Bitterns and Garganey at RSPB Blacktoft Sands.

 After a morning at the football club I went to RSPB Blacktoft Sands. It was just after 2 pm when I arrived in reception, John was on duty and after a short chat I went to 1st Hide to join Ian.

Ian was trying to digiscope a pair of Garganey, but they were constantly feeding and moving, but he did eventually get a good photo. I tried to capture the pair so that you could see the white spot near the bill on the female, again it took a lot of time and not a brilliant photo.

A pair of Gadwall were also on the water.

A Little egret was in the reedbed, sheltering from the cold wind.

The egret then moved in to the water to look for food, and we noticed that it had orange feet, not yellow.

We thought that it could have been standing in something and that it might wash off as it waded through the water. However as you can see it did not.

At least 7 snipe were feeding on the grass in front of the hide.

I then returned to reception hide to see Daz. He is going to Mull and I loaned him some books and maps.

Ian walked down to Townend hide and I joined him after talking to Daz and Mike.

This pair of mute swans were preening each other. Was this their egg?

After a short while we walked down to Singleton hide, just as we were about to enter the hide we heard a bittern booming. There were Greylag and Canada geese on the water, and a Barnacle goose was with the Canada geese.

Ian saw two Bitterns flying over the central reedbed, but by the time that I sorted out my camera the birds were a long way off.

While they were in the air we also heard a Bittern booming, so we think that there are at least 3 birds on the reserve. A marsh harrier came close.

Mike the residential volunteer then joined us. He had been in Reedling hide and had seen the Garganey.

A few wigeon then flew in. I thought that they would have been on their way to Russia by now.

We could hear Bittern booming and thought that they came from different parts of the reserve, so either 2 males or 1 male moving about.

I could still hear Bittern booming as i closed the main gate at 6 pm.

Swallow

 

Helping on a Bittern Experience Walk at RSPB Fairburn Ings this morning. We left the visitor centre shortly after 8 am and walked over the boardwalk, past the "Big Hole" and up to the lagoons. We had not been there very long before we heard a bittern booming. After a while we walked a little further and heard bittern booming again. During our 2 hour walk we heard a bittern booming at least 9 times, sadly we did not see one, however we guessed that there were at least 2 bitterns in the area.

This is the view looking down to the area where the cormorants, herons, egrets and spoonbills nest. We did not see a spoonbill but saw at least 7 cattle egrets, little egrets and a great white egret. As we were looking over the area sand martins flew over and then a single swallow, my first of the year.

We stopped at the lagoons again on our way back to the visitor centre and heard the bitterns booming again. Little and black-necked grebes were busily fishing on one of the lagoons. A green woodpecker was perched on the top of a silver birch tree, calling loudly.

Back at the visitor centre we were able to use Matthews binoculars to look at the partial eclipse of the sun.

Spoonbill and sand martins

 

The weather was not as pleasant as it may look in the above photo, I took this about 12 noon, in between rain showers.

The white dots in the photo are mute swans, 5 goldeneye at the far end of the water, teal and mallards sheltering  from the wind in the vegetation at the waters edge. The highland cattle were on the right of the water, but no sign of any egrets, a very quiet day.

Then another shower of rain and several sand martins were flying low over the water. Year tick 120.

A helicopter then flew over, and several birds emerged from the vegetation on my right.

A pair of shelduck and several wigeon. A spoonbill flew in to feed.

It fished for food for about 10 minutes before flying back to the nesting area. A pair of cattle egrets then flew towards me, and one landed near the cattle. A little egret also flew in and started to fish. Steve arrived and we had a chat for a while before I walked back towards the car park.

This grey heron was standing at the edge of the stream,just left of the footpath.

I had intended to drive home, however I had parked my car near the bird feeders and decided to stay a while to see which birds were visiting them. When i first arrived at the car park, Andrew the warden from St.Aidans was looking at the feeders to see if he could find any willow tits, sadly he could not.

There were lots of great tits, a single blue tit, 2 goldfinches, 2 dunnocks, several chaffinches and a robin around the feeders.

A male red bunting was a frequent visitor, then a treecreeper appeared.

Not a brilliant photo as it was taken through my car windscreen.

A party of long-tailed tits arrived

Then a great-spotted woodpecker

Two birds that I was unable to take pictures of were a jay and my first willow tit of the year.

A pleasant if somewhat chilly 3 hours.

NDC

 

Jobs for this morning included visiting various shops to use vouchers before their expiry date.

Just after noon when I arrived at NDC. No other visitors present. The vegetation is growing and water levels are dropping and notably a lot fewer birds than on my last visit. Still plenty of wigeon but only a handful of pintails. A few lapwing, 1 redshank and 13 curlews.

A marsh harrier and a buzzard had a skirmish near the church, before the harrier flew onto the reserve.

A carrion crow was having a bathe.

A cormorant was fishing in the scrape.

Chiffchaffs were singing from several bushes. A pleasant afternoon.

Museum Gardens and York Minster

 Our regular monthly walk around the Museum Gardens, showing people the birds. A couple of ladies from Hertfordshire joined us today. Just before we started the walk, 2 sparrowhawks were displaying over  the church.

In the bird feeding area, we could hear a robin singing and a blue tit was going in and out of one of the nest boxes. The wildflower garden was our next stop. The 27 different varieties were starting to grow.

Along one part of the old Abbey wall there is a large clump of holly. 2 long tailed tits were flying in and out, possibly looking for a suitable nesting site. In a nearby cherry tree a greenfinch was wheezing away, it was then joined by a male great tit which also started singing, and then a goldfinch appeared and joined the choir.

In the trees and bushes along the riverside a pair of dunnocks were looking for food under the bushes.

Siskins were singing from one of the mature trees until a magpie flew into the tree and the siskins left.

Around the orchard area 6 magpies were busily hopping about.

After the walk I made the short journey to the Minster.

I could hear peregrines calling but was unable to see the birds. Then one flew out from the top balcony, shortly followed by another, so fingers crossed for some young peregrines this year.

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.