Yorks and Sheffield Groups - Joint Outing

The Yorkshire and Sheffield Groups' joint outing was to a destination we'd visited before: the RSPB wetlands reserve at Old Moor, near Barnsley. On a May Saturday - warm and sunny for the first time for several weeks - we assembled for coffee on the balcony of the visitor centre. Two Leeds folk had already done their birdwatching and were heading off for other activities. The rest of us enjoyed an hour admiring and identifying water birds in a hide beside one of the lakes. A leisurely outdoor lunch followed, accompanied by much SoF-talk. We then took a walk to a hide among the reed beds, where there were more bird varieties to be heard than seen. Calculations suggested we'd actually spotted over twenty different birds. Who would have believed it? - coot chicks have red breasts! It was still warm enough for us to have a late afternoon cuppa back on the balcony. What a day of re-creation!