Teal for tea!

 As I write this blog I am now on plan d! Plan b was to go to North Duffield Carrs, but as the car park was full, I decided to carry on driving and go to North Cave.

I drove down to the Crossland hide and sat down next to Dave. We had a pleasant chat before he decided to walk down to the new workings. At least a dozen mute swans on the lagoon

then suddenly they took off

this swan took a long time to get airborne, I thought that it might run out of water

but at last it made it. 2 buzzards were interacting

2 rooks were enjoying a ride as the wind blew the tree branches

Dave came back from his walk and reported that there were not many birds on the new workings, We chatted as he ate his lunch and enjoyed watching the 30 plus redshanks on one of the islands. I decided to head for home via North Duffield and Bank Island. Road works in Holme upon Spalding Moor held me up for about 10 minutes. I was pleased to see only 2 cars in the car park at NDC. As I was getting my gear together, a chap walked into the car park and told me that the bottom hide was flooded. I thanked him for the information and walked to the Geoff Smith Hide, to find that it was empty.

Then another birder arrived, and shortly afterwards we were joined by John. John had been down to the screen and to Bubwith Bridge, looking for an American wigeon. Sadly he was unable to locate it. John did not stay long as he went to explore other parts of the valley.

I think that the water level had risen slightly since my last visit, which left even less room for the birds. Lapwings, curlews, dunlin, snipe, teal and wigeon were trying to escape the water and find some dry land to stand on. Suddenly they all took to the air, and after much searching I located a marsh harrier. After flying over the small bits of vegetation protruding from the water on the reserve, the harrier flew over the river and about half way across, it caught a teal in its talons. It landed on the far bank of the river with its catch.

Not a brilliant picture due to the distance and the light conditions. As I was watching the battle between the marsh harrier and the 2 carrion crows this happened

Several thousand starlings flew across the reserve and over the hide. I could hear the sound that their wings made and then the noise as their droppings hit the roof of the hide! No murmuration, but loads of starlings.

I returned to watching the marsh harrier

a grey heron had joined the group and the marsh harrier was having a tussle to hold on to the teal. The crows kept pecking at him, so eventually he moved away and they started to peck at the teal. Then they had to give way to the grey heron as it used its big bill to get part of the teal. 

I then left, only to find that the direct road to Thorganby etc had been closed. If I had followed the diversion it would have been too dark to birdwatch, so I drove straight home.