Wheldrake Ings.

Where to go on such a glorious January day?
So at my suggestion we drove over to Wheldrake Ings. A Yorkshire Wildlife Nature Reserve, in the Lower Derwent Valley, South of York.
Very peaceful walking along the river Derwent, except for the noise of the geese, ducks, lapwings, and twittering of little birds in the bushes, which included seeing some bullfinches. Their red chests certainly stood out in the bright sunshine.

There was one thing that disturbed the peace however.
As we got out of the car we could hear what sounded like gunshots.
Would you believe it there were a group of men, in the field adjacent to the reserve, shooting pheasants. These birds were being flushed out of the river bank by a couple of beaters with dogs. Didn’t see any shot.
Fortunately they finished shooting just after we arrived.
We were surprised they had been allowed to shoot so close to the reserve.

Not an easy day for taking photos because of the bright sunlight.
So a collage of a few of the shots taken.
In the top right you can see the old wind pump. Now no longer in use, but it was still going round when a gust of wind came along.
In the background are the buildings of Thicket Priory. The Carmelite Monastry near the river.
Middle photo shows just part of the hundreds of geese, ducks etc.
Bottom left is the foot bridge we crossed over the river Derwent.
Bottom right you can see the glistening reeds.

Certainly worth the difficult drive home as the sun was going down. Always bad at this time of year, but can’t grumble when the weather is as glorious as today.