You Never See 'Em All Part I

 An 04:00 start on Saturday to undertake the 6 hours drive to Yorkshire in pursuit of a trio of rare birds and thankfully in company of my friend Dave Foot once again.

Beaten to the punch by the 'Birding Goths' it would seem (would loved to have met these people) at a gloomy Saint Aiden's Nature Reseve in Leeds, the only thing that was more gloomy was the lack of a recent sighting, on the day, of a

LONG-TOED STINT
which had been present for a few days prior to our arrival and only the 5th to have been recorded in Great Britain!

To get the rest of the Bad News out of the way, that is the way it stayed not even getting a glimps, or a rumour from others, but there was still a few things of interest not least this massive

COAL SHOVEL
which, maybe inadvertantly, had formed this

Nature Reserve in the first place.

BUCKET
Previously an open-cast Coal Mine with some forward looking person/s seeing it turned over to nature once exhausted of the commodity.

Other Birds of Interest included

the jaunty and numerous

BEARDED TIT
or

BEARDED REEDLING

along with

BLACK-TAILED GODWIT

with

PART II
to come tomorrow.