A misty morning

After a trip to Barnby-in-the Willows first thing (see previous post), I had a look at the fishing lakes between the sugar beet factory and South Muskham - somewhere I drive past quite frequently but rarely stop to look at. Unfortunately it was a bit too misty to do them properly, and it didn't help that there was a guy walking around with a shotgun (after Cormorants I suspect), so I left without having seen anything more than a few Great Crested Grebes.

Feeling a bit frustrated, and rapidly running out of time, I decided to have a quick look at Collingham Pits - but the mist was even worse here than it had been at Muskham! It lifted just long enough for me to note 5 Green Sandpipers, before coming back event thicker, so I gave up.

A misty Collingham Pits

After a nice family lunch, we had a wonder around Sherwood NNR, quickly getting past the the Major Oak, and then having the forest more-or-less to ourselves, before looping back round across Budby Heath. We enjoyed some nice mixed feeding parties of woodland birds, but the heath was surprisingly quite - a group of 13 Lesser Redpolls which flew up from one of the ponds were the best birds we saw. Irrespective of the lack of birds, it was a lovely autumn afteroon to be out.

Budby Heath