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?

"Sunshine"

 

I spent this morning helping in the visitor centre at RSPB Blacktoft Sands. Lovely to see some sunshine and lots of visitors were taking the chance to visit the reserve. A lot of their comments reminded me of the words in the song "Sunshine on my shoulder" by John Denver.

By mid-morning the car parks were full as visitors enjoyed either walking around the reserve or sitting in the hides looking at the birds. Several visitors came to see the large flock of lapwings on the reserve and they were not dissapointed. The marsh harriers were very active, at one point there were 5 in the sky outside the visitor centre. They kept disturbing the lapwings and as they took to the air you could see dunlin flying with them.

The sunshine seems to have woken up the tree sparrows who were chirping from several bushes. A skein of pink-footed geese flew over the reserve, a reminder that winter is still here.

Chiffchaff

 

This was my view over the "Big Hole" at RSPB Fairburn Ings this morning. I had a meeting at 1pm so I arrived early and did some birdwatching. I started at the Pickup hide, from where I heard a green woodpecker calling. It sounded close so I  walked around looking for it and got as far as this. No luck in seeing the bird despite it calling frequently.

Back at the Pickup hide, dunnocks were displaying to each other, 2 males and 1 female.

lots of wing and tail feather flicking. A single goldfinch came to the feeders.

A party of long-tailed tits paid a visit,

Mrs Chaffinch just sat and watched

Lots of seeds were falling onto the floor and this short-tailed vole was eating some.

Time for my meeting. After the meeting I drove down to the Lin Dike end of the reserve and had just sat down in the hide when it started to rain very heavily. Black-headed gulls on the tern posts and a lesser black-backed gull.

A gret white egrewt flew in

a male goldeneye was fishing

The rain stopped and the sun began to shine.

I decided to walk back to my car before the heavy shower of rain arrived. On my way along the path I noticed some movement in the trees on my left.

2 chiffchaffs were flitting about in the trees catching insects, my first warblers of the year. I just got back to my car when it started to rain. As I was sorting myself out I noticed a bird on the nearby feeder.

A female great spotted woodpecker. A very pleasant way to end my day.

RSPB Blacktoft Sands

 Cloudy and cold day for my 3rd visit of the year to Blacktoft. A good number of vehicles in the car patk, so I was surprised to find marshland hide empty. Lots of coots, a few tufted ducks and 2 female goldeneye.

 3 pochard were busy diving for food before they swam to a small island to preen, it is not often that I see a pochard out of the water.

On one of the islands in front of Reedling hide were these snipe.

A grey heron landed in front of Singleton hide.

Several marsh harriers were "hanging" about in the wind.

I returned to marshland before I left the reserve and saw this black-tailed godwit on an island.

Here we go again

 

A sunny but cold afternoon at North Duffield Carrs. As I got closer to the Geoff Smith hide I could hear the sound of running water, even above the noise of the passing traffic. The video above shows the source of the noise, water from the river just pouring onto the reserve, aand it was pouring in a bit further along.

So, here we go again with Garganey Hide slowly filling with water.

I met Pete on the way back to the Geoff Smith hide, he was going to have a look at the lower hide.

I joined another birder in the hide and we chatted about the amount of water and how the birds are spread about over a wide area. Pete came back from his walk and joined us. Not a lot of land is visible and is providing some refuge for birds.

A curlew was on the river bank as were some wigeon.

A tufted duck, teal and a little grebe were on ther scrape.

A marsh harrier was patrolling the river banks, disturbing the lapwings and curlews. Then suddenly

in the distance a large flock of birds appeared.

Hundreds probably thousands of geese appeared. They were a mixture of greylag, canada, pink-feet and white-fronted geese. They circled for a while before several hundred settled on the water at the far end of the reserve. Others flew off in an easterly direction. I remained in the hide for about an hour and lots of geese were still on the water at the far end of the reserve.