More at North Duffield

Took a walk round a frozen local patch this morning which resulted in a very interesting discovery - and not an interesting discovery for a good reason, one for a very, very bad reason, but one I'll detail tomorrow/later in the week when I have some more stuff together...

I spent a couple of hours down at North Duffield in the Geoff Smith Hide this afternoon in the hope that there may have been some decent birds down there. It didn't start well as on arrival at the site a guy had decided to show his 3 screaming kids the flood, not from the hide, no they'd jumped the fence and walked right out to the edge of it. Therefore for the first 30 minutes after they'd cleared off there wasn't much to look at!

After a while birds started to move back in but numbers were down on yesterdays totals, presumably they were widespread feeding with less wildfowling going on in the general area, and species diversity was down too, no Shoveler, no Pintail, no Goldeneye. There was an increase in Coot though with 3 now present! The good stuff to really make you glad you bothered visiting!!

Three vocal Whooper Swans flew in, two adults and a juvenile.

Coot Andy Walker

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.

The Flood...

The morning dog walk was a bit quieter than normal, then I noticed a 'Road Closed' sign. The flood from the River Derwent had cross the road between Bubwith and North Duffield and blocked it off. Cool!! A bit of peace and quite!

The dog walk was fairly interesting, lots of Wood Pigeon heading south in flocks of 80-100 a time, lots of Redwing bursting out of the maize stubble field and the hedgerows, with the usual Blackbirds and Fieldfares in tow.  The usual finches were well represented again. I've been keeping an eye on a Chaffinch flock that's now about 40 strong. In with these today was almost a dozen Brambling, showing nicely. May try and get some pics at the weekend if they hang around.

At lunch time I drove round the 'Road Closed' sign to see what lay the other side. It was quite impressive! The first picture below shows the typical view from Geoff Smith Hide, and the second picture shows today's view. I've highlighted the same features in each picture to provide approximate reference points: 1) Hawthorn Bush, 2) Hawthorn Bush, 3) Aughton Church, 4) Distant Trees, 5) Bitterns favoured feeding area - now about 8+ feet underwater.... The third picture shows my view and the fourth shows Garganey Hide, well the roof of it as that's all that's on show at the moment!

North Duffield Dry-look

North Duffield Wet-look

My view!

Garganey Hide - Honestly!

There wasn't a huge amount on show in the 20 minutes I was down there, highlights were 2 (new) drake Goldeneye and a Marsh Harrier - record shots below. Still quite a lot of birds about, but mainly along the edges, or distant - was a bit like sea-watching today! Will see what's about over the weekend when I have some time to look for something a bit more exciting like a Smew, Scoter, Diver, Shopping Trolley etc...

'Pair' of Goldeneye

Marsh Harrier trying to find somewhere dry to land!

Marsh Harrier giving up trying to find somewhere dry to land!