Signs of spring

 

I started the year at North Cave, so decided to end the month there as well, as for once we had a sunny day.

I met Stu near the Maize Field and we decided not to go to the Turret Hide as it was full of people hoping to see a bittern. We went into the East hide as it looks out onto a similar piece of the reserve. No sign of a bittern, after we had been in the hide for a while a chap came in and he told us that he had seen the bittern about an hour ago.  We left the hide and just before we got to the new storage building we heard then saw a song thrush.

We moved on to the South hide.  Just outside the hide lots of siskins were chattering away.

As we walked further down Dryham Lane, Stu spotted a redwing feeding at the bottom of a hedge.

Lots of duck from Crosslands Hide as we walked to the new hide we realised that the white birds we had seen on the water were not gull but lots of shelduck, over 100. As we scanned the area looking at birds, Stu spotted 2 egyptian geese flying, year tick 94. Stu headed for home when we left the hide and I turned right to go to the viewing screen. Near the bungalow I saw this great spotted woodpecker fly ino a tree.

Year tick 95. From the viewing screen I saw two oystercatchers, another sign of spring when they return.

Further along the road I saw fieldfares in a recently ploughed field. I walked along the west path to the North Hide and added reed bunting and pheasant to my day list. Snowdrops, spring is on its way.

 At the Maize feeding station I managed to get a glimpse of a goldcrest.

It was noving very quickly so I did not get a good photo. It was good to see lots of greenfinch at the feeders.

This long-tailed tit came close to the viewing screen.

Time to leave. A pleasant visit with 49 birds on my day list. I came home via the Lower Derwent Valley. The car park at North Duffield was full so I carried on to Thorganby.

Still lots of water in the valley, but also lots of birds. Still a good number of whooper swans in the distance. Large flocks of lapwings, which kept taking to the air, but I could not see any raptors that might have disturbed them. On my left a couple of greylag geese were having a bathe in a small pool of water when 2 other geese flew in. They were chased by the frst greylag and as I watched I saw that the 2 that had flown in where white-fronts, year tick 96. Howard and his wife turned up and we chatted for a while.I was just ablout to leave when the lapwings took to the air again and I saw a small flock of golden plover, year tick number 97.

A nice end to a pleasant day.