Green-winged Teal NDC

I went away on Friday night for the weekend for the first time since Christmas, so when I got a phone call from Jono (Birding Dad) on Saturday morning I got that sinking feeling - "I'm watching a Green-winged Teal at North Duffield, can you come down and see it". Er, no, I'm in Warwickshire! I just had to hope it would be there Sunday afternoon. Several people saw it on Saturday morning before it was flushed by shooting at the nearby farm and was not seen afterwards. Though I did get several photos of the bird so I knew what I was missing, thanks everyone!

There were no reports of it during Sunday morning so I headed straight there when I got home just after lunch. There was quite a few ducks on the water - this could take some time.

In fact it didn't! I started on the left side of the large flock and about 10 birds in was the smart drake Green-winged Teal! The bird was on show until dusk. A nice bird for my Patchwork Challenge list! I got a few record shots on my phone (below). There wasn't much else of note, just the usual suspects.

Green-winged Teal (phone-scoped) 

Green-winged Teal (phone-scoped) 

Green-winged Teal (phone-scoped) 

Green-winged Teal (phone-scoped) 

A great few visits to the Patch

Had a great few visits onto the 'patch' this weekend.

Some highlight birds include:

Hen Harrier - finally caught up with the ring-tail Hen Harrier that's been in the local area for a few weeks!

Raven - one flew west over Skipwith Common on Saturday afternoon.

Marsh Harrier - had an immature bird at NDC today.

Peregrine Falcon - had an adult female yesterday and an immature male today, both at NDC. The male today made several attempts at Dunlin during the 2 hours I was watching him, and one go at the Marsh Harrier too!

Barn Owl - saw a few birds this weekend - probably about 5 birds! Some very nice views (and rubbish record shots off my phone in near-darkness).

Tawny Owl - three seen on Saturday night.

Black-tailed Godwit - one flew into NDC briefly before heading back north up the valley, presumably trying to find some unfrozen ground!

Stonechat - Two seen at the same time today at NDC.

Other common birds that had alluded me until now included Corn Bunting, Coal Tit, Siskin, Lesser Redpoll. I'm now at 81 species, 86 points.

The Shelduck had reduced to about 110 birds, Dunlin had increased to 224 (good count) and there were about 97 Whooper Swans late afternoon today. It was not possible to count the wildfowl as they were all very tightly packed on the only unfrozen patch of water!

Barn Owl - phone-scoped record shot near dark

Barn Owl - phone-scoped record shot near dark

Patching

A steady couple of days on the patch but I did get two birds that may be difficult - especially with the water levels at NDC rapidly decreasing - Pochard (1 male) and Tufted Duck (1 female). Other 'new' birds included the worlds fastest Long-tailed Tit (very much wind assisted).

Of most interest at NDC today was the Shelduck - had a high count in the morning of 118 but this afternoon beat that and got 124! Unusually high for the time of the year I think. Nothing interesting in the gull roost unfortunately.

Another nice Barn Owl view today too.

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.

More (proper) Great White Egret Pictures

I was very kindly sent these pictures of the Great White Egret (at Wheldrake Ings from Pool hide) by York Birder Robert Dawson (thank you) who was the only person down in the hide with me when the bird was showing this morning and as it flew off came within range of his camera! The photos below are reproduced with Roberts permission:

It's been a long time coming...

...I finally went birding!

Most of the summer has been taken up by writing reports of one sort or another. I've been engrossed in the cricket and have done a little planning for my rapidly approaching birding trip to Thailand (4 months to go) but in all honesty I've just been too busy to blog. No great loss!

I have actually done a bit of birding locally (had a Red Kite almost visible from my house) and a bit further afield but most of it has involved Schedule 1 birds at secret locations so I can't talk about those here! As Autumn is starting to get going I thought I'd try and get a bit more active, we'll see....

Today I went to Wheldrake Ings, was overcast but still fairly mild. Highlights included 8 Green Sandpiper, 1 Ruff, 4 Snipe and 33 Lapwing. A few ducks but they were all in their 'brown-look' so I didn't really bother with them and a few gulls flew over with lots of gaps in their wings, ugly, so again ignored those. Did see a Grey Heron catch a foot long Pike wash it, then swallow it whole, and still alive! Quite impressive.

I called in to Bank Island, the Butterfly Garden there last week was spectacular, most of the plants have gone over now but there was quite a few 'White's' still knocking about, and a Little Egret on the pool too.

That was about it, the Vulcan flew over and flushed everything a couple of times before it cleared off.

The only other thing was Swift, noticeable by their absence in the LDV today...

Lost the Love?

I've not. Yesterday I found an unusual and unexpected patch tick in the form of a Fischer's Lovebird at North Duffield Carrs! Was scanning the marsh when a familiar-ish call rang out - parrot sp! I scanned about but couldn't hear anything and guessed I may have been dreaming when suddenly the small parrot flew into view on the other side of the marsh about 10ft off the ground before landing in the tree right above me! Unfortunately I didn't have my 'proper' camera with me so grabbed a couple of record shots on my phone. After 10 minutes it flew off up the valley towards Skipwith or Thorganby way. It had come across from the Bubwith/Aughton area.

I'm not 100% certain on the status of Fischer's Lovebird in the York Recording Area but will look into it...

Let me know if you've lost your lovebird!

In actual news, and exciting news too, I got my 90th garden tick tonight - a Coot! Night-birding is brilliant! Oh I also went Whimbrel ringing last night. Caught 2 Whimbrel and 2 Redshank (with a further 4 Whimbrel and a Little Grebe caught later in the night - will post more on this later hopefully).

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 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!)

Egyptians on the Patch

The day started off well, I found a smart Little Owl whilst out walking the dogs at dawn, though there wasn't much else about. As I was walking back into the garden a familiar, yet unfamiliar sight appeared in front of me, a Barn Owl! A garden first! I've heard them calling during the breeding season but this is the first time I've managed to get views of one! Also in the garden today were a couple of Fieldfare and Tree Sparrow.

At lunchtime I popped across to the Geoff Smith Hide at North Duffield Carrs for my sandwich. Natural England were busy working away on cleaning up some of the flood damage and installing a new bird-feeder set up which will be great once complete.

The reserve was stacked out with birds again, a large flock of geese feeding on the bank adjacent to Garganey Hide contained two cracking Egyptian Geese - presumably the pair of birds that were present on the pool at Wheldrake Ings earlier in the week (phone photo below).

The Aythya hybrid was still present amongst the thousands of duck though I didn't locate the Greater Scaup in my brief visit.  A few large gulls flew into the reserve to bathe, one of which looked fairly good for adult Yellow-legged Gull but time beat me!

Egyptian Goose record shot (phone-scoped)

Glaucous Gull North Duffield Carrs

I see (via Birdguides) that someone has reported a juvenile Glaucous Gull at North Duffield Carrs this lunchtime (1230). I've not heard who though.  I wonder if it was the bird that I had on 1st January? I'm working at home tomorrow so will pop across at lunchtime and see if it's still about. It will also be interesting to see if the cold weather has moved any waterfowl around...

I also see (again via Birdguides) that there is a Great Grey Shrike a few kilometres outside of the York recording area, fingers crossed it decides to move west a little as a repeat of the bird that spent a recent winter (2011) frequenting the Lower Derwent Valley (namely North Duffield Carrs and Skipwith Common). There was a brief bird near York last year (2012) but I didn't get chance to go for that one.

Great Grey Shrike trapped at Skipwith Common in 2011. The bird was commuting between Skipwith Common where it was feeding, and North Duffield Carrs where it was roosting. 

Great Grey Shrike trapped at Skipwith Common in 2011. The bird was commuting between Skipwith Common where it was feeding, and North Duffield Carrs where it was roosting.