3 outings and 3 ticks

 The weather continues to be on the cold side, which is possibly a reason that summer migrants are hard to find. My first attempt this week was on Monday when I spent the afternoon at North Duffield Carrs.

 It was fine but the wind was blowing into the hide. A birder told me that he had seen a drake garganey about 10 minutes before I arrived. It had flown and landed in a ditch and it did not show again during my stay. However a black swan was present, so tick number 1.

The blossom looks good but according to my late uncle from Dorset it is a blackthorn winter.

Thursday I went to Blacktoft. Not expecting to get any new birds for my year list, but you never know with birding! A cold day with lots of heavy showers.

I joined Karl, Ian and Sue in Ousefleet hide. The water level is slowly going down. we need a high tide to top up the water level. Not many birds in front of the hide. A single redshank, a few shoveler, lots of teal and a few shelduck.

Marshland lagoon is where the avocets are, so there is always noise and activity.

the two avocets were starting to excavate a nesting site, while black headed gulls were mating

dunlin and black tailed godwits were on one of the distant islands

time to close the windows

Townend lagoon has been the place to be if you want to see bitterns, with regular reports of at least two birds flying around. A grey lag and a pair of gadwall were preening close to the waters edge

snipe were feeding on the grass

others were sheltering near the reeds

a little egret was quite active, feeding in the lagoon, standing on the grass or flying into the ditch to look for food.

the marsh harriers were still active and I often saw at least 7 birds in the air at the same time.

Friday, today I had a dental appointment at 1330. I had seen a couple of tweets from Chris Heppell about birds at the Park and Ride at Poppleton. Ring Ouzel and little ringed plover had been seen and I needed both for my year list. While I was in the dentist I got a text from Chris Downes to say that he was watching the ring ouzel. After my dental appointment I called in home for my bins and scope and drove to the site. I was there on my own but soon there were 7 of us, looking for the birds. I saw a mallard, shelduck, pied wagtail, grey heron, several woodpigeons and 2 carrion crows. Then a birder shouted that he had seen the ring ouzel hop out from the vegetation near a hedge. We all managed to see it. I had not taken my camera, so this is a very poor digiscope effort.

tick number 2

while we were watching the ring ouzel another birder shouted that he had found the little ringed plover, which we all managed to locate, tick number 3 for the week, bringing my year total to 135. In a months time I will be on Mull, lets hope the weather improves. The gritting lorry has just been past our house!