RSPB Blacktoft Sands and North Duffield Carrs

 

Sunday morning I arrived at the reserve about 8 am, just as it was getting light. This was the view from Ousefleet hide. Lots of teal and lapwings and 4 marsh harriers hunting over the reed bed.

A single male pintail on Reedling and one of the many snipe.

The marsh harriers were quite active during the day but not many seen coming into roost.

Tuesday morning I drove down to North Duffield Carrs to get a couple of hours bird watching before the forecast bad weather arrived.

 The water levels have gone down, so it is now possible to see the boundary of the scrape.

Garganey hide is now accessible. Still mud on the floor and the seats are still a bit damp.

Lots of birds, some quite close to the hide.

At least a 100 pintail, 20 plus redshanks, 18 ruff and 120 plus dunlin.

Some of the hundreds of wildfowl.

which often took to the wing as either buzzard, marsh harrier or peregrine flew over. A pair of mallard were sheltering from the wind

A barn owl was out hunting

I think that this marsh harrier was tagged in Norfolk.

A Happy New Yea to you all.

"Birding in the murk"

 

On my way home from sunny Hartlepool yesterday, I ran into fog about Thirsk. So I was hoping that if I went just beyond Thirsk I might find sunshine. Sadly no. The above photo was taken from the main hide at Nosterfield.

I could hear lapwings, curlews and redshanks calling, but most of them stayed on the far side of the lake, out of sight in the gloom.

Closer to the hide teal were dabbling, a pied wagtail hunted for insects and shovelers sifted food from the water. 

This lapwing and redshank were a bit closer to the hide. This black-headed gull has a damaged wing, and just kept walking up and down,

A male goldeneye was diving in the water in front of the hide.

A pleasant couple of hours. Let's hope for better weather tomorrow.

Sunny Boxing Day at Hartlepool

 

Last night I was undecided as to where to go birding today. Then a clip on the TV showed the headland, so I chose Hartlepool. It was misty as I drove along and I wondered if I had made the correct choice. However after Thirsk the mist lifted. I parked near the museum on the headland and enjoyed a walk round in the bright but cold weather.

Not many birds about. it was high tide so I expected to see more on the rocks, not just cormorants and gulls.

Very few waders were exploring the smaller pools of water, and there were very few people about to have scared the birds away. A small flock of eiders in the entrance to the harbour was the highlight.

The car park at Newburn Bridge was full, I had to wait until someone left to get a parking space.

Lots of people out enjoying the sunshine.

Ringed plover, turnstone, oystercatcher and sanderling on the rocks, escaping the high tide.

A few gulls about and I had to walk back towards the marina to get close enough to be able to identify them all. A couple of herring gulls, more black-headed gulls and one Mediterranean gull, which was another year tick (204).

As RSPB Saltholme was closed I drove to Marske, but no scoters on the sea, just lots of dog walkers on the beach. As I drove home and approached the turn off for Thirsk, the mist returned. 

Egrets at RSPB Fairburn Ings

 

A bright and sunny start to Xmas eve this morning. I started at Lin Dike screen and was rewarded with views of lots of egrets.

At least 9 great white egrets, 4 little egrets and 2 cattle egrets. The smaller egrets were in the vegetation and were difficult to see. The great whites on the other hand were constantly squabbling and chasing each other about. 

Mallards were feeding on the mud in front of the screen.

The teal looked smart in the morning sunshine.

I could see goldeneye, cormorants, wigeon, shoveler, shelduck, grey heron, canada and greylag geese and lots of black-headed gull. One of which was nearly in summer plumage. A marsh harrier and a red kite were looking for food and kept disturbing the birds.

This robin came to join me.

After a couple of hours I drove to the visitor centre. At the moment there are no feeders at the first screen, so I walked a little further around the boardwalk.

Blue, great and long tailed tits along with chaffinches and goldfinches. A kingfisher flew up along the ditch.

A pleasant morning.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

!st day of Summer birding

 

To mark the start of my summer I decided to go to North Duffield Carrs this afternoon for a few hours birding.

Although the water levels still look high, it is now possible to reach the second hide, however the hide is still half full of water!

Usually as I scan across the reserve, I can see whooper swans in the distance. Today they were much closer, just across the river. I was not sure if it was to shelter from the wind or the fact that there was some disturbance near the church. I could see a blue van, and a union flag flying. Elaine looked through my scope and thought that the van was near the river, where there was a houseboat. She thought that she might investigate tomorrow,

As I scanned the river bank, I noticed a peregrine sitting there. It remained there for a while before a marsh harrier disturbed it. It then flew across the river towards the swans and ducks. Later it returned again to sit on the river bank. Lapwings kept dive bombing it, and 2 carrion crows landed near it, and eventually it flew off. It flew across the river towards the swans and disturbed the teal, wigeon and pintails.

It then flew back across the river, and I could see that it had a teal in its talons. The peregrine flew quite high and I lost sight of it.

Two marsh harriers started to hunt over the other side of the river which caused lots of teal and wigeon to fly on to the reserve.  A kestrel was also flying over looking for food.

A pleasant afternoon.

Black-throated diver

 

Today is the last day of my winter. MY summer starts tomorrow. I needed black-throated diver for my year list, and as one had been reported from Tophill Low, I decided to visit. I arrived at 9am just as they were opening. It was only just light, it is still another week before it starts to get lighter in a morning.

The reception hide was still closed, so I walked on to the other hide which overlooks D reservoir.

Lots of ducks. Wigeon, teal, pintail, goldeneye, pochard, red crested pochard, shoveler, smew,gadwall and tufted duck. great crested and little grebes.They were sheltering from the strong wind, so were reasonably close to the hide, although most of them were asleep.

Some of many goldeneye on the reservoir. Several of the males were displaying. A male smew came close.

Not the best of light and as you can tell from the 1st photo, there was quite a swell due to the wind.

The black-throated diver took some finding. It was close to the far wall of the reservoir, where the water was very choppy as it collided with the reservoir wall. It spent a lot of time diving for food, but eventually it swam into the calmer water to preen. It was still a long way away.

I spent a couple of hours in the hide, hoping that the diver would come closer but it did not, so I walked back to my car. On the way, I called in at the reception hide and managed to get this photo of a female red crested pochard.

Lots of cormorants were also fishing.

I then walked towards the southern end of the reserve. The first hide is overlooking an are where a lot of conservation work is taking place, so not a bird to be seen, From the next hide I saw a grey heron, a flock of lapwing flew over, as did a kestrel. a pair of marsh harriers were hunting over the far side of the scrape.

A flock of 42 curlew was a pleasure to see.

It started to rain, so I decided to call it a day, satisfied that my year list total now stands at 203.

Little Gull

 I started at Bubwith Ings. The water now reaches the road and a flock of wigeon were close by, so I was hoping to add American wigeon to my year list. Sadly, no joy. There were flocks of wigeon everywhere, some so too far away for me to be able to identify a different bird. North Duffield Carrs was my next venue.

As you can see from the photo, the water levels are very high, and the birds are well scattered. The weather was changeable. Very strong wind, which did not help when I was scanning the wigeon at Bubwith Bridge. Rain, sunshine, rainbows.

One bonus was the little gull flying over the scrape in front of the Geoff Smith hide. I found it difficult to get a decent photo, due to the light and the way it was flying.

I was able to watch the bird for about 3 hours before I left, a pleasant afternoon.

Twite

 

Saturday morning at Blacktoft. A fairly quiet morning bird wise. I presumed that the recent storms and high water levels had scattered the birds and also given them more options to feed.

Sunset from Singleton hide. lots of marsh harriers into the roost, but only 6 in the air at the same time.

Monday morning I went to to Marske and Hartlepool. I was hoping to add several birds to my year list, but I could not find any velvet scoter at Marske, no red necked grebe at South Gare, or med gull at Newburn Bridge.

I did however have more luck at Seaton Snook.

I walked around the shore line as the tide was out, and I find it hard work climbing the sand dunes.

I was prepared to walk out to where an area is roped off for breeding terns etc. but my luck was in as I saw a flock of about 100 birds fairly close by.

They did not settle for long, partly due to continual disturbance from dogs. I decided to stand still, in the hope that they might come closer. after several fly arounds they did settle and I tried to get some pictures. However i found it difficult to spot them amongst the vegetation. None of my pictures are any good, but as I looked through them  I noticed that two birds had rings on their legs.

I was pleased to have seen the birds and added them to my year list as tick number 201.

As  I mentioned, no med gull at Newburn Bridge, but a black-headed gull.

A male eider from the Pilot Pier

A little egret at Saltholme

This was at the Wildlife Watchpoint. No water rail but 17 moorhens.