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.

North Duffield Carrs 25.01.2014

Had my first proper trip of 2014 at North Duffield Carrs today. Was there for a bit less than 90 minutes late afternoon. Had 47 species. List in photo below (assume you know the BTO 2-letter codes and can read my scrawl)! Highlight was a large number of waders and a Peregrine giving them all a hard time!

In other news I'm busy putting together my Thailand trip report, about 3/4 of the way through and should hopefully have it sorted by next weekend. Still got some more photos to sort out too. Whilst writing my trip report I've found one species I'd missed off my list - just the small matter of a Banded Kingfisher that I'd photographed but forgotten to log!! Revised Thailand total is therefore 460 species...  

Loving the local patch

Just back from another enjoyable evening at North Duffield Carrs. Still lots of Yellow Wagtail around, easily over 60 still. Highlight though was the Blue-headed Wagtail still present. There was a good number of Pied Wagtail (18) and Shelduck (44) an increase in Redshank (14) and a very smart Whimbrel (phone-scoped picture below).

A couple of days ago I found two Shelduck at North Duffield with darvic-rings. Thanks to an update from Craig at NE LDV I got the details of them:

Bird 1: ZL - was ringed on 6th February 2012 at Wheldrake and not seen/caught again until my sighting.

Bird 2: CF - was ringed on 2nd June 2010 at Wheldrake, was present in the LDV last March was was re-caught at Thorganby on 25th March 2013.

I also had another darvic-ringed bird on that date, and at least two today that I couldn't read due to their legs covered in mud!

If you're in the area (or further afield) keep an eye open for darvic-ringed/colour-ringed birds as there's a lot of them about! A total of 52 Shelduck were caught in the LDV this year, with 100 caught last year too...

Whimbrel

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).

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)