Patchwork Challenge January Summary

Well January is over. I put some details of my North Duffield patch area up at the beginning of the month here and have enjoyed seeing some good birds.

I finished January on 82 species, 89 points. The best birds have included:

Green-winged Teal - gutted to have not found this (if only for the extra 3 points I would have scored!), was found by Jono while I was away for the weekend - the only day I didn't spend some time on the patch all month! Luckily it was there the next day but hasn't been seen by anyone else subsequently. Details/photos here.

Raven - although only worth the 1 point on the PWC score system, Raven was probably statistically one of the rarest birds I saw in the patch in January. My first local, and only second or third record in six plus years in the York recording area.

Hen Harrier - difficult to catch up with in the local area - some years they just don't happen, other years you can have a few knocking about. It's just a case of being in the right place at the right time - luckily I was this time.

Bewick's Swan - although the LDV is a Special Protection Area (SPA) designated specifically for Bewick's Swans, among a range of other species. They are far from regular these days. I've had the one family group a couple of times over recent years but for a few years before that nothing. The SPA citation is for 47 individuals - these days we're happy to get one bird! Conversely - Whooper Swans have gone the other way and are now here in large numbers and the site should be an SPA for them!

Other notable species seen in January include: Marsh Harrier, Peregrine Falcon, Stonechat, Black-tailed Godwit, Barn Owl and Corn Bunting. Pochard and Tufted Duck were pleasing too given the water levels.

Birds I've not seen so far, but should have done include: Little Owl, Red-legged Partridge, Grey Partridge, Treecreeper, Jack Snipe, Green Woodpecker, Pink-footed Geese (or any of the other more unusual geese that usually turn up in January).

Birds reported locally that I've missed include: Rough-legged Buzzard, Short-eared Owl and Oystercatcher.

Barn Owl from the LDV Andy Walker.

Patchwork Challenge

I've decided to do the 'Patchwork Challenge' this year. Their blog is here: http://patchworkchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

I've selected an area that stretches from Bubwith Bridge, up to North Duffield Carrs and village (including my house and the footpaths/areas I walk my dogs) across to Skipwith Common. I've put a rough idea of my patch below:

My Patch - rough map view

My Patch - rough satellite view

Although I've not participated in the Patchwork Challenge before I will know if a bird is 'good' or not as I've birded this patch a fair bit over the last 3/4 years. A lot will depend on the water levels over the year and how much I can keep motivated to get out and look for birds - I prefer the foreign stuff! Hopefully I won't miss too much when I am abroad this year...!

I've had a couple of visits to North Duffield Carrs and my dog walk circuit over the weekend and am now up to 60 species (and 62 points). Mainly all common stuff though the Bewick's Swan in with the Whooper Swan flock today is the best bird so far. I've also had a few waders that can be tricky on the patch at this time of the year such as Redshank and Curlew, though they are easy in a couple of months time...

It's amazing how different two days can be. One Saturday afternoon the reserve was full of Golden Plover, Lapwing, Ruff and Dunlin, today there was just a handful of Ruff and Dunlin and only a few Lapwing and Golden Plover. I guess the difference is down to the frozen ground today. There is also a sizable flock Shelduck present at the moment, getting on for 70 birds, unusual for the time of the year I think. The flock of Whoopers today was double the count of yesterdays too.

The Bewick's Swans with Whooper Swans from Bird Race 2013!

Lower Derwent Valley Birding

Spent the afternoon birding at North Duffield Carrs and Ings, and Bubwith Ings with James, though I had an hour or so down there before he arrived.

North Duffield Ings and Bubwith Ings were both stacked out with waders and wildfowl.  Highlights included: 4 Black-tailed Godwit, 50 Ruff, 400 Dunlin, 800 Golden Plover, 1500 Lapwing, 20 Redshank, 1 Oystercatcher, 10 Curlew, 2 Snipe. There was a good 30+ Whooper Swan, Mute Swan and Black Swan on the water with Greylag, Canada and 2 Egyptian Geese also present. 162 Pochard were on Bubwith Ings (though probably under-estimate as many were under trees), plenty of the usual suspects: Pintail, Wigeon, Teal, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Gadwall.

Unsurprisingly the abundance of birds was attractive to raptors. I had 4 Buzzard, 2 Kestrel (one below), Sparrowhawk and a 1st winter/female Merlin.

Derwent Cottage Farm had hardly any swans today: about 8, hardly worth stopping... glad we checked them though as two of them were the Bewick's Swans!! The field was rammed with Golden Plover (1000+) and Lapwing (800) along with 100 Dunlin and a few Ruff. Also a small flock (c25 Linnet).

North Duffield Carrs was fairly quiet though drake Greater Scaup, Great-crested Grebe, 3 Little Grebe, 3 Goldeneye, 10 Curlew,were nice, along with the regulars: Mute Swan, Teal, Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Black-headed and Common Gulls, Coot and Moorhen etc.

The morning dog walk was fairly quiet today, no Barn Owls today, though 2 and 1 in the last couple of days were nice. Today it was mainly Bullfinch, Tree Sparrow and Yellowhammer.

On Thursday I had a nice garden visitor, Song Thrush (photo below).

Fantastic Day in LDV

Had a great day birding round the Lower Derwent Valley with Lewis (off the RSPB Scotland) today.  Highlights included:

North Duffield/Bubwith/Aughton Area:

• Barnacle Goose (3 flocks: 11, 53 and 15)
• Bewick's Swan (2)
• Whooper Swan (80+)
• Greater Scaup (1 drake) - pics below
• Egyptian Goose (2)
• Black-tailed Godwit (2)
• Great Spotted Woodpecker (3 males drumming)
• Skylark - lots singing
• Sparrowhawk (3)
• Curlew (11+)
• Dunlin (200+)
• Lapwing (c2000)
• Golden Plover (600+)
• Great Crested Grebe (1)
• Little Grebe (2)
• Marsh Tit (2)

Thorganby/Wheldrake Area:

• Glaucous Gulls (2 1st winters)
• Greater Scaup (1 drake)
• Barn Owl (2) - pics below
• Peregrine (1 adult male)
• Black-tailed Godwit (2) - same 2 as at North Duffield Ings???
• Curlew (26)
• Lawing (c1500)

Plenty of other 'nice' birds around: Bullfinch, Yellowhammer, Siskin, Lesser Redpoll, Tree Sparrow, Grey Partridge etc etc...

Barn Owl © Andy Walker 2013

Barn Owl © Andy Walker 2013

Barn Owl © Andy Walker 2013

Barnacle Goose (flock of 53)

Barnacle Goose (part of the flock)

Scaup (Phone-scoped)

Lewis enjoying the Bewick's Swan

Me at Castle Howard at dusk (photo Lewis Davies)

LDV + Castle Howard Birding

Went birding locally today, after the fog finally lifted! Nice to go birding with Lewis, Ade and Rich.

First off was North Duffield/Bubwith area though didn't quite go as planned due to a female Sparrowhawk and some loud gunshots flushing everything to the back of the area (straight into the sun).

Did get a lot of Whooper and Mute Swans and the Black Swan and two Bewick's Swans (these were very very distant this am).  Had a nice flock of 40 Ruff, 150 Dunlin and several hundred Lapwing/Golden Plover. There was also 3 Curlew and 20+ Redshank about. Lots of the usual Pintail, Wigeon, Teal etc.

On the Bubwith Ings side there was a flock of 251 Pochard (though probably and under-estimate). The couple of Egyptian Geese showed nicely today.

Gypo Geese (Phone-scoped)

Gypo Geese (Phone-scoped)

A drive through the LDV resulted in Barn Owl, Pink-footed Goose, my first local pair of Oystercatcher of the year and more Curlew and Redshank. Also lots of farmland birds like Corn Bunting, Yellowhammer, Tree Sparrow.

Spent the afternoon near Castle Howard and stayed fairly late in the afternoon. Impressive gull roost - mainly Common and Black-headed Gulls. Another 40 Pochard (only one end counted so presumably an under-estimation. 9 Goosander, 2 Great Crested Grebes, 1 Little Grebe and the female Scaup too.

Just as we were leaving a Barn Owl gave some really nice views.

More Aythya Action North Duffield

Spent the majority of the day at North Duffield Carrs today. Woke to find an inch or so of snow on the deck and had an enjoyable walk with the dogs noting fox, badger, roe deer, rabbit, pheasant and a host of small bird prints in the fresh snow. The hedges were busy with Fieldfare and a flock of 5 or 6 Bullfinch and a couple of Reed Bunting were noted.

Down at the hide I met up with Jono, Chris and Ollie to tales of Cetti's Warblers and Sea-Eagles that I'd missed! The Aythya hybrid/Lesser Scaup thing came close at one time but I only saw it from behind and didn't see the bill clearly enough, the bird did do one wing flap as it was facing away from us, this did look pretty good for Lesser Scaup! (see part 1 of the story so far here, part 2 here).

Chris and Ollie left and Jono picked out another Aythya asleep with a group of distant Pochard, this immediately looked like a much larger bird than the other Aythya and (after making sure we could see the both of them at the same time!) were happy there was definitely two Aythyas present - once this bird put its head up it was clear it was a Greater Scaup (looked like the bird I had last Friday).

Over the course of the day I could only manage a couple of record shots on my phone of the two birds above, though neither are very good as the birds were still distant but you can kind-of make out the differences.

Greater Scaup (phone-scoped)

Aythya Hybrid/Lesser Scaup bird (phone-scoped)

Not long after Ollie and Chris had left the hide we got some phone calls from them informing us that they'd got some Waxwing in the car park. We went straight round (a good job we did too as they were flushed by a truck, flew off and weren't seen again!!). Again, just the following record shots.

Waxwing record shot

Three of the Waxwing

Other wildfowl recorded down there today included Great Crested Grebe (my first here this winter), Little Grebe, 300+ Tufted Duck, 100 Pochard, 100 Pintail, 5000+ Teal/Wigeon, 68 Whooper Swans, 200 Mallard, 5 Shoveler, 25 Goldeneye, 5 Gadwall, 5 Shelduck, 40 Mute Swan, 30 Coot, 6 Moorhen and as dusk approached 'the' pair of Bewick's Swans flew in.

Waders included Lapwing, Ruff, Golden Plover, Redshank, Dunlin and Snipe.  Raptors included Barn Owl, Marsh Harrier, Kestrel and 2 Buzzard. There was quite a few Meadow Pipit, Fieldfare, Redwing, Pied Wagtail and Robin about and several Long-tailed Tit visited the feeders.

The Robin was nice and obliging, allowing me to sort out next years Christmas card!

Robin

Robin

Robin

Long-tailed Tit

Aythya Hybrid at North Duffield

So it turns out that the drake 1st winter Lesser Scaup or possible Aythya hybrid at North Duffield that was found by Tim and Chris yesterday, that I saw at lunchtime yesterday (details here) is in fact a hybrid, as was pretty much considered yesterday. Unfortunately.

Ollie, Tim, Jack, Chris and a few others were down early doors and I gather the bird was showing a bit better (closer maybe) and in better light etc.  It was seen to have too much black on the bill, which was a shame! I think Tim has some pictures of the duck so keep an eye on his blog for these, certainly an educational bird...

I think the two Bewick Swans were still about but nothing too different from what I reported yesterday, though I hear a few Goosanders flew through and there were two Marsh Harriers and a Peregrine around too.

Pretty heavy snow here at the moment so will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow... dreaming of a Smew...

LDV Birding

Spent the day round the south of the York recording area today. Tomorrow is the Bird Race which I can't take part in due to other commitments, but I figured I'd go out today and sell my sightings to Tim, Ollie, Jack and Chris' team - The String Quartet.... (Read about last year here)

Where to start... Morning walk with the dogs produced the standard 3 Barn Owl, including 2 that were hunting together just 10ft in front of me! There seemed to be more Fieldfare and Redwing about this morning, a few Tree Sparrows flew through and a small flock of Yellowhammer were noted, but little else really, though a flock of 8 Lesser Redpoll was nice.

I then headed over to Foggathorpe Pools where I had a very nice selection of birds including: over 500 Pink-footed Goose heading north (in 4 flocks of over 100 birds each), Snipe, 2 Crossbill, 10+ Brambling, 15+ Siskin, 20+ Lesser Redpoll, 2 Bullfinch, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting, Goldcrest, Jay, Red-legged Partridge, 80 Teal, 8 Wigeon and then the usual common stuff... though this was a highlight in itself  with 2,500 Wood Pigeon sounding like a train steaming through!

Next I decided to check out Aughton to see if the Bewick's Swans were still about, and they were. Had 3 of them in with about 9 Whooper Swans. They were a fair deal closer than the other day when I was viewing them at North Duffield. I got some shots, one of which you can actually read the darvic ring (yellow left leg 702) details of this bird here. On to Bubwith Bridge where I counted 70 Pochard, a new high-count for me here. The water is dropping, finally (picture below). There was also Pintail, Wigeon, Teal etc...

I decided to drive down to South Duffield to look for Corn Buntings and in doing so found an incredibly impressive mixed flock including: 200 Tree Sparrow, 120 Corn Bunting, 20 Yellowhammer, 20 Reed Bunting, 35+ Linnet, 15+ Chaffinch and several hundred Fieldfare and Redwing. A lone Sparrowhawk was patrolling but this area looks spot on for Merlin!

Back at North Duffield for lunch and another flock of Corn Bunting, 20 this time, with another 10 Lesser Redpoll and 500+ Fieldfare and Redwing. Also here Great Spotted Woodpecker, Long-tailed Tit, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk.  A quick visit to Thorganby didn't produce too much though 148 Dunlin was good on recent numbers (and water levels) - thanks to Tim for counting!, Shelduck, Goldeneye and (another) a very showy Barn Owl was cool (though camera in car)!  Finished the afternoon back in the Geoff Smith Hide but it was pretty quiet to be honest! A couple of youngish Lesser Black-backed Gull in with the gull roost, Pintail, and surprisingly no Barn Owl!

Looking forward to tomorrow now!

Bewick Swan "Yellow left 702"

Bewick's Swan

3x Bewick's Swans and 3x Whooper Swans

3x Bewick's Swans + 2x Whooper Swans

Bewick's Swans

Bewick's Swans

Whooper Swans

The floods at Bubwith

Waxwings & Bewick's Swans on the Patch

After the tip-off from Zing yesterday about a single Waxwing in Bubwith I decided to take an early morning dog-walk around North Duffield and Bubwith connecting with some great birds. First off were 3 Barn Owls that were busy hunting, a flock of 28+ Whooper Swan, then came Fieldfare and Song Thrush, 2 male Bullfinch, 30 Tree Sparrow and assortment of tits and finches, Jay, and finally the main target, the single Waxwing. Unusually this wasn't given away by its distinctive call but was just sat preening in a bush! I got close to it, but the light was appalling again (it was still early!) so could only manage the following photos (I've tweaked the contrast so they are a bit clearer).

Waxwing

Waxwing

Waxwing

Waxwing

I worked at home today so at lunchtime I shot over to North Duffield Carrs where I was greeted by two Bewick's Swans in amongst the flock of Mute and Whooper Swans. Interestingly these were the same two birds I found back in mid-December - I can tell this because one of them was Darvic-ringed. Today I saw Craig, the Natural England Warden who'd actually been able to read the code.

Turns out it was ringed in November 2007 in The Netherlands (Darvic ring number yellow on left leg 702).  This bird was then seen at Slimbridge WWT in 2007 and 2008 and was then seen at North Duffield in January 2009, December 2009, and February 2010 but was not reported from either here, or Slimbridge in the winter of 2010/2011 or 2011/2012.

This really shows the value of darvic-ringing/colour-ringing! I only got a 'record-shot' of the birds today, and have included a couple of pictures from last time I saw the birds.

Bewick's Swan (today)

Bewick's Swan (today)

Bewick's Swan (mid-December)

Bewick's Swans (mid-December) Note Darvic on right bird

Also present here was an increased flock of Pochard - at least 62 birds now! Also an increase in Tufted Duck (c.25) and Pintail (c.8-10).

Yesterday I got three year-ticks in the dark! Little Owl, Redwing and Snipe!

Thorganby Birding LDV

Fancied a change of scenery today so headed over to Thorganby (West Cottingwith Ings) to see if there was anything of interest visible from the Viewing Platform, generally there wasn't but it was still enjoyable in the near-darkness of mid-afternoon and cold cutting wind (no it wasn't!). Was good to catch up with Nige again after briefly catching up at the Buff-bellied Pipit twitch last Sunday - check out his blog here for some local sightings and great photography: Clifton Birding.

I was hoping to view the Whooper and Bewick's Swans from the Thorganby Viewing Platform, but unfortunately they were hidden from this location with only a few birds (not identifiable to species) observed distantly.

I did manage 5 Goldeneye (3 male, 2 female), 7 Shelduck, and 55 Tufted Duck, none of which I'd had at North Duffield Carrs yesterday (and Nige told me of several Goosander at Bank Island). The floods have covered all but the tops of the river/flood banks here and these were at a premium for Wigeon, Teal and Lapwing today with many hundreds of these three species present all squeezing onto somewhere dry.  There was also at least 36 Dunlin observed here.

Something unseen (Peregrine?) went down the eastern side of the Lower Derwent Valley and put up tonnes of Lapwing c500+, there was over 30 Ruff in with these too and several hundred Fieldfare, Redwing and Starling.  Otherwise it was the standard Mallard, Gadwall, Mute Swan etc, didn't see any Shoveler, Pintail or Pochard today, or any Greylag or Canada Geese...

The dog walk this am was the first time I've been back on patch for almost a week and it was notable how few birds were present. Still lots of Chaffinch and Greenfinch so presumably the Brambling are still about too, but the majority of Thrushes seem to have cleared out. Just a couple of Blackbird and Mistle Thrush noted.

Sorry for lack of pictures, too dark etc! Maybe tomorrow....

Swans Everywhere!

A staggering 154 Whooper Swans and 18 Bewick's Swans reported in the LDV in the last day or so! Though I've not seen any recently. There was a large flock of Swans off Bubwith Bridge at last-light on Sunday but I didn't attempt to scope them as I was too busy trying to keep my eye on that plastic Barnacle Goose for Tim!

I had a very brief trip to North Duffield Carrs at lunchtime, it was blowing a gale and torrential rain - with increased water levels again! Not a single bird on the reserve that I could see! So I didn't hang around at all! A few Lapwing flew over Aughton, and there were singles of Black-headed and Common Gulls flying south along the river. That was it!

Bewick's Swans and Bramblings

Had a late start today, woke up to several messages/missed calls and was initially gutted I'd missed a Ring-billed Gull on the local patch, but then relieved when it turned out not to be one! Certainly lots of gulls about. One day maybe....

Nice walk at lunchtime resulted in a massive finch flock including a mixed flock of 100+ Bramling and Chaffinch. Lots of Greenfinch and Linnet and a couple of Goldfinch, Bullfinch and some Tree Sparrow and Reed Bunting. These showed really nicely, especially when they came down to the puddles to drink. Unfortunately no camera with me as I had the dogs with me!

I'd heard that two Bewick's Swans had been present at North Duffield in the early morning so thought I'd have a look this afternoon, but it was fairly quiet to be honest. There was a couple of Whooper Swans but no sign of the Bewick's. The light was a bit strange and there was a real haze making use of the scope on high power more or less impossible so some stuff may have been missed/was unidentifiable. There was two possible Scaup to the left of the hide but they spent more time underwater than above it so a bit difficult, especially with the poor visibility... a few Shelduck, Shoveler, Pintail all showed well with all the regular suspects. Several Dunlin and Lapwing were noted. A few Pied Wagtails showed nicely as they walked about on the ice in front of the hide and a Barn Owl appeared out of nowhere but was too quick for me to get a proper picture.

As dusk approached numerous gulls started to come in to roost, mainly Black-headed and Common's with a  few Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls.

I heard from Tim that there were 2 Bewick's Swans at Ellerton this afternoon, another York Area Year-tick for him!

Pied Wagtail

Pied Wagtail

Barn Owl

Bewick's Swan at North Duffield

I worked at home today so had my lunch over at North Duffield Carrs to take a look at what was going on - it was more or less completely frozen over (see picture below)!

I had a quick scan of the numerous wildfowl and waders that were either on the river, unfrozen pools or were stood roosting on the ice. The usual suspects really with Scaup (1st winter male - new bird to the one I had last time (which was a 1st winter female) - presumably the bird found by Tim on Monday), Pintail, Tufted Duck, Shoveler, Mallard, Gadwall, Teal, Wigeon, Mute Swan, Coot and Moorhen (the latter two species up on last couple of visits). Marsh Harrier flew through and a Barn Owl almost flew into the hide! (it was 1pm!). Quite a few waders about, Golden Plover and Lapwing, 10+ Ruff, 40 Dunlin (20 feeding along river bank and 20 roosting on ice) and a few Snipe too.

The highlight however came with the familiar sound of Whooper Swan as 82 flew in from the south.  A good 60% of these landed on the River Derwent half way between Geoff Smith and Aughton. whilst scanning the flock I picked out three birds that struck me as being a bit different, so I got a couple of pictures on my phone. They were Bewick's Swans!

Bewick's Swan is a Lower Derwent Valley Special Protection Area (SPA) Qualifying Species i.e.: one of the reasons the Lower Derwent Valley has European Protection (under the EU Birds Directive) - however this was a first at the site/in the LDV/York Recording Area for me!

The occurrences of Swans within the LDV today is markedly different to what it once was and looking at the patterns seems to fluctuate regularly.  In my (relatively short) time in the LDV Whooper Swans are the regular species with counts of over 100 birds common during the winter and several hundred others going through on passage, with Bewick's Swans pretty much a scarce (but probably more-or-less annual in very low numbers) very brief visitor. All the ones I can remember hearing about recently have been seen once, on one day but then not again (often coming in to roost late pm)! Now, if you speak to the old guard, back in the 1980s it was the other way round, with counts of 200+ Bewick's Swans with far fewer Whooper Swans about!

Potentially interesting, is that one of the Bewick's Swans appeared to be darvic-ringed (noticeable in some of the pics).  Hopefully (if they linger) the swans will be found foraging somewhere and we'll be able to get the ring code read. There was a minimum of 3 Bewick's, but there may have been 4-5 (check out the mixed shot at the end)

Some pictures of the swans from today:

Mixed flock here...

The floods have gone down (for the time being) but are now frozen solid!