of the Birds of Lancashire highlighted a huge number of possible sites to visit.  So I got started.  My first visit was to Widdop Reservoir, Calderdale, West Yorkshire, a small lake around a mile and a half long.  OK its a tiny bit over the county line but a nice spot in Yorkshire but I won't hold that against it ;).  On the day I visited it was overcast but mostly dry which made for a reasonably comfortable walk.   Just looked it up on my browser and found the attached youtube vid.  www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY7Af-bIyII, there are some fabulous looking boulders about which I think attract the rock climbing community, though on the day I was there were only 2 cyclists.

As you might have guessed from this there was some work going on at the dam end of the reservoir.

Virtually every tree in the place had a very active Goldfinch and that the southern edge there was a flock of 15 or 20 of these chasing each other around the bushes.

Yes I know its not exactly a bird but I have not seen many frogs about so thought I would share the image.  I'm no expert on these things but I think its a Common Frog.

A couple of Sandpipers were feeding around the edge of the lake though all were very difficult to get anywhere close to.  They were also very noisy.

I only spotted a single pair of Blackbirds at the lake, they were close to a small group of houses at the southern end and seemed to be pretty settled in that spot.

I was watching a flock of around 35 to 40 Canada Geese who were feeding by the lakeside when I thought to myself, look closely, there might be something else in the flock.  Sure enough a pair of Greylag Geese were right in the middle.

A small breakaway group of Canada Geese at the north end of the lake.

All around there were Meadow Pipits singing in the brush but I really only got a good view of this one, if you listened to the video above you can hear them, and lots of other birds,

A moth I spotted in the grass while on my walk, I am still looking into what it is but a lovely looking thing.

Another Sandpiper.

Overhead there were a good number of Barn Swallows and I did manage to get some photos which I will load up as soon as I can.  This was my first visit here and I did not have a lot of time, there is definitely a lot more out there so its on the cards for another few visits when I get back.

© Bernard Bracken