Wheldrake Ings

 My second visit of the year. Mid morning when I arrived and walked along the riverside path towards the hides. At one point there had been a fire and blackbirds and redwings were in the area looking for food. The path between the Pool hide and Swantail hide was blocked by a couple of trees blown over by the recent winds.

This is the view from Swantail hide. A mute swan was the closest bird, lots of others in the distance.

A pair of goldeneye came a little bit closer to the hide.

I walked back to the Pool hide, and joined another birder who told me where a female smew was. The bird was about half way along the pool.

To start with, the bird stayed close to the 15 goldeneye on the pool. However the male goldeneye started to display so the smew moved over to the tufted ducks.

The goldeneye continued to display

then a marsh harrier flew over and the birds flew away, so I left the hide and walked towards the Tower hide.

A kestrel was perched in a tree.

a group of whooper swans had landed in the distance and were having a bathe.

From the Tower hide I could see lots of birds

gulls, lapwings, golden plover, shoveler, teal, wigeon, mallard and pintails. Lots of shelducks were having a fly around

a common gull was sitting in the grass

I wondered if it was injured.

three deer were in the distance. Time to go home after a pleasant few hours and the smew was a new bird for my year list, a good start to the month.