A Busy Day at North Duffield

North Duffield was the place to be today it seems, in the local area anyway. However, I was a good couple of miles away on a dog walk when it got going...

Got a phone call from Jono "Osprey at north Duffield, sat on a post". Argh.... I was two miles away, on foot having just been enjoying watching a vocal Willow Tit with the dogs. A very quick walk/jog back and quick race across to the reserve. No sign! It had flown off about 2 minutes before I got there and possibly gone down behind some trees.... luckily after 20 minutes of constant scanning I picked it up heading back towards us. We had it for a good 20/30 minutes flying around. Eventually I lost it in a cloud as it gained height. Jono got a decent photo of it when it was sat on the fencepost - check his blog out for it sometime soon.

After enjoying the Osprey a Little Egret flew in to the reserve and fed for a while on the floods. There was plenty of ducks about, surely a Garganey or better out there somewhere... however by this point I needed some caffeine so headed home where I had a Yellow Wagtail fly over the garden.

Not long after lunch I got a message from Elaine from the village letting me know there was in fact a Garganey out there, a drake showing well, but I had to see if I was to become a millionaire first... I wasn't, so I headed back to the hide. A short wait and the drake Garganey flew in and continued to show very well for a good half hour - I got a couple of photos on my phone (below). There was a lone breeding plumage Black-tailed Godwit on the floods that looked very smart and a Lapwing in front of the hide. [There was actually a minimum of 5 Garganey in the LDV today - probably lots more hiding in the floods too]

I left to watch a pair of Gadwall get ringed, just after I'd left a first-winter Iceland Gull flew in, bathed briefly before flying southeast and two Swallows also flew through but I didn't see those either. Things are picking up....

Garganey North Duffield Carrs (IPhone-scoped)

Garganey North Duffield Carrs (IPhone-scoped)

Garganey North Duffield Carrs (IPhone-scoped)

Garganey North Duffield Carrs (IPhone-scoped)

LapwingNorth Duffield Carrs (IPhone-scoped)