Where to spot brilliant birds in Yorkshire Best for Birding
North
Grass Wood
Visit on an early spring morning to experience an orchestral dawn chorus of native and migrant songbirds. Look amongst the trees for acrobatic pied and spotted flycatchers, and striking redstarts. Listen out for the drum of a green woodpecker.
Bolton-on-Swale
A peaceful wetland haven ideal for year-round birding. Winter is a spectacle of wading birds and wildfowl, including nationally important numbers of wigeon and crowds of curlews. Ospreys swoop in most years during autumn migration, with green sandpipers, and great-crested grebes. Arctic and black terns appear in spring.
South
Potteric Carr
This wild oasis is home to more than 230 species of bird, from wildfowl, warblers and waders to woodpeckers and willow tits. Spring and autumn migrations bring surprises, whilst winter visitors can enjoy the magic of thousands of starlings creating incredible aerial displays. Listen carefully and you might even hear the booming of the elusive bittern!
Sprotbrough Flash
Spring and early summer are a bustle of wetland breeding birds, spectacular great crested grebe displays, and darting kingfishers. Keep a close eye out in winter for woodpeckers, ospreys and the occasional booming bittern.
Tufted duck
MIKE ASHFORTH
MARGARET HOLLAND
Pied flycatcher
Bittern
DAVID MARTIN
Great crested grebe
East
Spurn and Kilnsea Wetlands
Huge numbers of birds pass through Spurn during the year, and the Humber Estuary is internationally important for its vast numbers of wildfowl and wading birds.
During the migration seasons, spot anything from sanderling and grey plover to curlew and redwings. Rarities including Pallas’s warbler often visit too.
Wheldrake Ings
Winter flooding attracts colossal numbers of ducks, geese, swans, gulls and waders – an incredible sight to behold in its own right, but also an enjoyable challenge for keen birders looking for something unusual!
West
Adel Dam
Breeding kingfishers are the star species here, but the lake also hosts exotic-looking mandarin and tufted ducks. Woodland birds include great and lesser spotted woodpeckers, nuthatches, finches and tits, while red kites and sparrowhawks fly over.
Ledston Luck
Keep your eyes peeled for willow tits and green woodpeckers, and listen for the distinctive calls of breeding blackcaps and yellowhammers. There are herons, coots and moorhens on the lake, while little egrets sometimes fly over.
Spotted crake
SHUTTERSTOCK
Willow tit
Great spotted woodpecker
PETER CAIRNS/2020VISION
Did you know that we care for over 100 nature reserves across Yorkshire? Plan your next wild adventure at ywt.org.uk/nature-reserves
Our members make a real and lasting difference for Yorkshire’s wildlife and wild places. Please join us today!
When you join us, you’ll enjoy:
n Unlimited free admission and parking at our visitor centres
n A subscription to our quarterly Wildlife Yorkshire magazine
n Discounts on some of our unforgettable wild events
n Invitations to exclusive experiences and more!
Plus when you pay by monthly Direct Debit, we’ll also send you a FREE copy of Discover Yorkshire’s Wildlife worth £14.99 - the most comprehensive guide to where, when and how to see wildlife in Yorkshire!
