National Centre for Birds of Prey (NCBP)

The NCBP is a centre located in Duncombe Park, Helmsley. I visited in early March, not knowing what to expect as I had seen it in passing and decided to take a look. When I drove there, I was immediately greeted by the expansive rolling grounds of Duncombe Park accompanied by some beautiful buildings. The drive up to the centre makes you feel as though you are in a fantasy book! There is a car park with plenty of space, and a shop that is also the reception to buy tickets (even this building was beautifully constructed!). Admission was £15, which I thought was a good price. It gets you access to the whole centre and allows you to watch a flight display too. The centre itself is great, very well laid out and easy to navigate, with a charming little café in the middle. It houses some brilliant birds, some notable ones for me are the Steller’s Sea Eagle, and the Andean Condor - the largest flying bird in the world!

The centre contains all the facilities you would need, a shop and cafe as mentioned, toilets, plenty of information boards for each bird species, and a stamp trail for younger visitors. I would highly highly reccomend this to anyone - interested in wildlife or not - to check out.

After walking round the whole centre to see every bird, I sat on one of the benches to watch the flying show, which was crazy! Without spoiling too much, you’ll want to sit there and watch their amazing birds fly all day! I loved the show the most and it is also a great opportunity for photographers like me :).

A majestic barn owl captured mid flight!

Staveley Nature Reserve

I came across Staveley nature reserve whilst browsing all the places around me that I could visit to do some wildlife photography. Despite going there on a quite windy and cloudy day, I still thought that the scenery was beautiful! I first arrived in the (free) carpark and walked to the start of the path. From the carpark, you walk through a small section of trees, where I saw deer and loads of birds. You then walk out onto the main reserve, where there are multiple directions you can choose to walk. On all of these paths, there are amazing views of the multiple ponds and lakes they have, as well as some really nice hides to watch and photograph birds from!

Two ducks flying over one of the lakes at Staveley.

I would highly recommend visiting here if you are close-by, it is a very friendly walk, not really any elevation change and plenty of little benches and observation points to sit and take a break from walking. The above picture was one of my favourites from this visit, as well as the one that will be below, however, I definitely plan to visit many more times as the weather improves! Staveley for me is a beautiful, well kept nature reserve that is completely free to visit and so I give it a 10/10 - definitely give it a visit if you can.

A small deer peeps at me through the bushes.

YWT Moorlands Nature Reserve

The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Moorlands Nature reserve is a charming little nature reserve. It may not be the biggest around, but it’s got plenty of different bird species and lots of squirrels. I’m not sure if the birds here have been fed before, but it seemed that lots of them (especially the Robins) were extremely friendly - one of them came within half a meter of me!

I visited here back in early January and despite the cold weather, the scenery was still beautiful as they have a lot of greenery year round. There were also still plenty of animals here to photograph despite it being winter. It was relatively quiet when I visited, with a few families walking around. It is only a short walk (a couple thousand steps) to go around the whole loop, which makes it perfect for families to visit and photographers like me.

The highlight of this visit for me was the little friendly robin who came right up to me. I was crouched down waiting for some squirrels and this small robin walked right up behind me, below is my favourite picture of the robin. I highly recommend visiting, though parking is limited - 8/10.

Studley Royal Deer park

Located at the very east of the Nidderdale National Landscape, Studley Royal Deer Park is a hidden gem, with entry being completely free and free parking available in the nearby village.

Me and my friend visited at the end of January this year, not expecting much having not visited before. However, we were pleasantly surprised, after walking for about 20 minutes we ran into a MASSIVE herd of deer. This not only felt very surreal to be so close to such big deer, but provided some spectacular photo opportunities of the Red, Sika, and Fallow deer.

Below is my favourite shot from this visit, I highly recommend visiting this spot - 9/10.

A tac sharp image of a big red deer - whose antlers could do with a wash!