Bean Goose

 

A misty Monday morning at Blacktoft Sands, where I met Stu. Lots of wigeon on Marshland Lagoon

Nice to see pochard on Reedling lagoon.

Large flocks of geese on the field next to the reserve, mostly greylag with at least one bean goose. I tried to get a picture but the geese were close to the floodbank and I did not want to disturb them. So my pictures have either grass or fence in the bottom which does not help.

The bill marking is different to usual Tundra bean geese, but the general opinion is that they are Tundra bean geese.

On my way home I called in at North Duffield Carrs.

Water levels are slowly going down. large numbers of greylag and canada geese, plus wigeon, pintail, goldeneye, scaup and tufted duck. lapwings, dunlin and redshank on the exposed bits of land. A pair of stonechats on reeds around the scrape were my first of the year.

North Duffield Carrs

 

The water level are still dropping and access to garganey hide is better, even though the floor is still slippy and there is rubbish from the recent flood on the ledges.

Various strips of land above the water level, this one was occupied by geese, mostly Canada geese,

including these 2 "granadas"!

Several pintail about, this is the closest thta one came to the hide.

Goldeneye were also present but again keeping their distance.

At the far end of the reserve I saw 2 male scaup, my 3rd year tick of the visit. On my way back to the car, I disturbed a small flock of linnets, year tick number 77.

Black-throated diver

 The weather forecast was for milder conditions, and as today is my only free day until next week, I decided to pay my first visit of the year to the Hartlepool area, where a black-throated diver had been seen.

This is the area that the diver has been frequenting. often not getting closer than the whote buoy you can see in the photo. There was no sign of it on my first visit today, but I bumped into Graham from Nosterfield on the Headland, who told me that he had just seen the bird, so I drove back to the area.

Carolyn was still there and told me where the bird was. It eventually came close enough for one or two photos.

After seeing the black-throated diver I drove to Newburn Bridge. The tide has started to go out but several waders remained sheltering amongst the rocks.

A med gull flew in to join the black-headed gulls.

RSPB Saltholme was my last stop of the day. Teal, little egret, mallard, moorhen, gadwall, shelduck and a shoveler were on the water in front of Phil Stead hide.

A pleasant day with a list of 42 birds, including 10 year ticks.

Old Foss Beck.

 

My first dog walking session of the year, and a new tick for this patch. The white in the distance is a little egret, no doubt pleased to find some running water in which to look for food. Lots of fieldfares still in the hedges feeding on the hawthorn berries.

RSPB Fairburn Ings

 

My view from the Pickup hide this morning. In the distance I saw several cormorants perched in the trees, no doubt the breeding season has started. A large female marsh harrier was perched on a post near the moat area.

Lots of birds on the feeders.

Then this squirrel appeared.

It was using its tongue to get seeds out of the feeder.

Lower Derwent Valley

 

I waited till after 10pm before setting out this morning, so that any problems on the roads would hopefully have been sorted out. I took the above photo from the viewing platform at Thorganby. I joined Graham who was scoping the area. He had started out at East Cottingwith and was slowly working his way around the valley to Wheldrake. From the various places he had stopped at there was no sign of the white-tailed eagle.

There was a steady flow of birds up and down in front of us and before long I had seen my first whooper swans, canada geese and pied wagtail of the year. Lots of corvids were having an arguement to our right.

I left soon after Graham, satisfied with my list of 20 birds.

The viewing platform at North Duffiled was my next stop.

From here you can look up river and I could see that most of the ducks were on the river.

Marsh harriers were active

They slowly pushed the ducks towards me.

The majority of the birds were wigeon with a few teal. Once the marsh harrier had flown off they went back to their original place  further up river.

Lots of fieldfares in the bushes.

Garganey hide is now visible.

This is my view from it.

Just solid ice with a single black-headed gull and several carrion crows on it. Pieces of ice were clinging to the fence posts.

Every now and rhen there would be a large cracking noise as the ice moved. I returned to the Geoff Smith hide from where I was able to add dunlin, dunnock and snipe to my day list. If my understanding of the weather forecast is correct then perhaps some of the ice may melt and there might be open water on the reserve, which might attract the wildfowl.

RSPB Blacktoft Sands

 

A bright but cold day at Blacktoft Sands. Ian was on duty in reception and I helped when it was busy.

Gareth was also on duty and helped get the fire going in reception before he went to check on the ponies.

Stuart and Catherine were also on site and we passed in the small wooded area near Ousefleet hide.

All the lagoons were frozen which reduced the number of birds to be seen. Mute swans were on Reedling and Singleton.

Reed buntings were picking up small pieces of grit from the paths.

Plenty of fieldfares in the hedges.

Grey herons were hunting along the side of the ditch.

Snipe were exploring along the edges of the lagoon where the sun had helped to soften the ground.

Skeins of pink-footed geese flew over.

Marsh harriers were interacting with each other.

A kingfisher was often seen as it flew along the ditch and Jean and Andrew spotted a water rail as it slipped on the ice crossing the ditch in front of reception.

A very pleasant day with a day list of 26 birds, including 8 year ticks.

North Cave Wetlands

 

9am on New Years Day at North Cave Wetlands. Helping family with taxi jobs restricted my hours for birding, so I had to stay local. I decided to avoid the Lower Derwent Valley as I expected it to be busy with people looking for the white-tailed eagle. I will see plenty of these birds on my forthcoming trips to Scotland.

A touch on the cool side, but the morning sun was welcome as I strolled around the reserve. Plenty of redwings, and they were happy to keep on feeding on the berries instead of flying off.

A few fieldfares, but they just flew off chattering when disturbed. A song thrush was a pleasant addition to my list.

Lots of siskins feeding in the alder trees, but they were too acrobatic for a photo. I was watching a marsh harriere hunting over Crosslands lagoon when Stu and Catherine sent a message. They had been to see the eagle, so had just recently arrived.

We were walking along the footpath near the Carp lake when Catherine spotted a treecreeper.

Long-tailed tits were calling as they travelled along the hedge looking for food.

At the Maize Field feeders we had greenfinch,

chaffinch, robin, goldfinch, blue and great tits. They did not spend long on the feeders and flew off at the first sign of any disturbance.

We had a short chat with Maurice the membership recruiter at the main entrance before we said goodbye and we all went our seperate ways home.

48 birds for the day is a good start and I hope that I am not chasing my 200th on the last day of December.