Bittern and spoonbill at Blacktoft

 

Back on duty at Blacktoft on Saturday. The weather was good when I arrived

This was the view from Ousefleet hide, with the konic ponies close by, Avocets, shelduck, shoveler, wigeon, gadwall, pochard, mallard, teal and tufted duck  were all on the water and I could hear skylark,

Bitterns were booming from at least 3 locations, and later on I saw one fly past reception hide as it flew from Singleton towards Marshland. Some visitors managed to get a photo and they also had some excellent views of a spoonbill as it fed in front of Singleton hide.

Marsh harriers were busy. The male in the photo at the top of the blog was taking nesting material to his mate at the start of the day. I am a little concerned in case the last flood washed out any of their nests. 

Sedge and reed warbler were singing, but they remained hidden in the reedbed. House martins, sand martins and swallows were hunting insects just above the water in front of Marshland hide, If only the sun was still shining.

A grey heron kept returning to the same place in front of reception

It never stayed long. A single great crested grebe was on Singleton lagoon, it is a long time since we had a pair breed in that area,

Farndale

 

On Wednesday afternoon I drove to Farndale where I was talking to the local YCA group.

I arrived in plenty of time, so went for a walk along the trail that thousands of people have walked in the past to see the daffodils. Most of the daffodils have now stopped flowering, one or two remain

 

Bluebells are now in flower

along with primroses

windflowers

marsh marigolds

the wild garlic is also starting to flower and there were lots of violets and the trees had blossom,

As I started my walk I was pleasantly surprised to see a barn owl out hunting

it flew around a field for a while before landing

As I walked along the side of the river

I surprised a grey heron which was in the river looking for its supper, Further along I came to this field

pheasants, red legged partridge, mistle thrush and this song thrush were busy feeding

I did not walk any further as it was nearly time for my talk. On my return journey this chaffinch flew into a field

As I was taking this picture of a bracket fungus

I noticed a movement in the tree and saw this treecreeper

Back in the car park I could hear this siskin singing.

A pleasant walk on a sunny spring evening

Garganey at Bank Island

 After another busy morning at football it was 2:45 when I entered the first hide at Bank Island. The above picture is the view I hide. I presume that a barn owl had been roosting inside the hide

droppings were over the floor, bench and door handle!

On the scrape were greylag geese

mallard, gadwall, mute swan

this swan had a ring on its right leg, this is as much detail as I could get.

This is one of two male shovelers

I then walked to the second hide where I joined TerryWeston, Terry told me that the garganey had flown off about 30 minutes before I arrived, however the black necked grebe was still present.

It was a long way from the hide, this is a heavily cropped version

A couple joined us in the hide and shortly afterwards Terry left. The couple then left as they were going to walk on to Wheldrake Ings. I watched a pair of buzzards as they flew back and forth, calling as they went from tree to tree. Then I saw a small light coloured duck fly across the water, it was the male garganey. It flew left, so I returned to the 1st hide I visited to see if it had returned.

There was no sign of it, a curlew flew in

and started to bathe

shortly after a second curlew landed

this one started to bathe. A pair of oystercatchers then landed

a second male shoveler appeared and after being chased by the other male they both landed next to each other and started head bobbing

"Big Bill" then arrived

All of the birds then looked to where it was as they al realised it would eat eggs or young.

I then returned to the 2nd hide for a last look for the male garganey but I could not see it.

Barnacle goose at NDC

 

The view from the Geoff Smith hide in between squally showers, when Stuart and I had to close the windows to stop the rain blowing in.

We saw a barnacle goose feeding near the Garganey hide, I could see that it had a white ring on its right leg. I was going to go down to the other hide to try to read the ring, but the weather changed my mind.

This is the 75th different bird that I have seen on the reserve this year and my 113th since I started keeping records.

Alan Whitehead joined us in the hide and as he located the barnacle goose it flew across to the other side of the reserve.

Little grebes are nesting in front of the hide

A little further out a pair of coots are also nesting.

The mute swans seem to have settled on their nest site, to the left of the scrape. A nice group of 6 drake pochard were on the scrape with some tufted ducks.

Still one or two pairs of pintail on the reserve along with wigeon, shoveler, little egrets and grey herons.

More summer visitors at Blacktoft

 Pleasant sunshine which gradually gave way to cloud and the wind still had a cold edge to it.

Leading a walk this morning and spoke to Pete, Gareth and Daz in reception before we set off.

Pete had been out in the reedbed doing survey work and had heard a grasshopper warbler, he also had whinchat and lesser whitethroat.

We started off at Ousefleet hide, which like the other lagoons had been flooded due to the recent surge tides. The team had worked hard to get the reserve open again yesterday after several days of flooding.

4 avocets on the lagoon still enjoying an early morning nap. This redshank slowly walked around the edge of the water

Shelduck, shoveler, teal ,mallard, gadwall, pochard, tufted duck, little egret, grey heron, coot and marsh harrier were added to our day list.

Prior to the latest flood there were over 100 snipe on site, many are still there but are well hidden

Water voles have been seen in the ditch in front of the hides on a regular basis and this swam past us as we sat in Townend hide.

Reed warbler, sedge warbler, blackcap and chiffchaff were singing as we walked along the paths between the hides. Not always easy to see but good to know that they are back. We heard al least 4 cetti's warbler "shout" at us we walked through their chosen territory. This chiffchaff was outside reception hide.

At least 2 bitterns were booming and the marsh harriers are very active. We saw 2 food drops and a male chase away 2 crows from the area where his nest is.

A very pleasant walk with a over 40 birds on our day list. After the visitors left I returned to Marshland hide for about 30 minutes and managed to see this yellow wagtail on one of the islands. 2 pied wagtails were constantly chasing it, so it was not allowed to settle for very long, and eventually flew off.

Back on Sunday, when I hope that the weather will improve and the visitors can enjoy seeing as well as hearing the recently arrived warblers.

Yellow wagtail and wheatear

 Recent reports on X regarding yellow wagtails and wheatears had me heading for the cycle track from Naburn Village.

I parked the village side of the bridge over the old railway line and turned left once I was on the track.

I continued to walk until I came to a "brown" field and started to scan the area.

I came cross this rook having a drink

When I reached a viewing screen 

I stopped and scanned the field from there. In the middle of the field I saw several yellow wagtails and wheatears. 2 new birds for my year list.