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....