Specie's Page                                               Yeadon Tarn - West Yorkshire

Yeadon Tarn & Park: Nine miles north west of Leeds City Centre, the lake itself is artificial, and has a surface area of about seventeen square hectares. Once starting out as a natural feature, the tarn was enlarged during the last century for anglers, it was then further improved for the sailing club. Since a model boat club was formed, and they have their own club house ans special jetties, from which to launch their model boats. Yeadon Tarn, sometimes known as Yeadon Dam, was drained during the second world war. This was to avoid reflections of the water on moonlit nights, so German bombers could not easily pinpoint the nearby Avro factory.

Funnily enough today was only about my fourth visit over the fourteen years that I have lived in Pudsey. This is probably due to the fact its not the best of places for butterflies, and I only recently started to take a more serious interest in water fowl.

At one end of the lake there is  bandstand, a children's play ground, and a sailing club, all in all, quite a busy area. It's this end where the multitudes of the water fowl hang out, waiting to be fed, Swans, Geese and Mallard will virtually feed from you hand. On my October 2022 visit we saw Mallards, Mute Swans, Canada Geese, Tufted Duck, Coots and many seagulls, mainly Black-headed Gulls. Although I have not walked right around the lake for some years, I remember it as being very scenic. At the entrance to this busy end of the lake, there are some very mature trees, including a very large Beech, which must be at least 250 years old.

Grey Squirrels here are well used to people being nearby, and the juveniles will run past you on the entrance wall, within a couple of feet. Being very close to Leeds/ Bradford airport, the passenger jets taking off, and suddenly roaring up above the tree line, can make you jump a bit. The tall embankment that you can see in the back ground, is the single, raised airport runway. All in all though it's a nice spot to be in, you will find many records on Ebird that I have made for this location. Since writing this piece, the tarn is one of my regular haunts, I can not remember how many dozen times I have been there in the last five months.