Birding on a dreich day.

 The rain started earlier this morning than I expected. After completing a few jobs I decided to go to North Cave Wetlands as I can walk from my car to a couple of hides very quickly, thus avoiding the weather.

This is the view through one of the windows in Crosslands hide. The wind was blowing the rain towards the windows, and as most of the birds were in front of the windows, I decided not to stay long in the hide.

By opening the window and then sitting a few feet away from the open window I could watch the teal and wigeon feeding without getting wet. This swan family was swimming across the lagoon.

I then went to the South hide, where viewing conditions were better.

Lots of ducks on the water, mostly shoveler, pochard and mallard with a few tufted ducks.

A couple of cormorants landed near the shovelers

This disturbed the shovelers and some swam closer to the hide. A lot of the birds were swimming in pairs and were circling as they looked for food in the shallow water.

5 goosander were on the far side of the lagoon.

The rain eased slightly so I walked to the East hide,

There were lots of greylag geese

I spent ages looking through my scope at each bird. A "russian" white front had been seen recently, but I was unable to find it.

I decided to brave the weather and walk to the turret hide. Like Crossland hide the wind was blowing the rain in through the windows on the left hand side of the hide, so my viewing was restricted to the birds I could see on the right hand side. Plenty of teal, with a few snipe and redshank feeding.

The rain stopped for a while so I walked back to my car and decided to call in at North Duffield Carrs.

The water level in the redesigned scrape is slowly increasing. It will be interesting to see what it attracts over the winter.

There is a small amount of water near the other hide, and not far away from it were some swans.

There were about 20 swans, about half of which were whoopers. It is nice to see them back again.

The rain stopped and the light improved.

a kestrel was perched in the top of a bush at the far end of the scrape.

During my visit I also saw a marsh harrier and a buzzard. With all the rain forecast for the rest of the week, the water levels in the area may rise and make birding in the area more rewarding.