A Busy Day at North Duffield

North Duffield was the place to be today it seems, in the local area anyway. However, I was a good couple of miles away on a dog walk when it got going...

Got a phone call from Jono "Osprey at north Duffield, sat on a post". Argh.... I was two miles away, on foot having just been enjoying watching a vocal Willow Tit with the dogs. A very quick walk/jog back and quick race across to the reserve. No sign! It had flown off about 2 minutes before I got there and possibly gone down behind some trees.... luckily after 20 minutes of constant scanning I picked it up heading back towards us. We had it for a good 20/30 minutes flying around. Eventually I lost it in a cloud as it gained height. Jono got a decent photo of it when it was sat on the fencepost - check his blog out for it sometime soon.

After enjoying the Osprey a Little Egret flew in to the reserve and fed for a while on the floods. There was plenty of ducks about, surely a Garganey or better out there somewhere... however by this point I needed some caffeine so headed home where I had a Yellow Wagtail fly over the garden.

Not long after lunch I got a message from Elaine from the village letting me know there was in fact a Garganey out there, a drake showing well, but I had to see if I was to become a millionaire first... I wasn't, so I headed back to the hide. A short wait and the drake Garganey flew in and continued to show very well for a good half hour - I got a couple of photos on my phone (below). There was a lone breeding plumage Black-tailed Godwit on the floods that looked very smart and a Lapwing in front of the hide. [There was actually a minimum of 5 Garganey in the LDV today - probably lots more hiding in the floods too]

I left to watch a pair of Gadwall get ringed, just after I'd left a first-winter Iceland Gull flew in, bathed briefly before flying southeast and two Swallows also flew through but I didn't see those either. Things are picking up....

Garganey North Duffield Carrs (IPhone-scoped)

Garganey North Duffield Carrs (IPhone-scoped)

Garganey North Duffield Carrs (IPhone-scoped)

Garganey North Duffield Carrs (IPhone-scoped)

LapwingNorth Duffield Carrs (IPhone-scoped)

I don't do Ducks!

Generally. Though today I made an exception to my rule....

A brief reprieve from South-east Asia (though I do have my non-bird and scenic shots to come once I've got time to look through them!) and also a trip report, hopefully I'll get time to sort them all out before I head back over there in December!... Anyway a bit of local stuff for now....

Some good local birds this weekend, highlights included Arctic and Common Terns, two drake Garganey, Little Egret, Little Ringed Plover, Wheatear, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Swallow, Sand Martin and House Martin. Still lots of signs of winter in Whooper Swan, Fieldfare and Redwing.  Though I did miss 2 York Area 'non-year-list' megas this weekend in Arctic Skua and Osprey which took the gloss off a little!

On Saturday I was very pleased to see one of my favourite birds - drake Garganey (phone-scoped photo of one of last years birds below). As far as I was concerned that meant I didn't have to look at another duck for the rest of the year. Great. Only one problem, I wasn't expecting a drake Baikal Teal to turn up at Mecca  (AKA Flamborough Head) today! Luckily I got a flyer from work this afternoon and managed to connect with the bird with relative ease. Thanks to Ollie for use of his bins and Rodney for loan of scope! This bird really was a total stunner. Don't think a duck has ever impressed me so much - other than the aforementioned Garganey!

Garganey -Phone-scoped in 2012

Hopefully it won't be long before some proper birds start turning up to look at, like warblers, wheatears, shrikes, chats, raptors etc... no more wildfowl please.... unless it's a Long-tailed Duck on my patch....

Garganey in the hand!

Today I got the very rare opportunity to take a look at a Garganey that was trapped and ringed at Wheldrake Ings NNR this evening.  Some pictures below. Also a Teal was trapped too.  Great to be able to compare head patterns.  Both birds were colour-ringed as par of the really interesting ongoing project in the valley. Garganey yellow on left and right, Teal orange on left and right. Expect some more details/better pictures on the LDV blog soon. Pics below are off phone cameras so not the best, but at least you can tell what it is!

 Garganey (Russell Slack)

Garganey (Andy Walker) 

Garganey (Andy Walker) 

 Garganey (Andy Walker) - check out the giant tertials!

Garganey (Russell Slack) 

Garganey and Teal (Russell Slack) - surprisingly subtle head patterning in eclipse

Garganey (Andy Walker)

More Local Quality Birding: Is spring around the corner (finally)?

Managed to get a bit of local birding in today and it appeared as though there was a few new migrants in. 

Morning dog walk around the village resulted in the first Sand Martin (flying north), Common Whitethroat and Yellow Wagtail of the year on the dog walk patch. Had the most amazing Barn Owl encounter, where one flew right up to me (within 6ft), then circled me before moving off.

Afterwards we took a trip down to Bubwith Bridge where a very smart (year tick) Common Sandpiper was walking along the debris in the river. There was also 56 Tufted Duck and a dozen or so Shelduck. Several more Sand Martin were noted passing through heading north.

Common Sandpiper Record Shot (Phone-scoped)

Common Sandpiper Record Shot (Phone-scoped)

The dogs enjoying their birding trip!

Spent most of the day in a meeting over Beverley way which was fairly dull, however a very smart Wheatear on the site was nice.

Heading back through the valley this afternoon/evening a few more decent birds were picked up including 8 Whimbrel, 2 Yellow Wagtail, 2 Little Grebe, 8 Great Crested Grebes, a pair of Egyptain Geese, Corn Bunting and a sprinkling of Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap however the highlight was a second drake Garganey in consecutive days. This bird showed a lot better than yesterdays (and I had my better Blackberry with me) so I got the following couple of photos:

Drake Garganey (Phone-scoped)

Drake Garganey (Phone-scoped)

A nice local Garganey

Had a busy day in the office today but on the way home I managed to connect with a cracking male Garganey a very nice year tick and one of my favourite ducks out there! Got a very poor record shot on my blackberry - unfortunately I'd left the better camera Blackberry in the car so didn't get a great pic, but you can sort of see what it is.


Drake Garganey (phone-scoped)

It was yet another day of sun and rain, got a couple of pics of the clouds below.