A late start today, so it was 11pm when I arrived at the car park at Bubwith Bridge. Whooper swans were surprisingly close, as were wigeon and pintail. On a spit of land there were lots of golden plover, lapwings and curlews. Straight in front were lots of teal, several redshank and a few ruff, some of which had a white collar, my 129th tick of the year. Also in front I could see Alan Whitehead and another birder, who were viewing from the Dingle Dell side of the Ings. After an hour of scanning the area, I was unable to locate an American wigeon.
I drove the short distance to North Duffield Carrs and was surprised to find that I was only person there.
Lots of water and most of the birds were a fair distance away. A couple of birders from Knaresboro joined me in the hide. They were following a route written by John Lawton, which covers the various birdwatching sites around the Lower Derwent Valley. After about half and hour they left to go to Thorganby and a few minutes later Alan Whitehead (Duffbirder meets South Holderness) joined me.
We spent the next couple of hours watching the birds on the reserve and chatting. Alan left to go home and I decided to go for a walk as I had been sitting for over 2 hours.
The Garganey hide is about half submerged, so I walked along the path towards it. As I left the Geoff Smith hide I saw a treecreeper on the trees on my left. It was so close I could have touched it.
I managed to get a photo as it moved a bit further away from me. After it flew off I walked a little further down the path. In one of the trees a flock of linnet were perched, my second year tick of the day.
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