LDV and North Cave Wetlands.

 I ventured out on Sunday afternoon when the wind had dropped a little. The water at Bank Island was frozen with just a few black headed gulls on it. I drove further down the valley to North Duffield Carrs.

The river level was high and part of Bubwith Ings had water on it, but there was no fresh water on NDC.

this was the view from Garganey hide. 

still signs of snow from the storm

Not a bird on the scrape and one or two ducks on the river . I did not stay long.

Today I went back to Bank Island. A lot more water, which had flooded part of the path to the hide, and guess who had left his wellingtons at home!

From the viewing platform I could see shelduck and black headed gulls.

I again drove down the valley to North Duffield Carrs.

This was the view from Garganey hide. Nice sunshine. In the distance I could see whooper swans.

they were too far away for a decent photo. A marsh harrier was hunting over the grassland and a few carrion crows were mobbing it. I decided to stay for an hour and just as I was about to leave the hide it started to rain very heavily. It rained for the best part of 30 minutes and the sunshine had gone due to the cloud. I decided to go to North Cave Wetlands.

This was the view from South Hide. Most of the ducks were sheltering under the trees on the left hand side of the lagoon.  Another birder came into the hide and he said that he had walked around the reserve and had not seen many birds, in fact the biggest variety and number were on this lagoon.

I drove up to Crossland Hide where I joined another man in the hide. It was his first visit to the reserve but he had no binoculars. I told him what was about, which was mainly teal and wigeon, then I let him look through my scope at a male green woodpecker.

Sadly the bird did not come very close to the hide before it flew off. It certainly brightened up an other wise dull day both weather and bird wise, and it was my 194th bird of the year.

The weather had improved by then so I decided to walk around the rest of the reserve. Hardly any birds to be seen at all. I presumed that they had all taken shelter from the storm and were staying there.

This was the view from the North hide and a few shovelers were busy feeding. The feeders next to the maize field have been filled and goldfinches, blue tits, chaffinches and tree sparrows were busy feeding.

The light was too poor for any photos as the clouds had returned and I just got back to my car as the rain started again. On my way to the reserve I had noticed a lot of black in a field. I stopped and looked through my binoculars and saw that it was a lot of starlings. I went back home down the same road and the number of birds had doubled. They took to the air and then settled on some power lines. I wonder where they go on an evening, perhaps to North Cave as they are only about a mile away. I will have to investigate.