One of the places we like to visit in our campervan, is Masham, North Yorkshire. Not only does it have THE best fish and chip shop and a brewery, but it also has a wetland nature reserve – so win, win, win!
It was a short, two night visit to Masham. The first afternoon we just ambled around the village (well, the pubs). The second day we walked along the river and up to the reserve. We went to each of the hides to see what birds were about and hopefully, get some decent photos – but, I’ll come back to that as it was the next morning that brought some excitement!
The previous day, the campsite owner asked if we’d seen much when out and about. Nothing in particular was our reply. We then talked about what was there (that we hadn’t seen), namely barn owls and otters – the latter being particularly elusive. Even the campsite lady has never seen them, and she walks her dog every morning in the area. Anyway, the next morning I was up and out early and walked along the river and up to the nature reserve. Nothing – apart from all the usual geese and birds. I decided to head back to the campsite and as I went to walk to the path I noticed something in the distance. I looked through my long lens and there it was. A small barn owl sat on a perch, scouting the land. I was too far away for any great photos, though each attempt to get closer just meant the owl flying off. It did though keep returning to the same perch, so I managed to get a little closer when it wasn’t looking! The real treat though came when I decided to leave the barn owl to it’s hunting.
As I started to walk away something caught my eye near the water. Could it be? Really! Yes, it was two otters! I’d never seen them before and even though the experience only lasted a minute or so, before they went into the water, it was still a treat. I hung around a little while in case they surfaced again. One of them did pop its head out the water, but it quickly went back under. I managed to get a couple of photos, more as a record of the sighting than great photos.
Back to the birds.
We had a good walk around the reserve, visiting several hides and seeing what birds visited. Most we’ve seen before but there were a couple of new ones – the reed bunting being one.
Here’s a few photos of some of what we saw. Male and female reed bunting; tree sparrow; chiffchaff; chaffinch.
