It was a bright, clear, very cold day when we went to Potteric Carr, the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve just south of Doncaster. Nestled in the elbow of the M18 and the A6182 and skirted to the north by the North East Coast railway line the reserve shows little sign of the site's industrial past as a railway spaghetti junction, apart from the working railway line passing through it and the Post Office depot at the north west corner. I'd not been here before but now, looking at the map, realise I have seen it countless times from the train and will look out with keener interest when leaving Doncaster station in future.
We set off from the Visitor Centre along the Dragonfly Trail, heading for the Wetland Walk. Beside the path was a hazel tree with huge, luminous yellow-green catkins and the tiny, magenta, spidery female hazel flowers, just gorgeous.
A bit further along the trail we were looking up into the treetops trying to spot a bird that had been heard when another bird broke out from the branches. Gliding along like a large slow-moving bullet, silver in the sunshine, it eventually stretched its wings again revealing itself to be a pale bird of prey. Not definitively indentified, the concensus was that it was most likely a sparrowhawk.
The expansive water surfaces of the reserve were frozen, apart from the odd circle clear of ice, all of which had at least one bird, often a swan, enjoying a swim. And the reeds glowed golden in the low winter sun.
There were plenty of waterfowl - swan, teal, shoveler, mallard, coot, moorhen, little grebe and gulls, black backed and herring, congregating on the ice, swimming in the limited water and flying to and fro.
Lots of birds in the trees, blue, great and long tailed tits to be seen. The report of a flock of redpoll in the trees beside a hide temporarily diverted everyone from their dinner.
Interest lower down too. There was the wren just in front of us scurrying on the ice between the reeds and the female blackbird rootling through the leaf litter on the path, not flying away even when we were really close.
At least one marsh harrier hunting over the reed beds was watched for some time from several vantage points. Attention was distracted for a while by a mysterious hooped cloud on the horizon beyond the M18. It turned out to be made by Red Arrows practising their loop the loop - and we saw several more loops being formed.
In other non-bird life bracket and hoof fungus were seen on tree trunks and some stump puffballs at the base of one tree.
From the last hide we stopped at a swan was seen flying majestically over the frozen water then off over the trees into the distance. We were identifying the different birds standing round the edge of the large gap in the ice then, there it was - a bittern, seen briefly, flying from just in front of us and disappearing into the reed bed opposite, making the most of the last of the sun. The excitement of that more than made up for not seeing the starling murmuration that had been one of the reasons to go to Potteric Carr, but we knew by the time we went that it was unlikely to happen.
A satisfying visit in glorious winter sunshine. Many thanks to Julia for organising the trip and to her and Kevin for driving us there and back. Here are a few pictures in the gallery
Alison Ridler