Family were staying over in Rotherham so i decided to go stop off at Old Moor near Barnsley for a few hours.  Old Moor consists mainly of waterbodies, meadows, scrub and reedbed.  It is an important place for breeding Bittern, Bearded Tits, Water Rail and other wetland species and waders.  Winter it provides home to migrant waterfowl, Gulls and Thrushes.  In 2013 the feeding station had a unique mix of visitors from woodland, wetland and aqricultural land such as Brambling, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Redpoll, Siskin, Bullfinch, Reed Bunting, Linnet,  Yellowhammer, Tree Sparrow but sadly the latter 2 had disappeared and Brambling seems uncommon this winter.  

On arrival there were dozens of Coot feeding in field something I have never seen before.  They seem less comfortable on land than Moorhen.  An assortment of Gulls around including Yellow Legged 1st and 2 Caspian of 2nd and 3rd winter ages  along with Great Black Backed, Herring, Lesser Black Backed, Common and Black headed Gull were present.  The Caspian's had a distinctive head shape and looked more awkward sat on posts in the water.  Caspian Gulls are now breeding in the Netherlands but care needs to be taken as they do hybridize with Herring and Yellow Legged Gulls so identification isn't always easy.  It was nice to catch up with the Yellow Legged and Caspian Gulls but a shame they weren't closer. A local pointed the Caspians out to me and  I asked him what made it a Caspian Gull for sure.   He explained the head shape, the tertials, fringed feathers, mirrors and I just said Ok Sir! He left and I was pointing the Caspian Gulls to the new arrivals.  

Chatting to another local birder who was Barnsley born and bred about the state of affairs environment and political said about the current Government  "thee couldn't find their arse with both hands!"  He made the hide laugh.  The New Year started on a high and I went to the next hides where Lapwing, Teal, Wigeon, Gadwall, Shoveler, Goldeneye, Tufted Duck and a pair of Shelduck.  The birds were up in the air and I located 4 Linnet and a whisp of Snipe.    Later we learnt a Red Kite was over the visitor which was an uncommon visitor here and one we missed sadly!   A lady who asked me about the Caspian Gull whereabouts was busy trying to decide if the Shelduck in front of her was a Shelduck or not.  Talk about trying to learn to run before you can crawl.  I pointed the Linnets out to people and was called the "Linnet man" lol.  A young boy shouted "I've found a Wig On".  His Daddy replied Wigeon!

I took hundreds of photos of Gadwall, Teal and Wigeon and glad I did because few were sharp.  I moved onto the reed bed walk where I managed to see a Marsh Harrier and then a Bittern!  I had spent so long taking photos of the ducks that I kissed the cafe had closed and I had to go without cake again!  

-- Edited by sarfraz on Sunday 4th of January 2026 10:57:33 PM

-- Edited by sarfraz on Sunday 4th of January 2026 11:02:50 PM