Yearsley Moor and Castle Howard

A successful field trip with a total of 15 people. We covered Yearsley Moor in the morning and had 40 species there with the highlight probably being a minimum of 13 Crossbills, plenty of Siskin and Lesser Redpoll, plus a single Woodcock for one lucky person.

Then on to Castle Howard Lake where we added various waterbirds, which included a Great White Egret fishing in the shallows at the western end. We did also see the Ferruginous Duck, but as it is an escape it isn’t included on the total for the day of 58 species. It was interesting that we didn’t see any Fieldfare and Redwing, presumably the recent snow had moved them on to lower ground in search of milder conditions.

Paul Doherty