Here we go again

 

A sunny but cold afternoon at North Duffield Carrs. As I got closer to the Geoff Smith hide I could hear the sound of running water, even above the noise of the passing traffic. The video above shows the source of the noise, water from the river just pouring onto the reserve, aand it was pouring in a bit further along.

So, here we go again with Garganey Hide slowly filling with water.

I met Pete on the way back to the Geoff Smith hide, he was going to have a look at the lower hide.

I joined another birder in the hide and we chatted about the amount of water and how the birds are spread about over a wide area. Pete came back from his walk and joined us. Not a lot of land is visible and is providing some refuge for birds.

A curlew was on the river bank as were some wigeon.

A tufted duck, teal and a little grebe were on ther scrape.

A marsh harrier was patrolling the river banks, disturbing the lapwings and curlews. Then suddenly

in the distance a large flock of birds appeared.

Hundreds probably thousands of geese appeared. They were a mixture of greylag, canada, pink-feet and white-fronted geese. They circled for a while before several hundred settled on the water at the far end of the reserve. Others flew off in an easterly direction. I remained in the hide for about an hour and lots of geese were still on the water at the far end of the reserve.