Harriers and Owls in the LDV

Spent the afternoon at North Duffield today. The river has finally gone down a fair bit but the floods are still present, in fact there seems to be more flooding than last week!  The reserve was full of Lapwing, Teal and Wigeon with a good number of Golden Plover and a few Ruff thrown into the mix too.  Additional waterfowl included Pochard, Shoveler, Tufted Duck, Gadwall and Mallard.  There was also hundreds of Greylag and Canada Geese and a flock of 70-something Pink-footed Geese flew low north.

Pink-footed Geese 

Pink-footed Geese

Harriers appeared well down on my last visit, think I only counted 5 birds, however I was fairly distracted by  the two Short-eared Owls that were showing (relatively) close to the hide - still a bit too far for photographing them properly but I gave it a try anyway!

 Short-eared Owl

 

 Short-eared Owl

 Short-eared Owl 

 Short-eared Owl 

 Short-eared Owl 

 Short-eared Owl 

 Short-eared Owl

There was a few Siskin, Redpoll and Skylark passing south and I could hear a couple of Jays and a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the background too.