Saturday 17 November 2012

Bittern at North Duffield: Excellent Views

Once the cricket was over and the rain and mist had gone away I headed across to the Geoff Smith Hide at North Duffield Carrs to see if yesterdays Bittern was still present. I wasn't to be disappointed.

Shortly after arriving at the hide I picked up the bird to the right of the pool, I then spent the next 5 hours watching it as it  moved all around the pool, often disappearing then appearing some distance away, it even gave a nice little fly-past at one stage too. It was fascinating to be able to watch this secretive bird go about its hunting activities. Occasionally it would come right out into the open which was brilliant! Often it's presence was noted by the resident Reed Bunting alarming and watching it move through the vegetation.  I took quite a few pictures, some of these are below.

Plenty of other decent birds about today including Water Rail (below hide by pool), Scaup, 2 Grey Plover, c60 Whooper Swan, 1 Black Swan, 70 Mute Swan, several Pink-footed Geese, with hundreds of Greylag and Canadas. There was at least 2 Marsh Harrier about, and 3 Barn Owl though no sign of the recent Hen Harrier or Short-eared Owl.

Other birds noted included c20 Dunlin, 20+ Ruff, Lapwing, Golden Plover, Goldeneye, Tufted Duck, Pintail, Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall, Shoveler, Mallard, Grey Heron, Cormorant. There was also quite a lot of Lesser Redpoll flying about, in with these were several Siskin and Goldfinch.  A sizeable flock of Starling (several thousand) and a good count of Fieldfare with low numbers of Redwing, Song Thrush and Blackbird were also noted.

An enjoyable afternoon! Same again tomorrow then? Don't mind if I do.

Bittern © Andy Walker 2012

Bittern © Andy Walker 2012

Bittern © Andy Walker 2012

Bittern © Andy Walker 2012

Bittern © Andy Walker 2012

Bittern © Andy Walker 2012

Bittern © Andy Walker 2012

Bittern © Andy Walker 2012

Bittern © Andy Walker 2012

Marsh Harrier © Andy Walker 2012

8 comments:

  1. Nice shots! Quick tip for getting better focus in a situation like this (Bittern isn't quite in focus in some) would be to turn on the manual focus and make sure that its on the smallest focus area then manually focus it on the bird using the focus button , works well with slow moving birds in situations like this where the camera might focus on vegetation in front or behind. Thought there might have been 2 GV's yesterday, had a brief view of 2 birds that I thought were GV but didn't confirm it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cheers Tim, will try that tomorrow if its still there! Yeah Autofocus was a bit of a pain in this situation! The GVs were together at the back of NDC then flew towards Aughton.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Whats the best time to go for it Andy? Im off work the next few days and might have to just nip down the road!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think any time is OK to be honest Andy as it just wanders about along the ditches, sometimes disappears for an hour but then comes out again. Seems to really like the right hand side of the pool when it comes quite close, also the bare area to left of mound of weeds (where above photos were taken). It is still there this morning I hear. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great tick for the York area Andy, back in September my parents described what can only have been a Bittern on the brickyard pond behind Elmfield Terrace in York!

    Great blog mate, you have a new follower!

    Tim
    Timbobaggins Abroad

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks Tim - yeah a nice bird to catch up with anywhere, but especially within the York area. I bet they can turn up anywhere in autumn!

    Thanks for the comments on blog, I've been reading yours too,enjoying the Sri Lanka photos.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Cheers mate, went out this morning to North Duffield but no sign of the Bittern. Mind if I use one of your pics of said bird on my blog?

    Tim
    Timbobaggins Abroad

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Tim, no worries that would be great, let me know if you can't just lift it off here. I popped down at lunchtime as working from home today and the Bittern was still there but well hidden!! Will update my blog later

    ReplyDelete