North Duffield Carrs

 

The view from the Geoff Smith hide this afternoon. it looked as if the water on the scrape was frozen.

At first I could not see any birds on Bubwith ings, but a couple walking their dog, flushed lots of wigeon, which were sheltering from the wind. I walked down to the garganey hide. one part of the path is wet as water drains off the field. Near the "flower" field I saw lots of linnets, chaffinches and yellowhammers.

Garganey hide is still open, but the handle has come off the door.

These are the views from the hide. The water to the left of the hide is still frozen and bird free.

This is the view looking towards the farm. The wind is coming from this direction and blows directly into the hide.

The top of the bund is just visible, and canada geese, pintail, wigeon and teal were standing on it. As I scanned along the bund I spotted 2 black-tailed godwits and 2 redshanks.

A pleasant but cold couple of hours.

RSPB Newport Wetlands.

 

Xmas presents should result in a more orderly year! Certainly more paperwork.

Started 2025 by driving down to Newport, Wales, to collect the eldest granddaughters possessions as she is moving back to York having gained her Bachelors degree in Cyber Technology. A fairly pleasant drive due to the lack of traffic. The journey home on January 2nd was different, as there was a lot more traffic.

First light on the 2nd saw me heading for Goldcliff Lagoons.

 

The new fencing has been erected and looks substantial enough to keep out predators. Not a lot of bird activity. I chose to arrive at first light in the hope of catching sight of an owl or two, but no such luck.

Greylag geese took to the air in their usual noisy fashion. 10 curlew were standing silently in the water while 2 avocets were busy feeding near the edge of the reedbed.

Sunrise over the Severn Estuary. It was high tide so no birds on the shore line.

Mute swans, lapwings, shovelers, wigeon and mallard were all starting to wake up. As I walked back to my car a male bullfinch flew across the path.

RSPB Newport Wetlands was my next destination.

The large reedbed reminds me of Blacktoft Sands. It is a shame that this is not a lookout point.

High tide has passed so birds were starting to use the exposed mud.

Lots of shelducks

Something was upsetting the waders, but I could not see a raptor. Lots of lapwings and dunlin.

No sign of oystercatchers or other waders apart from a single redshank. As I followed the Woodland trail I heard then saw great spotted woodpecker, siskin, chaffinch and goldfinch. Near the car park there are some bird feeders and here I saw blue and great tits and house sparrows. A pleasant couple of hours before my long drive home.

Saturday afternoon I went with my youngest granddaughter to Askham Bog. A lot of conservation work has taken place and the undergrowth and trees have been thinned out.

Why people have to throw  branches etc in the pond amazes me. Not many birds to be seen. Was it because of the time of day, the lack of cover or the notices now asking you not to feed the birds. The notice states that feeding birds can encourage species that could have a detrimental effect on the rare willow tit population, and as the site is a SSSI it is illegal to take bird food onto the reserve!

Will the forecast weather mean no going out tomorrow?

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.