Patch Birding

I've added a couple of new birds to my #PWC2015 list over the last couple of days, this has included sightings of Barn Owl, Mistle Thrush, Linnet, Gadwall, Kingfisher and, best of all - Stonechat. Not bad for a couple of dog walks and and quick look on the Carrs.

Now up to 66 species (68 points).

Lots of common birds still to make an appearance yet too such as Long-tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Yellowhammer, Treecreeper, Lesser Redpoll, both Partridges etc!

North Duffield Carrs was heaving with birds today, loads of Golden Plover and Lapwing, there was also a good number of Dunlin and Ruff, four or five Curlew and a couple of Redshank (no sign of yesterdays 4/5 Black-tailed Godwits). Still plenty of Whooper Swans about, as was the Bewick's Swan. Good numbers of Shelduck, Wigeon, Teal, Mallard and a few Pintail, Shoveler, Gadwall. Lots of big gulls coming in to roost too.

The view from the hide today.

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).

Four Swans and a Blackberry...

I popped across to North Duffield at lunchtime to see if there was much doing. It was fairly quiet generally on the floods with one Great Crested Grebe all of note. However there was a (presumably new) drake Greater Scaup alone on the river. Still a good number of Pochard and Tufted Duck about on Bubwith Ings, but either too far away or under trees so I didn't try counting them.

I had a look at the fields next to the car park and came across 151 Greylag Geese, 2 Egyptian Geese (record shot below), several hundred Lapwing, 50+ Golden Plover, 3 Ruff but the highlight was getting the 2 Bewick's Swans in the same scope view as a herd of Whooper Swans, Mute Swans and a single Black Swan and managing to grab a record shot on my phone of them all together (below)! I wonder how many other times all these four have been photographed together?

The two (always distant) Egyptian Geese (phone-scoped)

Whooper, Bewick's, Black and Mute Swans all in the same view! (phone-scoped) 

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...

Lesser Scaup North Duffield???

An interesting lunch-hour in the Geoff Smith Hide at North Duffield Carrs today. Not a particularly straightforward one.... enjoyable, frustrating, awesome, nightmare... all of the above...

Got a call from Tim saying he and Chris had got an interesting duck (either a Lesser Scaup or Hybrid Aythya sp), it was perfect timing as it was lunchtime so I shot across to be greeted by a distant Aythya species on a bit of water that was not totally frozen over (unlike the rest of the area which was frozen solid). It was an interesting bird, but due to a combination of poor visibility and distance the ID couldn't be 100% certain. Tim's written a brief description of the bird here and will go looking for it again tomorrow.

There was a huge number of birds present in the centre of the Ings, all concentrated around the small open area of water. I didn't have time to count anything but estimates of numbers follow: 300+ Tufted Ducks, 100 Pochard, 15+ Goldeneye, 100 Pintail, hundreds of Mallard, Wigeon and Teal. Lots of geese (Canada and Grey-lag), none of the recently reported White-fronted Geese that were mentioned in the log book!

A Green-winged Teal briefly appeared on the river in front of the hide before flying to the near side riverbank and out of sight, joined quickly by hundreds of Common Teal and Wigeon.  A pair of Bewick's Swans flew in and landed on the water. Again, one of these birds was the darvic-ringed bird - see here for some details on this bird (more will come soon too). At least 60 Whooper Swan flew onto the river too.

Tim and Chris mentioned that they'd had a Marsh Harrier and Peregrine Falcon prior to my arrival and just before I left Tim picked up a distant harrier coming in from the northwest - a sub-adult male Hen Harrier!!! It gently glided towards Aughton. Amazingly my second Hen Harrier in the recording area in less than 2 weeks! I wonder if this was the bird Arnie found back in late November/early December!

I'm now looking forward to being able to spend the weekend birding locally to see if I can re-locate the Green-winged Teal, if we can suss out the Aythya duck (will leave that to Tim!). However, news this morning of a Hawfinch in the north of the recording area, along with the Iceland Gull at Rufforth tip are going to make for a busy time!

This morning was incredibly cold (as it was for most of the day) so I took a couple of scenic shots of the local dog-walking patch on my phone (below). A few thrushes (Blackbird, Redwing, Fieldfare, Song Thrush) were noted, but not much else. Did have a couple of Tree Sparrow in the garden today which was nice!

Sunrise down my lane!

The dogs enjoying the ice and snow

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!

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!