Happy families at North Duffield Carrs

 

The above was my view from the Geoff Smith hide at 6am this morning. I could not see any birds on the visible water on the scrape. A water rail however was calling all the time I was there.

Plenty of insect life in front of the hide.

A male deer was enjoying his breakfast.

A female marsh harrier was hunting over the far end of the reserve and several snipe were doing their acrobatic air display. In front of the hide lots of activity as sedge warblers, whitethroats, blackcaps, dunnocks, robin and great tits were catching food for their young.

When I left at 8.30am I had a list of 26 birds.

Brown duck season

 Spent a couple of hours at Blacktoft today as I had to collect some equipmment for our stall at West Bank park on Sunday.

Lots of ducks on the reserve, and a lot of the males are starting to loose their breeding plumage, so identification gets a bit difficult.

Mrs Pochard and her young on an island in front of Marshland hide.

A sleepy curlew and lapwings

High tide

one of several ships going to Goole.

A very poor shot of the female marsh harrier feeding her 3 young.

I was not quick enough to capture a bittern flying past.

Spoonbill walk on Wednesday.

Spoonbills.

 Spoonbill walk season has started at RSPB Fairburn Ings. I had the pleasure of meeting a lady from Manchester today. We managed to see several spoonbills, some in the trees on their nests and others feeding under some trees. I hope that the next 14 are as pleasant.

Nightjar and woodcock

 Stainburn Forest at 10pm last night.

Woodcock were out roding first then nightjars started churring and then saw them in flight.

A pleasant evening despite the midges!

Garden warbler

 

Monthly walk in the Museum gardens, York, this morning.

The top picture shows the churchyard where we saw 2 goldcrests in the fir trees.

The bottom picture is the wild flower area and near here we saw a young garden warbler feeding.

Cattle egret, great crested grebe and kingfisher

 Stu amd I had a few hours at RSPB Fairburn Ings. We started at the Pickup hide where we had blackcap, great spotted woodpecker, cormorant etc before we drove down to the Lin Dike end of the reserve.

As you can see by the photo the highland cattle were near the hide. Common terns were fishing and then resting on the posts.

 A pair of avocets also came in front of the hide to feed. One was wearing a leg ring and a flag.

7A is part of a project by East Dales ringing group.

A cattle egret appeared with the cattle.

More cattle egrets flew in

We reurned to the visitor centre and walked to the hides along the Riverbank Trail. From the hides we watched the gulls on the islands but could not see any mediterranean gulls. A cormorant was drying out after fishing.

A great crested grebe had caught a large fish. Poor photo due to the distance.

The fish was so large the grebe was unable to swallow it. After a few minutes the bird released the fish, however another grebe caught it. It too could not swallow the fish and released it after a few attempts. The first grebe got hold of the fish and attempted to swallow it again without success, so let it go. The pair of them took it in turns to try to eat the fish without any success and eventually gave up. 

We returned to the visitor centre and saw this kingfisher at the new pond.

A very pleasant day.
 

RSPB Blacktoft Sands

 A very busy day in reception at Blacktoft today.

A barn owl was perched outside its box this morning

Spoonbill in front of Townend Hide.

Most visitors saw at least 1 bittern today, this was my best shot

Not a common bird at the reserve, a collared dove!

To the right of Marshland Hide was a popular fishing spot.

I could not read the code on the leg of this great white egret.