Afternoon with shelducks.

 A couple of hours to spare so I went to Bank Island, near Wheldrake. The water level is lower than on my last visit. The wind was still blowing quite strongly and as I approached the hide I could hear a banging noise and thought that it was someone inside. When I opened the door and saw that the hide was empty, I realised that it was one of the roof panels that was the cause of the noise as the wind lifted it up at one corner and then it banged down. I opened one of the front windows but the wind blew straight in, so I opened the right hand side one. the above photo was my view.

Lapwing, teal, shoveler, wigeon, pintail and shelduck. Two mute swans were feeding in some vegetation on my left and a few black headed gulls were having a bathe in the water. The behaviour of the shelduck drew my attention.

In the centre of this picture are the nets that are used to catch the shelducks for ringing. Seed is put down in the area to tempt the shelducks near the nets. Some seed remains and the shelducks were warily going towards it.

suddenly they would fly back towardsthe water. I was a bit surprised to see pintails with them.

The noise that you can hear in this short video clip is the roof on the hide.

a pleasant wat end a month.

North Duffield Carrs and Blacktoft Sands.

A day of changing plans. North Duffiled was my first stop about 1030 am.

The water level is slowly going down and as a result the birds are a bit further away.

a buzzard kept flying over the water and this caused the waders to take to the air. Lots of lapwing, golden plover, dunlin , ruff and redshank. On the water were lots of wigeon, teal and pintail.

No birds on the water or near the scrape.

After sitting for a while I decided to go to Blacktoft Sands. Ousefleet ws my first stop where there was plenty of activity.

Not as much activity on Marshland and Xerox lagoons. A buzzard was causing a stir in front of First hide. It would fly from a bush to a fence post and then glide over the top of the reeds. This upset the marsh harriers who kept "buzzing " it. The sunshine had now gone and the strength ofthe wind had increased. Marsh harriers came into roost but not in large numbers.

North Duffield Carrs

 Usual taxi jobs on a Thursday morning and then out birding in the pleasant sunshine. North Duffield Carrs was my choice of venue with a slight detour. Whooper and Bewick swans had been reported in the area, so I went to have a look, as I had seen Bewick's swan this year.

The swans were too far away for my camera, but I hope that you get an idea as the numbers. Having seen the swans I then continued to NDC. Several cars in the car park, and everyone was in the far hide. I was however able to get my usual seat.

Lots of activity. especially when a buzzard, marsh harrier or peregrine flew over. Lapwing, ruff, dunlin, redshank, pintail, wigeon, mallard, gadwall, teal, shelduck, greylag geese, stonechat and starlings.

Then a man from the farm takes his dog for a walk

I have chopped his head off to protect him. As you can imagine the birds flew off to the furthest point on the reserve, and so the other birders left. I stayed until 4.45 in the hope that the swans feeding on the nearby fields might fly in to roost, or that a barn owl might appear, but no luck. However on the way back to the car I saw a red legged partridge, so tick number two for the day, to take my year total to 105.

Filey

 Shopping with granddaughter in Scarborough then a spot of birding.

Holbeck area of Scarborough to look at the gulls, black headed and mediterranean.

 A nother birder turned up and told me about the birds she had seen at Filey so the Country Park was my next stop. Lapland bunting and skylark had been seen in the Top Field, so I walked up to the area. The field is a very large one and I could not see any buntings or skylark, there was a peregrine sitting in the middle of the field.

I walked back towards Carr Naze and as I got close to the pond I saw a male stonechat sat on top of a fence post. I picked up my camera to take a picture when I noticed another bird sitting on the fence.

I walked to the end of the top footpath and looked over the Brigg. Shag, cormorant, guillemot and fulmar were all flying about. On my way back to the car, I noticed this kestrel peched on a bush.

This common gull was standing near my car.

I drove to Filey Dams, where I sat in a hide and watched the birds whilst eating my lunch. Moorhens and mallards were walking towards the bird table on the left hand side of the hide, so that they could eat some of the seeds that the sparrows were knocking off the table. Plenty of gulls were in the water having a bathe

A pair of shelducks were busy feeding

gadwall, teal, wigeon and tufted ducks were also on the water. As I walked to the last hide, I passed the area where they had cut down a lot of the willows. A snipe flew off and a water rail hid in the willows that were laying on the ground. A pleasant day with 3 more ticks for my year list.

 

Railway Pond.

 Afternoon stroll to the railway pond.

Very quiet on the walk there. I often see blackbirds and song thrushes here as they look for food in the leaf litter, but not a bird today.

Pumping oxygen into the lake.

A mallard and a coot came to see if I had any food.

Black headed gulls standing on the ice and woodpigeons on the far side of the lake was the total  of birds for today.

Blacktoft Sands

 My first visit of the year to Blacktoft. Just after 10am when I arrived and I was only the third visitor of the day. As I walked towards Marshland hide I met Stu who was on duty. After a short chat he continued with his survey work and I went to Marshland hide. The lagoon was iced over with a few snipe on two of the little islands along with 2 lapwings.

Ousefleet was my next stop and apart from a few goldfinches feeding in the tree tops near the hide, the area was a bird free zone. I walked back onto the main part of the reserve and went into Xerox hide. The lagoon was frozen over like the other lagoons and therefore no birds to be seen.

Stuart and I then met and walked just outside the reserve and we used my telescope to look at a small group of swans that were feeding a couple of fields away. They were a mixture of mute and whooper swans.

Stuart then went to fill up the bird feeders while I went to First hide and had lunch. After lunch I went to Townend hide and as the water was frozen I went to Singleton hide and stayed there until dusk. Stuart asked me to monitor the harrier roost, but very few harriers came into roost. A male marsh harrier was sitting in a bush and as I was watching it I noticed a small bird fly past the bush. I watched it through my binoculars and saw it was a merlin, I then noticed two birds in another bush and looking through my telescope I was able to see that they were song thrushes.     They were my 3rd tick of the day and brought my year total to 100.

Just as I was about to leave I noticed something in the distance. It was a starling murmuration. Too far away to get any decent pictures, but I hope that you get an idea from these. I think that the main murmuration was near Alkborough.

Askham Bog

 My first visit of this year. More good winter sunshine.I took some bird seed with me and placed some  on several fence posts. It was only a matter of seconds until birds came to feed.

then a grey squirrel came along and all the birds flew off.

I walked a bit further along the boardwalk and saw goldfinches and siskins feeding in the trees.

a kestrel was on the lookout for a meal

I continued walking and had almost reached the entrance when I saw a treecreeper, tick 96 for the year. I tried taking a photo, but the bird moved very quickly and there always seemed to be a twig in the way.

A small flock of redwings flew into some trees as I approached the part of the wood where they had been searching for food in the leaf litter.

A pleasant two hours.

North Cave Wetlands and North Duffield Carrs.

 

Another sunny day, but still lots of ice on the surface of the water on the lakes at North Cave. I started at Crosslands Hide

lots of birds. Wigeon, teal gadwall, mallard, with a few redshank and a black tailed godwit. I then walked along the western edge path, where several siskins were busy feeding. No birds in the first part of the northern hedge, probably due to the fact that the farmer was working in the next field putting up new fence posts. Not a single bird on reedbake lake. A pair of long tailed tits were working their way along the hedge, looking for food. I stood still in the hope that they would get closer for a photo, but they flew straight past me. A female blackbird was feeding on the ivy.

Goldfinch, greenfinch, chaffinch, blue tit, great tit and tree sparrows on the Maize field feeders. The birds would fly to the feeders, quickly get some seed and then fly back to the bushes. The feeders would swing about as the birds landed so I did not try for any photos.

Lapwings and a single redshanks were the only birds on Island lake. From East hide there were more birds to be seen.

In the reed bed below the Turret hide was a bittern.

It was very difficult to see and I doubt that I would have seen it had a chap told me where to look.

I was waiting to see if it would come out of the reeds, but a lady came and sat down next to me so I left!

I walk back towards my car and called in at South Hide. Most of the water was covered in ice, mallard, gadwall, little grebes were on one stretch of open water.

I was concerned about this mallard in the centre of the water, was it stuck in the ice?

Just past the next set of feeders siskin were feeding. I tried to get some photos of the birds in the sun and without twigs in front of them, not easy.

The reserve was now getting busy, so I drove to North Duffield Carrs.

Plenty of water and a good variety of ducks, some teal were feeding in front of the hide.

Lots of wigeon, teal, mallard, pintail and wigeon. Lapwings, redshank, dunlin and ruff. Then a marsh harrier flew over.

Everything then had a fly round until the bird flew away. The light started to fade about 3.30 so I headed for home. Another pleasant day with 3 ticks to take my year total to 95.