Lower Derwent Valley

 Tuesday December 12th.

My first stop was Bank Island. The above is the view from the Cheesecake Hide.

Some of the greylag geese and shelduck were coming onto the grass to eat some of the seed that has been left in the area where they net and ring shelducks. They were very wary, and soon retreated to the water when a marsh harrier flew over. There were 3 pink footed geese with the greylags, several pintail, shoveler, tufted duck, gadwall and lots of teal and wigeon. After a couple of hours I returned to my car, on the way I popped into "Toms Hide".

As the door does not fully close, an owl has been roosting there. On the path outside i met this frog.

I drove to the viewing platform at Thorganby, but apart from a lot of lapwings in a field, there was no sign of any water or swans.

North Duffield Carrs was my next stop. I walked to the viewing platform, from where I could look across the river and see lots of wigeon on the flooded Bubwith Ings.

 No birds to be seen on the scrape so I walked down to the Garganey hide.

Still some water on the reserve, but not enough to attract lots of wildfowl.

I did not realise until I processed this photo that I had got a male stonechat as well as the whooper swan family. The stonechat is on the top of some reeds, and can be seen against the background of the right hand swan.

2 marsh harriers were patrolling the area, while a Merlin sat on one of the fence posts. As I walked back to my car I saw a mixed flock of linnets and reed buntings in the field where the wild flowers have been sown.

I drove to Bubwith Bridge, and parked in the car park on the village side of the river.

I was hoping to see an american wigeon, and get tick number 200 on my year list. as you may be able to see from the photo, there are a lot of birds in the sky just above the tree line. These are the wigeon that took to the air when a marsh harrier flew over. When they settled I started to scan through the birds and saw what I believed to be the American wigeon. It was with lots of other wigeon and as I waited for it to move so that I had a clear view of it, down came the rain, so I left. Perhaps later this week I may return!