Patchwork Challenge January Summary

Well January is over. I put some details of my North Duffield patch area up at the beginning of the month here and have enjoyed seeing some good birds.

I finished January on 82 species, 89 points. The best birds have included:

Green-winged Teal - gutted to have not found this (if only for the extra 3 points I would have scored!), was found by Jono while I was away for the weekend - the only day I didn't spend some time on the patch all month! Luckily it was there the next day but hasn't been seen by anyone else subsequently. Details/photos here.

Raven - although only worth the 1 point on the PWC score system, Raven was probably statistically one of the rarest birds I saw in the patch in January. My first local, and only second or third record in six plus years in the York recording area.

Hen Harrier - difficult to catch up with in the local area - some years they just don't happen, other years you can have a few knocking about. It's just a case of being in the right place at the right time - luckily I was this time.

Bewick's Swan - although the LDV is a Special Protection Area (SPA) designated specifically for Bewick's Swans, among a range of other species. They are far from regular these days. I've had the one family group a couple of times over recent years but for a few years before that nothing. The SPA citation is for 47 individuals - these days we're happy to get one bird! Conversely - Whooper Swans have gone the other way and are now here in large numbers and the site should be an SPA for them!

Other notable species seen in January include: Marsh Harrier, Peregrine Falcon, Stonechat, Black-tailed Godwit, Barn Owl and Corn Bunting. Pochard and Tufted Duck were pleasing too given the water levels.

Birds I've not seen so far, but should have done include: Little Owl, Red-legged Partridge, Grey Partridge, Treecreeper, Jack Snipe, Green Woodpecker, Pink-footed Geese (or any of the other more unusual geese that usually turn up in January).

Birds reported locally that I've missed include: Rough-legged Buzzard, Short-eared Owl and Oystercatcher.

Barn Owl from the LDV Andy Walker.

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) 

Lesser Scaup North Duffield???

An interesting lunch-hour in the Geoff Smith Hide at North Duffield Carrs today. Not a particularly straightforward one.... enjoyable, frustrating, awesome, nightmare... all of the above...

Got a call from Tim saying he and Chris had got an interesting duck (either a Lesser Scaup or Hybrid Aythya sp), it was perfect timing as it was lunchtime so I shot across to be greeted by a distant Aythya species on a bit of water that was not totally frozen over (unlike the rest of the area which was frozen solid). It was an interesting bird, but due to a combination of poor visibility and distance the ID couldn't be 100% certain. Tim's written a brief description of the bird here and will go looking for it again tomorrow.

There was a huge number of birds present in the centre of the Ings, all concentrated around the small open area of water. I didn't have time to count anything but estimates of numbers follow: 300+ Tufted Ducks, 100 Pochard, 15+ Goldeneye, 100 Pintail, hundreds of Mallard, Wigeon and Teal. Lots of geese (Canada and Grey-lag), none of the recently reported White-fronted Geese that were mentioned in the log book!

A Green-winged Teal briefly appeared on the river in front of the hide before flying to the near side riverbank and out of sight, joined quickly by hundreds of Common Teal and Wigeon.  A pair of Bewick's Swans flew in and landed on the water. Again, one of these birds was the darvic-ringed bird - see here for some details on this bird (more will come soon too). At least 60 Whooper Swan flew onto the river too.

Tim and Chris mentioned that they'd had a Marsh Harrier and Peregrine Falcon prior to my arrival and just before I left Tim picked up a distant harrier coming in from the northwest - a sub-adult male Hen Harrier!!! It gently glided towards Aughton. Amazingly my second Hen Harrier in the recording area in less than 2 weeks! I wonder if this was the bird Arnie found back in late November/early December!

I'm now looking forward to being able to spend the weekend birding locally to see if I can re-locate the Green-winged Teal, if we can suss out the Aythya duck (will leave that to Tim!). However, news this morning of a Hawfinch in the north of the recording area, along with the Iceland Gull at Rufforth tip are going to make for a busy time!

This morning was incredibly cold (as it was for most of the day) so I took a couple of scenic shots of the local dog-walking patch on my phone (below). A few thrushes (Blackbird, Redwing, Fieldfare, Song Thrush) were noted, but not much else. Did have a couple of Tree Sparrow in the garden today which was nice!

Sunrise down my lane!

The dogs enjoying the ice and snow