A Freezing Moorland day........

Crowle Moor NNR.

Crowle Moor NNR.

Hare's-tail Cotton Grass.

The reserve sign at the entrance to the Thorne side of the Moors.

Thorne Moors NNR.

A trip over to Crowle and Thorne Moors today,saw a mammal taking pride of place in our sightings for the day and they showed pretty good considering their skittish nature at this site.I am of course talking about the resident Red Deer,with us seeing an incredible 30 animals in 3 groups of 10 and 9 on the Crowle side and 11 on the Thorne side of the Moors.They were all hinds apart from 2 young stags with the group of 10 at Crowle.What a great sight to see and not a common one at all in this part of the world,they were very wary,no doubt due to the continued hunting of deer in the area.Also seen were a good total of 10 Roe Deer,with 2 being seen alongside the group of 10 Red at Crowle,the Roe's looking positively tiny compared to the 'Big' Red's.We managed some nice views of the Roe's and like i have mentioned before in my posts,they are one of my favourite british animals.Bird wise,the highlight went to my first Wheatear of the year,a female which showed nicely along one of the tracks on the Thorne side and a flyover Yellow Wagtail also being my first of the year.Migrant totals included at least 30 Willow Warbler and 10 Chiffchaff,20 Swallow and a single Sand Martin along with a handfull of Blackcap.A few Common Buzzard were also observed through the day and a tardy flock of 40 Fieldfare at Crowle should be on their way back north soon.The only other notable mammal sighting comprised of 3 Brown Hare.A decent day despite the breakdown in the weather in the afternoon.