Fight, Fight @RSPB_OldMoor

I was up early this morning to take Rebecca and one of her colleagues to the station. They have gone to represent their school at a week-long event in Iceland. I won't give away too many details, as she has taken a camera and I have been encouraging her to back-Blip her experiences!

This meant that I could set off earlier than usual and therefore decided to go a bit further afield. RSPB Old Moor to be precise. Mike came too.

First we stopped off at Broomhill Flash. A neat assortment of birds, including Little Grebe and a Year Tick, Ruddy Duck, taking me to 146 for 2011 so far. Not many of these about since the cull.

Then on to Old Moor. As I drove, Mike bought lunch. Bacon and Fried Egg sarnie with a big mug of black coffee. Deelish! We ate in full sunshine on the cafe balcony. Perfect.

I have to say that I never fail to enjoy my visits to Old Moor, and today lived up to its very high standards. Starting at Wath Ings we slowly worked our way back to the Visitor Centre, stopping in every hide along the way. Highlights for me were two new butterflies for 2011 - Common Blue and Green Hairstreak. I'll be putting photos up on flickr later.

As for the birds, we had superb views of House and Tree Sparrow, Avocet, Redshank, Little Ringed Plover, Dunlin and many, many Black-headed Gull chicks.

After Tuesday's corny attempt, I thought I'd better contribute something more appropriate to this weeks challenge of "Anger". And boy was this BHG angry when another tried to approach its young!!