1st day of summer birding.

 A thin coating of ice on the car windscreen this morning was my welcome to summer! There was no wind and it felt cold. I decided to stay local and go to Wheldrake Ings.

The walk along the path was easier than I had expected after the recent flood. The path is more substantial so no slipping and sliding about in the mud! This is the view from the first hide.

As you can see, there is plenty of water and the birds are mostly on the far side.

I used to spend a lot of time at Wheldrake in the early 1970's and this pump was used to top up the water level in front of the pool hide.

No need to pump water from the river at the moment as there is water everywhere. A young mute swan made a splash landing

 A few goldeneye were on the pool, but did not come very close to the hide.

I walked round to the last hide. This is the most sunshine that I saw today.

Looking out from the hide you can see more water

a lot of water and the birds are a fair distance away. A pair of mute swans were feeding just in front of the hide.

Gadwall soon started to follow the swans.

I have noticed before that ducks often stay close to swans when they are feeding. I am not sue if they are doing it for safety, as few predators will attack a swan, or are they close to the swans because the swans feed deeper than the ducks and disturb food.

On my way back to bridge over the river I noticed this kestrel sat on a branch. The branch was over the path so I had no option but to get closer to the bird, but I did not want to disturb its hunting on such a cold day. It let me get very close before it flew off.

I called in at Bank Island on my way back to the car.

This the view from the right hand side of the hide. Teal were coming from the water onto the grass to feed, and then flying back to water when disturbed. A jay was on the grass but started to fly as I pressed the button on my camera.

If you try very hard you might just about be able to see it. Redwing were also feeding on the grass but flew awy each the teal took off. Blackbirds were not as easily put off looking for food.

A pleasant enough day.