Holgate Birder: Ring necked duck

If I had written this blog in advance then the title would have been jacksnipe. My plan for today was to go to Old Moor and see one of the jack snipe that have been reported recently. I went to Broomhill Flash first. This was my first visit since they did a lot of work on the reserve, and what a difference it has made. On the island in front of the hide there were lapwing, snipe, teal, gadwall, mallard, shoveler and a very noisy jackdaw.

Not a good day for photographs due to poor light conditions.

After about an hour I left Broomhill and drove the short distance to Old Moor. I walked to the reed bed hide as that is where the jack snipe had been seen, and where Gerald had told me to look. I spent about an hour looking for snipe but no luck.

Little grebes were active in front of the hide

as were tufted duck and gadwall.

a marsh harrier was been chased by a carrion crow.

As I walked back towards the Kingfisher hide I met Gerald, so I walked back to the hide with him. He looked at the places where the jack snipe had been seen on previous days, but he could not find one, so I continued on my walk around the reserve.

Not much to report from the Kingfisher hide. What was the family hide has been changed to something else. From the right hand corner of the hide I saw a male pintail.

There were no new birds to be seen from the next hide so I walked on to the last one.

The sun was now shining which was a bonus. A male shoveler looked splendid as he preened

wigeon were grazing

meanwhile a grey heron was chasing a great white egret away.

I walked back down Green Lane

attractive autumn colours. Tree sparrow farm was my next stop, but only goldfinch and greenfinch

and a family of long tailed tits

I was going to go back and see Gerald in the Reedbed hide, but I met Steve who told me that he had left about 30 minutes ago. I went back to the car and checked my phone for bird news. A ring necked duck had been reported at Southfield Reservoir and as that was only about 40 minutes away and sort of on my way home, I decided to go.

I passed a birder who told me that the bird was easy to see near the large willow tree.

I scanned the area to the right of the tree and could not see the bird so I walked on a bit further and scanned the area to the left of the tree. No bird to be seen, so I walked back to my original spot. I had only just got my telescope and tripod sorted when another birder turned up, He found the bird in next to no time and was able to tell me where to look. His name was Steve and he had helped at Blacktoft several years ago, so a big thanks to Steve. This is the best picture that I could get of the bird.