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

Back at North Duffield

I popped across to North Duffield Carrs this afternoon to check out the floods. They seem to have decreased slightly (only slightly). A few more previously submerged bushes were just about visible. Garganey Hide was still fully underwater and the flood still lapping at the bottom of the Geoff Smith Hide.

There was a lot of wildfowl however they were difficult to count accurately as they were very flighty, mainly due to the presence of wildfowlers/shooters on the edge of North Duffield village.

I met a guy in the car park who informed me that there was a Bewick Swan at North Duffield/within the LDV according to an article within the Yorkshire Post. I've not seen the article, but none of the local birders that I've spoken to know anything about it so not sure how reliable the report is - would be interested to know who's claimed it... where/when etc...

There is a large flock of Mute and Whooper Swans in the valley at present, but these were far to distant today from the Geoff Smith Hide to look through properly. May be best to look off Thorganby viewing platform.

The best I could manage today was 1 Little Grebe (possibly the same bird seen distantly last weekend? This time it was 6 ft in front of the hide! A bonus of the flood!), 1 drake Goldeneye which swiftly flew off, 5 Shelduck, 1 female Tufted Duck, 2 Pintail, 4 Shoveler, 500 Teal, 300 Wigeon, 100 Mallard, 10 Gadwall. I didn't see any raptors/owls of note as far as I can remember. A few flocks of Lapwing flew southeast, one flock had a single Ruff in with them.

This morning a walk round the local area produced lots of Redwing and Fieldfare and a mixed finch flock contained Greenfinch, Linnet, Goldfinch, Chaffinch and some Brambling.