I thought about heading for the coast today but my concience got the better of me and I decided to head to a place where I thought would be less crowded.

As I arrived in the car park I was pleased to see I was the only one there (just how I like it). First sighting was some distant but magnificent red deer-they soon evaporated into the background as soon as they knew I was there.

Not quite a dawn chorus more of an early morning one, still impressive all the same with blackcap, whitethroat, wren, blackbird,robin, willow warbler, chiff-chaff, yellowhammer and cuckoo all playing their part.

I headed off to the area where I thought a red-footed falcon had been seen for the last couple of days. Given that I had never been to the South Yorkshire side before it was all a bit blind, however after a good walk I saw 2 birders who had reliable information that this was the spot. A hobby had been showing distantly but no sign of the falcon.

I hung around for half an hour without any joy so filled time by photographing swifts. The 2 birders moved off leaving me to my own devices. Not long after a grey falcon cam over my right shoulder and carried on, I managed a few record shots which confirmed it was the red footed falcon. I had a wander further along the track and it was hunting over the adjacent field. It was interesting to watch it catching dragon flies-flying up when the sun came out and the temperature rose sending the dragonflies on the wing. Once it clouded over it settled down sometimes for up to three quarters of an hour.

It never came really close but put on a nice show nevertheless.

Both reserves looked in very good shape with lots of birds and insects around-the most impressive thing was the amount of cuckoos around-there must have been at least half a dozen.

I kept very socially distant and only saw about a dozen people all morning.