The best time of year: Some local birding

Today saw the start of my favourite time of year, extra sunlight! I went over to Escrick early morning to check the horse and was rewarded with a singing Chiffchaff. I decided to walk the dogs around Skipwith Common today in order to try and learn a few of the routes around the place. The place was crawling with Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers. There was tits all over the place and a few Treecreepers were noted with Siskin and Redpoll overhead. I walked past the ploughed field and could see the Shrike from about 80 m as it sat on top of the Holly bush. A spot of gardening this afternoon resulted in a couple more flyover garden ticks in the form of Siskin and Redshank. The House Martin was also back after not been seen yesterday. After dinner I made the most of the extra hour of evening light and headed over to North Duffield Carrs. The reserve looks great at the minute and was full of birds. Today I went down to the Garganey Hide, the Grey Heron (below) was right infront of the hide. Other birds noted included Black, Mute and Whooper Swan, Greylag and Canada Goose, Cormorant, Pintail, Teal, Wigeon, Shoveler, Gadwall, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Coot, Moorhen and Little Grebe. Several Lapwing were also seen on the reserve. As darkness decended a flock of Fieldfare came into the Hawthorns to roost.