During September 2023 we visited Yorkshire and the Northeast of England for a reunion with friends and also fitted in a few day’s birding along the way, mainly in County Durham and Yorkshire. After spending a couple of nights at Reeth in Yorkshire we called in at the Low Barns Reserve near Witton-le-Wear in County Durham (https://www.durhamwt.com/nature-reserves/low-barns). This is an excellent reserve maintained by the Durham Wildlife Trust, which has a trail of about a kilometre round a lake, along with a cafe and gift shop.
There are a couple of hides around the lake, which proved handy as there was some drizzle early in our walk. From the hides we had good views of the Common Snipe, as well as other common birds such as Gadwall, Coot, Northern Lapwing, Moorhen and Greylag Goose.
The best photographic opportunities were at the feeders, which were close to one of the hides. There we saw Blue Tit, Nuthatch, Coal Tit, Nuthatch and Willow Tit.
I spent the first 18 years of my life in Durham City so it was good to stay there for a couple of nights on this trip and revisit the city.
During our week in the north the weather was rather poor with rain on and off for most of the time. However, on the day we were driving from Durham City to Alnmouth in Northumberland the sun shone so we decided to make the most of the good weather and visit one of the best bird reserves in the area, the Hauxley Wildlife Discovery Centre near the coast of Druridge Bay, Northumberland. Like many reserves it’s based around a lake with a walk around the edge of the water and a number of hides overlooking the water. The Skua Hide was particularly good for photography as it overlooked a number of feeders that drew in many seed-eating birds. Bullfinches are rather rare close to where we live so it was good to see one on the feeders. Other birds we saw from the hide included Chaffinch, Tree Sparrow and Blue Tit. A highlight was having a female Sparrowhawk land on the horizontal bar across the top of the closest feeder, which offered a great photo opportunity, although it obviously scattered the rest of the birds.
The Ponteland Hide offered close views of a scrape where there were a couple of Dunlin, a Redshank and a Little Ringed Plover. In the distance a Northern Shoveler was on the water.
Around Cambridge we rarely see Tree Sparrows but they were very common at Hauxley. On the other hand, the Goldfinch is a frequent visitor to our garden.
The following day was wet with drizzle on and off for most of the day so we went back to Hauxley where we knew we could do some bird photography while staying dry in a hide. We therefore saw a succession of bedraggled birds around the feeders and in the surrounding trees.
Willow Tits are rare in Cambridgeshire but seem well-established at Hauxley where we saw them on the feeders. A highlight at the end of the day was finding a male Bullfinch on a feeder close to the car park. He kept returning to the same tree giving good photo opportunities.
On our final day in Northumberland we had lunch in Bamburgh and then did some birding along the coast on our way back to Alnmouth. Budle Bay was particularly productive with the lay-by on the B1342 offering good, although slightly distance views across the mud flats. There we saw Red Shank, Black-tailed Godwit and Curlew. Our final stop was at Beadnell where we had a chance to photograph the Common Eider on the ocean.
