NDC

 

It was nearly 3pm yesterday when I arrived at North Duffield Carrs, thanks to some road closures .

The female mute swan was on the nest and doing a little more nest building. On the scrape were 6 male tufted ducks and 2 females, and oddly enough 6 male teal and 2 females! A pair of mallard and gadwall were busily feeding.

A hare slowly passed in front of the hide.

On the river bank a red-legged partridge was calling non stop.

This was my view from the Garganey Hide.

The water level is slowly dropping, so there are fewer birds close to the hide. There are still a reasonable number of pintail and shoveler on the reserve, but the majority of the birds present are wigeon. They were grazing on the vegetation ,nearly into the field. After a while they returned to the water.

A pair of teal were dabbling at the waters edge

There were several shelduck at the far end of the reserve

No sign of any birds of prey.

Black-necked grebes at St. Aidans

 

Weatherwise not as nice as yesterday. After carrying out the H&S checks I had a walk around the reserve in the hazy sunshine.

The background sound was the noise made by the black-headed gulls, with the booming of bitterns as a musical interlude. Plenty of male reed buntings chasing about. I heard at least six cetti's warblers singing and even managed to see one, year tick 118.

A male pochard looked splendid in the sunshine.

At one point along the Western reedbed I came across at least 5 black-necked grebes. They were chasing each other about. The pictures are poor as I was looking into the light. Year tick 119.

4 Red kites at North Duffield Carrs

 

Plenty of spring sunshine on Thursday afternoon when I arrived at North Duffield Carrs.

The water level is slowly going down, but plenty of birds still on the reserve.

A flock of about 30 pink-footed geese were quite restless, having several fly arounds.

To the left of the Garganey hide were at least 3 grey herons, who were tolerating each other as long as they kept their distance from each other. One caught a frog and had trouble swallowing it.

 

A long-tailed tit was busily feeding next to the hide

Several male reed buntings

On my back to the Geoff Smith hide, a brown hare was in the field to my right.

I just managed to see it through the vegetation, before it ran off  Once inside the hide I saw 8 tufted ducks on the scrape, 6 males and 2 females. A pair of mallards were mating

4 red kites were circling above the scrape and one saw something on the ground to the right of the scrape and landed for about a second to collect it.

A pleasant couple of hours and 42 birds on my day list.

 

45212 "Black 5" steam engine.

 

A change of hobby this morning, back to birdwatching this afternoon.

RSPB Leighton Moss

 

The Lower Hide at RSPB Leighton Moss has been replaced with a new structure. RSPB York Local Group along with other local groups made a donation towards the cost. On Monday the 17th there was an official opening and I attended as a representative of the York group.

Before the event I had a walk around the reserve.

Lilian's Hide was my first stop.

Shovelers, snipe, teal, greylag and canada geese and a bittern booming from the reedbed.

The Skytower was next. These are the views from the top.

 

From the next two hides I was able to add pintail and grey heron to my day list. 

Still a few signs of winter with a single wigeon and pink footed goose.

At one point they have cut the reeds back and placed grit trays. These trays are popular with the bearded tits in autumn and winter and allow visitors a chance to see these elusive birds. I would like to see Blacktoft adopt the same system.

On my way to the causeway hide I stopped to look at the birds on the feeders.

Lots of activity and not a rat in sight!

On the way to the Causeway hide I noticed these Elf Cup

This is the new Lower Hide.

From the Causeway Hide I added more birds to my day list including Marsh Harrier and Goldeneye.

John Wilson who was warden at Leighton Moss for 35 years performed the opening ceremony, photos will appear on the reserve social media in the future.

From the hide we could see lots of mute swans, a little egret and a ring-necked duck.

A very pleasant event. On my way home i made a detour to Langdon Beck to see the black grouse.