With lots of species of wading birds beginning their return from the breeding grounds in the Arctic, it was time to visit one of the best places to watch them, Blacktoft (Toft being an old English word meaning Homestead) An early start to hopefully beat my pet hate the M62, now known as The Carpark. With Craig B at the wheel along with Bob K and myself progress was good, those roadworks near Leeds hardly slowed us. Upon arrival at Blacktoft, the gates were closed, something to do with a concrete mixer? Well they let us in and we hastened towards the Singleton Hide, on the way we could hear Common Cranes, what a lovely sound! We saw Greenshank, Green Sandpiper, Redshank feeding and a few Marsh Harrier`s in the air. After about an hour 2 Common Cranes wandered out from behind one of the islands and showed distantly at first, then wandering a little closer. Great to see this species that was once fairly common in this sort of reedbed habitat, they seem to be staging a comeback in our country. A Spoonbill dropped in for a quick wash & brush up As the hide filled up we moved on to the other hides, firstly seeing a young Fox vanish into the reedbed, no doubt lying in wait for its breakfast. There is quite a healthy population of Bearded Tits at Blacktoft and there were lots on view this morning being present and seen from all the hides. At Ousefleet hide we saw Spotted Redshank, Snipe, Curlew, Ruff, Black tailed Godwit and lots of Lapwing. We walked to the last hide and admired the small herd of Conick Ponies that live there all year round and keep the grass low. We sat down at a small screen and admired the antics of a few Bearded Tits that came quite close, Green Sandpiper`s also kept us all entertained for an hour or so. After an early start it was time for home arriving back in Rochdale around 3-15pm all having had a good birding time and a few laugh`s along the way!
