The River Derwent Floods (and some birds)

Popped out this afternoon to see if the floods had decreased much. Not a lot but they had gone down a bit!  I also wanted to get some pictures of the floods from Bubwith Bridge as a gauge for future years to see how future floods compare to this one! Pictures below.

I started at Bubwith Bridge, there was a good 600+ Wigeon (and a few Teal, Mallard) here and a few Mute Swans. The ducks were all concentrated on the very tops of the flood banks that were just visible. A Kestrel was busy along the roadside

On to North Duffield Carrs. There was a flock of about 40 Whooper Swans in the field near the reserve (most had got their heads down so not really possible to check for Bewick's), also lots of Lapwing, Golden Plover and various gulls in the field. I may check it again tomorrow properly.

The North Duffiled Carrs were still well underwater, the flock of 50+ Pochard was still present, 2 drake Pintail showed nicely but were just out of range of the camera and there was a good 500 Wigeon, 300 Teal and a few Gadwall, Mallard, Canada Geese and Greylags. There was also a good 1500 Lapwing present and there was a single Redshank on the riverbank too. A flock of 30 Knot flew south through the valley with a single Dunlin (though I missed these as I was counting Pochard at the time!). As I reached the car park I had a very nice fly-past from a Barn owl. Unfortunately there was no sign of any Regulus sps.

Look out for my annual review of 2012 in the next day or so....

View to NW of Bubwith Bridge looking towards North Duffield Carrs

View to S from Bubwith Bridge of River Derwent

View to SW from Bubwith Bridge (Drax Power Station) looking into sun

Mute Swans on Bubwith Ings through a five-bar gate

Wigeon (and Teal) on the River Derwent S of Bubwith Bridge

Bubwith Bridge