No auks!!

 After yesterdays post about hirundine, I did not have to worry about spending time watching them today.

I saw one swallow fly very low over the scrape at North Duffield.

The weather was not very pleasant, nice sunshine, but bitterly cold in the wind.

The weather was more suitable for birds in a cold climate such as auks, rather than visitors from Africa.

The resident chiffchaff sang once during my visit, and that was from the middle of a bush.

On the scrape were 2 mute swans.

both were ringed, but I could not see the number on the ring on the other swan.

There were 2 greylag geese until the mute swans chased them away. A little egret stayed for a while as did a pair of shelduck. The little ringed plovers were present and a pair of teal and mallard were sheltering close to one of the islands. A redshank paid a short visit.

On the main part of the reserve, the birds were near the farm, sheltering from the wind.

A brown hare did several laps of the scrape and then two of them chased each other around in the field on the left.

I left after a couple of hours.