RSPB Fairburn Ings.

 

Birding before and after safety checks today. My first session was at the Pickup hide, where the cold wind was blowing straight through the windows! The bird feedes were empty so not many visitors. 18 birds on my list before I started the checks.

After the checks at St. Aidans I returned to the Lin Dike end of Fairburn.

The wind was still as strong but the trees and bushes along the footpath were providing some shelter.

A pair of wagtails were looking for food along the muddy edge.

Lots of black-headed gulls, a few pairs of goldeneye and 4 sand martins were part of my list of 33 birds.

Lots of activity at the feeders in the car park.

Nosterfield tomorrow.

Lower Derwent Valley

 Wednesday March 11th.

I started at North Duffield carrs at 12 noon. On my way to the Geoff Smith hide I met Elaine. After a brief chat I went into the hide and said hello to Alan (duffbirder@blogspot.com) and Haydn. I then walked down to the garganey hide and joined Graham.

Lots of pintail still on site. They were resting to the left of the hide with wigeon, teal, mallard and greylag geese. In the far distance a flock of about 1000 black-taile godwits were by the waters edge. Graham left and 2 otheer birders came into the hide for a short while.

2 oystercatchers landed on an exposed strip of land.

I left the hide shortly after them and called in at the Geoff Smith hide and had a chat with Alan, who is hoping to go to Cyprus soon.

I called in at Thorganby viewing platform on my way home.

Not as much water as on my last visit, but still lots of whooper swans about.

5 tick day

 My day out with Stu  doing a recky for his forthcoming trip was rewarded with 5 year ticks.

Our first stop was Thornton-le-dale. We had just crossed the road and Stu looked up stream and saw a dipper on the left hand side. By the time that I had picked my bins up, the bird was flying rowards us, followed shortly by another. We crossed the road and walked a bit further upstream past a thatched cottage and saw a third dipper. Year tick number 1.

We then drove to Pickering and followed the route that Stu is going to take on his nature tour.

At least 5 mistle thrushes, several dunnocks and chaffinches and then year tick number 2 red-legged partridge. Up onto the moorland now where Stu spotted a red grouse, year tick number3. No suitable place to stop so we continued until we reached Goathland. After a short break we drove to Fen Bog.

We walked down the path until we came to a part that was flooded and returned to the car. This will be the last place on the visit for Stu and his party. We decided to head for Scaling Dam. 

Stu had not been here before so we visited the hide and joined 6 other birders. Nothing special to see and viewing was made difficult as we were looking into the sun. Lockwood Beck was next and there we watched locals carrying out a bird ringing session. Goldfich, greenfich, chaffinch, siskin and great tits had flown into the net and were then handled by the ringers. We went and sat watching the bird feeders.

We walked to the edge of the reservoir and Stu spotted a grey wagtail, year tick number 4.

From Lockwood Beck we drove to Kildale where we spotted year tick number 5, a meadow pipit.

Lots of grouse on the moor.

A pleasant day with excellent company.

Sand martins at RSPB Fairburn Ings

 

Spent some time ar RSPB Fairburn Ings after completing the weekly H&S checks. This view is from the viewing platform along the main road, looking across to the riverside trail. Lots of pochard, goldeneye, tufted duck, displaying great crested grebe and several sand martins, my first of this year.

This grey heron was in front of the Pickup hide and had just caught a frog. This female chaffich has some kind of disease on her feet.

North Yorkshire Moors with Stu tomorrow.

Lower Derwent Valley.

 After a hectic day at the football club yesterday, time for some relaxing bird watching not far from home. Thorganby Ings viewing platform was my first venue. A mother and son from Selby had been looking for the 2 bewick swans that had been reported yesterday. They had seen swans in the distance but could not identify any as bewicks through their binoculars. I had my scope with me and they looked at the swans in the distance but even through the scope it was not possible to identify any swans other than whoopers.

They left to go to North Duffield and I stayed a while scanning the birds on the flood water but was unable to see anything different.

We met again in the car park at North Duffield. They told me that there were not many birds to be seen.

I walked to the Geoff Smith hide and looked out over the water.

There is still a lot of water on the reserve and the garganey hide still has water in it.

looking through my scope I could see greylag and canada geese in the field behind the hide and 2 egyptian geese to the right.

A chiffchaff was busy hunting food to the left of the hide. It flew from branch to branch and did not settle long. I managed a few shots.

It has some king of growth on its beak!

Cormorants and wigeon were on the river bank.

A wren was singing from the top of some brambles.

Mr & Mrs mallard were hiding in the vegetation

while a great crested grebe dived for food

Male goldeneye were displaying to females.

A small party of whooper swans were on Bubwith Ings.

Two little grebes were fishing

I think that this one caught a newt!

A pleasant afternoon with a list of 34 birds.

6 birds of prey at RSPB Fairburn Ings.

 

A distant shot of some of the grey herons nesting at Fairburn. I was involved with a heron Experience walk on Friday and Saturday. 29 people from different parts of the country joined the walks to get a closer view of the grey herons and cormorants nesting on the reserve.

Great white egret and cattle egret were also seen by the visitors and today we had 6 birds of prey.

A pair of displaying buzzards were attacked by a sparrowhawk, then we saw several red kites circling over the reserve. A kestrel flew past several times and then a female marsh harrier and finally a peregrine.

Luckily we managed to avoid the rain.

Signs of spring

 

Wednesday afternoon was spent taking my daughters dog for a walk. A little cooler and more cloud cover than previous days, but plenty of birdsong.

In between meetings and H&S checks I managed a spot of birding from the Pickup hide at Fairburn today. The wind was blowing in through the windows and blowing the feeders about. Lots of the usual birds about.

Signs of spring in the vegetation.

Heron experience walk tomorrow, will I see my first spoonbill of the year?