Nine members enjoyed a visit to this reserve not far from the centre of Leeds. We had been hoping to visit last year but it was closed for bridge repairs over the canal. The warden and his wife met us having opened up especially for us.
The reserve has a variety of habitats : a large lagoon, reedbed pools, hedgerows, river bank and a garden with feeders.
The “star” species was the Whitethroat, a bird we have heard but not seen on numerous occasions. We were treated to its song and posing position at the top of a birch.
Because of the chilly wind, we were able to use the visitor centre for our lunch where we had close -up views of male Bullfinch, Goldfinch, Long-tailed Tit and Dunnock. As we lunched we watched a female Barn Owl on her 2 eggs, a Kestrel on 5 eggs and a Great Tit on her eggs, all courtesy of camera boxes. The reserve has also been releasing harvest mice and we saw one of them in a cage prior to its release.
Swan
Mallard
Bullfinch
When the sun came out we saw several butterflies on our way to see the Rodley Robin garden used by local children to experience the natural world. In all we recorded 42 species, including the camera box birds.
We owe a big thank you to Peter and Barbara Murphy for their warm welcome and helpful information about the reserve.
Report by Win Clements, Photos by Marg Smith
