Discovering Brockadale @YorksWildlife

I was up early to take Rebecca to work - see why in yesterday's Blip. So I decided to make the most of this and go further afield than my usual Swilly haunts.

Brockadale is a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve just off the A1, a little over half an hour from Leeds. As I drove into the car park I could hear Whitethroat singing and got some excellent photo opportunities straight away. I walked through part of the reserve, enough to convince me to come back later in the year when the butterflies are more abundant. Amongst the numerous birds I saw today were two other Year Ticks; Raven and Yellow Wagtail. Guess which one this is :0)

I ate lunch on a bench with great views of the valley and then decided to go to Lin Dyke at Fairburn, as they had been reporting a lot of good birds recently. I wasn't disappointed! Six more year ticks, including Wood Sandpiper and Cuckoo. I will be loading pictures to my flickr photostream as soon as I've processed them.

A really enjoyable day, leaving me on 139 Year Ticks to date.