A frosty but sunny New Years day and so we took a walk in the Egremont area before. taking a trip to Workington to look for Kingfishers.
Along the river bank the Mallards were busy and in good numbers, but it was a pair of Dippers that stole the show, flitting over the waters surface along a mile stretch of the river, stopping off at rocks along the way to dive into the water looking for Cadis Fly lava and finding them! It was great to watch them, and they didn’t seem to mind us and our dog being so close.
Around lunchtime we took a drive to Workington and a short walk around a local small nature reserve, surrounded by houses and rounds. Its an unlikely place to find a small wildlife haven, but that’s exactly what is is. Some of the reserve was frozen over but some was flowing well and there was good numbers of Mallards and Teal feeding, there was also a pair of Water Rails hiding the reed beds, there was even one Mallard skating on the ice !
The star of the show though was a female Kingfisher which was darting from one part of the reserve to the next, stopping off in the reeds to hunt for minnows. No sooner had we spotted it than it started to drizzle and the light went, but it was the perfect end to New Years Day.
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