LDV & Castle Howard

Had a very quick check from Bubwith Bridge this lunchtime, still good numbers of birds, more or less the same as yesterday species and numbers wise so see yesterdays report if interested (too some record shots of the waders on my phone (below)! The main difference was that there was a good 50+ Whooper Swans on Bubwith Ings, a dog walker then kindly flushed 2 previously unseen Bewick's Swans out onto the water for me!

I then headed over to Castle Howard to see if there was anything on the lake. Fairly quiet there to be honest, lots of Coots today, 3 Goosander and the female Scaup still present too. The gull roost was quite impressive, mainly Common and Black-headed Gulls with five Herring Gulls noted and one 1st winter Mediterranean Gull with a very smart 'zorro-mask'. There was also at least 52 Cormorant present.

'Normal' Ruff (phone-scoped)

'Funky' Ruff (phone-scoped through vegetation)

Lapwing (phone-scoped)

Redshank (phone-scoped)

Bewick's Swans (phone-scoped)

Sunset at Castle Howard

Nice Barn Owl on the drive home too.

More Geese and Swans

I managed to get the dogs walked before the rain came but didn't see many birds (that I can remember) - Bullfinch, Chaffinch and quite a few Redwing. Big flock of Greenfinch and Goldfinch in/around the garden (c45+) but no sign of yesterdays Waxwing.

Then the weather came, increase in wind and rain. Not the day for birding! So I decided to go do my weekly shop. On the way I thought I'd take a quick look for yesterdays Tundra Bean Geese. Lots of swans were in the usual field about 600 m back from the road (Whoopers, Bewick's, Mute and Black) then I noticed 2 large 'grey geese' and 5 small 'grey geese' even further back, about 1 km back from the road. I was very happy when the 5 smaller ones lifted their heads - European White-fronts. The two larger ones were Greylags. I was happy with the White-fronts as they were year ticks!

The field was stacked out with birds, loads of Golden Plover and Lapwing, c150+ Dunlin, 5 Ruff and a handful of Snipe. A decent flock of Linnet were mobile, mainly due to two Barn Owls that were flying around. All the waders and passerines got up as a female Sparrowhawk flew through and buzzed everything, though that was nothing compared to the total pandemonium caused by two fighting Peregrines that shot through! 

After my shopping trip I called in again. Still no Tundra Bean Geese but the above geese/swans were still present, along with 2 Egyptian Geese.

I took a drive up the LDV, connecting with a few more Whooper Swans and called in at the gull roost at Wheldrake but I didn't hang about as the rain was pelting down into my face!

Whooper Swan

Whooper Swans

European White-fronted Geese etc. (phone-scoped at 1 km range!)