Wildlife Trusts Lower Moor Farm – New Year’s Day 2018

Happy New Year! Today I decided to make the most of the final day off from work and take a trip out to Wildlife Trusts Lower Moor Farm.  It was raining heavily this morning but the sun was due to appear this afternoon, so I arrived at the site early afternoon as the clouds cleared.  I headed to the hide looking out over Cottage Lake.  The feeders on the left were covered in birds flitting back and forth; 5 long-tailed tit, 2 robin, 5 bullfinch, 6 great tit, 9 blue tit, 3 chaffinch, 1 dunnock, 2 blackbird, 1 starling and 2 reed bunting.  The long-tailed tits were flitting across in front of the hide and back to the feeders, they are such lovely little balls of fluff! some got a little braver and sat on the floor feeding by the hide. The rest of the lake was fairly quiet with just a few sightings; 2 cormorant, 2 carrion crow, 13 woodpigeon, 2 magpie, 4 mallard and 1 great spotted woodpecker.  A few people came in and asked if I had seen the otter?! Sadly not.  The sky clouded over at one point and a very light rainbow could be seen against the clouds.

I did take a walk around to a couple of the other hides, spotting 2 mute swans and a camouflaged grey heron.  It seems the otters were seen this afternoon on Swallow Pool when they crossed from one bank to the other.