 How to get there
OverviewThrybergh Country Park lies in the north-east of the SBSG recording area, some 15km from Sheffield city centre. It incorporates Thrybergh Reservoir, which was built - along with nearby Firsby Reservoirs - between 1874 and 1880 to provide a source of drinking water for Doncaster. In 1977, The reservoirs were decommissioned and were subsequently bought by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council in 1983.
Since that time it has been developed and managed as a country park, providing
recreational opportunities for the thousands of visitors it attracts each year.
The Park boundary includes the open water of the reservoir, its surrounding
grasslands, scrub and hedgerows, and the caravan park provides walks through
mature birch woodland. The Park is surrounded on all sides by arable farmland
which boosts the number of available bird species significantly. Views across
the reservoir are wide and open and the resulting 'big sky' is ideal for
scanning for migrants.
FacilitiesThe Park is open all year. Pay and display car parking is provided adjacent to the visitor centre which has the usual shop and toilet facilities. The Lakeside Cafe sells hot and cold food and drinks and can be very welcome on cold winter mornings. A level, surfaced path surrounds the reservoir. In winter (October - March) the path along the dam and around the eastern bay are closed to visitors to provide an undisturbed refuge for wintering wildfowl (see map). Mobility scooters are available free of charge if required. There are two hides, one overlooking the reservoir and the other giving close views of the many species which visit the well established feeding station (see map) in the Pond Field.
A bird log is kept at the visitor centre and is available for inspection or for
visitors to add their own observations, on request.
Likely speciesEase of access makes Thrybergh Country Park an attractive proposition for the birder with a couple of hours to spare. The site is recorded virtually daily and most often in the mornings. This leaves large parts of the day when potentially very fruitful birding can be enjoyed, at any time of year.
Comprising largely open water habitat, it's no surprise that Thrybergh is most well known for its waterbirds. In hard weather, when shallower flashes tend to freeze solid, Thyrbergh stays clear of ice for much longer and this can attract large concentrations of wildfowl from waters across this part of the area.
As of 2008, the list of species recorded at Thrybergh Country Park stands at just over 200, though by far the majority of the less common species are 'fly throughs' only. Three divers and all five grebe species have been seen here though, as in many places, the former have become increasingly scarce over the years. As the Park is host to one of the longest established game fisheries in the country, Cormorants have become a prominent feature and numbers into high double figures are not uncommon during the winter months, to the disapproval of the anglers! In winter, the eastern section of the circular path around the reservoir is closed to provide an undisturbed refuge for wintering wildfowl. At times, several hundred diving duck (largely Pochard & Tufted Duck) can be present, along with a handful of Goldeneye, and it's always worthwhile scouring these rafts of duck for less common species such as Scaup, Red-breasted Merganser and Smew. Dabbling duck tend to be less numerous but significant numbers of Teal and Gadwall (also a breeder in recent years) can occur in particularly harsh winters. The site is also one of only a handful in ther area where Wigeon occurs regularly, though usually in relatively small numbers.
Raptors are surprisingly numerous in the surrounding area with Common Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel seen almost daily. Osprey is virtually annual in spring and less so in autumn, when cream-crown Marsh Harriers can often be picked up over adjacent fields which, in late autumn and winter, can also produce Merlin and Peregrine.
Though largely lacking in suitable habitat, the list of waders is an impressive one and stands at 28 species. This is the group which requires more than a quick visit to get to grips with as most records are of fly throughs only, with the short grassland and shoreline in front of the visitor centre proving most attractive to those which do decide to settle. Don't dismiss these areas on spring and autumn mornings, even when there are lots of human visitors around, as surprisingly confiding Ringed & Little Ringed Plovers, Dunlin and Common Sandpiper are regular and Knot, Sanderling and Curlew Sandpiper are not unknown.
Back in the 1980s, Thrybergh held quite a large gull roost but over the years,
as landfill sites have closed, this has disappeared. Despite this, the rarest
gull species yet recorded in the SBSG area - Franklin's Gull - was found
by a lucky observer back in 1981, proving that there is still potential for
'something good' to turn up. Don?t forget to check through the often large
numbers of Black-headed Gulls which gather around the visitor centre to
glean scraps left by the many duck-feeding visitors - one of them may be a
Mediterranean Gull! Kittiwake is more or less annual in winter and
early spring and Little Gull, though an erratic visitor in recent years,
should also be looked for in spring and autumn, along with Black Tern.
The fields to the west, beyond Pond Field, hold breeding Little Owls whose yelping calls can often be heard early in the morning before the Park gets busy. Tawny Owl is regular, often captured on security CCTV footage around the visitor centre, and Barn Owls are probably more frequent visitors than formerly thought - why not try an evening visit?
It is amongst the passerines - farmland species in particular - that most changes have taken place over the years. Thrybergh was once a stronghold for Corn Bunting with up to 8 singing birds present on a walk around the reservoir, but this is now a thing very much of the past. A walk along the dam early on a spring morning might be rewarded with a Wheatear, Whinchat or a small party of Yellow Wagtails, though again, not in the numbers seen in the 80s. Both Turtle Dove and Cuckoo have declined alarmingly in recent years, in line with national trends, but small numbers are still recorded each spring. On the positive side however, with the provision of a well stocked feeding station and large numbers of nest boxes, the Tree Sparrow population has mushroomed and even the most casual birder can't fail to see good numers of this species at any time of year. The commoner finches and warblers are well represented and should be looked for in the mature hedgerows around the reservoir and in the birch plantations around the caravan park. In autumn, 'the willows' can be a good spot for warblers, which often feed high in the canopy on warm days when they can be checked with a scope from the opposite bank of the reservoir. The Willow Tit, another Thrybergh speciality, can often be seen by following up their distinctive buzzing calls or piercing, repeated 'see-oo, see-oo' song, particularly in the area of the gorse bank.
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Spring passage of Common and Arctic Terns can often be spectacular
if conditions are right, providing good opportunities to practice telling them
apart. Thrybergh is currently the only site in the SBSG recording area with a
regular breeding population of Common Terns, which took readily to the
nesting rafts provided for them. Look out for the first returning birds from
mid-April and enjoy them well into September, their alarm calls often the first
indication of 'something interesting' in the form of a passing raptor.