Owls in York

Had two Barn Owls and one Tawny Owl today, otherwise not a great deal.

The weather was, yet again, horrible. A very wet dog walk produced a dozen or so Fieldfare but not a great deal else to be honest!

Just as it was getting dark I got a message about a possible interesting Regulus sp. down at North Duffield Carrs, but by the time I got down there the bird, and flock it was in (Long-tailed Tit and Treecreeper) had gone beyond a flood and I wasn't able to follow them! Will have to see if it comes back tomorrow, whatever it was! Compensation in the form of 2 Barn Owl sat on fence posts was nice though I didn't hang about as it was still raining.  A very brief glance out of the hide showed the water levels to have dropped by almost a foot and there was several Shoveler and lots of Lapwing and a few Ruff present. Will have a proper look tomorrow probably.

I went over to visit Rich in the Yorkshire Wolds this pm for my tea and had a very nice Tawny Owl sat in a roadside bush on my way home, presumably making the most of the near-full moon lighting up the country lanes.

Back in the LDV

Morning walk produced an incredible immature female Peregrine, she was huge! Only a small flock of finches today, 50+ Linnet and a few Chaffinch and Brambling.

Went down to North Duffield Carrs for a bit this afternoon, it was fairly quiet due to several people walking along the river bank that flushed everything as far as I could see. Eventually it picked up as the afternoon progressed (and the disturbance reduced). Several gulls flew through, Lapwing and Ruff flew in/past but the highlights were 5 Pochard, a very close-up Barn Owl and the two biggies, male Goosander which flew through heading south, and 3 Barnacle Geese (that got the year-listers in a flap...wild/feral.... who knows!)... but can you afford to not see them?...

Had 2 Marsh Harriers this pm, one of which caught a Lapwing! There was a few Whooper Swans about but most were very distant.

North Duffield: Sunday Special

Loads more rain here overnight (with loads more forecast tonight), lots of standing water in the fields around here now with many of the field-drains near to bursting point.  I popped over to North Duffield this afternoon for a short while to see how things were shaping up down there and not surprisingly the water levels were much higher than yesterday.

The area preferred by the Bittern over the last couple of weeks is now largely underwater. A few areas around the edge of the pool still seem suitable for it to forage but you'd have to imagine that the amount of water in the area has pushed it elsewhere.

The change in water levels has seen a change in species present too.  Wigeon, Teal, Pintail, Gadwall and Mallard numbers were dramatically down (or absent) but numbers of Tufted Duck and Pochard were up (or just easier to see due to the lack of the above!) - I think new birds in. Also present today was between 4 and 6 Goldeneye.  There was also a Little Grebe present - first one I've seen here since earlier in the year (late winter/early spring) I think.

Also, the Scaup that has been present on the reserve for at least 3 weeks was again showing on the river, was here on Thursday and yesterday in more-or-less the same place! (record shot off phone, in near darkness below)

Scaup (phone-scoped in near darkness)

The Barn Owls were again showing well, 2 distant and 2 much closer in.

There was a flock of at least 20 Ruff and 3 Dunlin roosting on a raised bank and several dozen Lapwing about. Swan and Geese numbers were down on the reserve, but there was plenty of distant geese over towards Aughton.