Local News: Finches and Thrushes

Had a couple of nice walks round North Duffield village today.  There was loads of thrushes this morning, a good 1000 Fieldfare either moving through towards the southwest, or dropping into a freshly ploughed stubble field and in with these several hundred Redwing, Blackbird and Song Thrush, also a lot of Starling too. In addition here there was a few Meadow Pipits and Linnets too.

Several Goldcrest and Long-tailed Tit moved through the hedges and a few Lesser Redpoll, Chaffinch and Brambling flew south. A series of large puddles proved a great attraction for a mixed finch flock with Lesser Redpoll, Siskin, Goldfinch, Greenfinch and Chaffinch all taking a bath and having a drink. A pair of Great Spotted Woodpecker and Bullfinch showed well.

A bit later I was enjoying several Jay, Green Woodpecker and some more Great Spotted Woodpecker and had a couple of Crossbill and a Grey Wagtail fly over.

Also had a Goldcrest and a flock of 40+ Goldfinch in the garden.

Late news from last week: 

Last weekend I went down to North Duffield Carrs for an hour in the cold northerly wind and had very nice views of a Short-eared Owl, 3/4 Marsh Harriers and a giant of a Peregrine that was busy flushing pretty much everything on site!

On Thursday I went up to a new site we've just got in Northumberland, a big forested area so will be interesting to see what we get up there (if anything?!) started off with a few Crossbill and some Red Squirrel so not to be complained at.

Might be heading North tomorrow, Lesser Kestrel (if it is one?) would be a nice year tick - and hopefully a bit closer than the one I had a Minsmere a few years back and a Bee-eater would be a nice November tick! Think the last time I had Bee-eater in November they'd arrived on their wintering grounds near our house in Kenya! Just hope the fireworks don't scare everything off!!

Easy does it.....

Eased into my two week holiday today by cleaning my car for the first time ever! I think it has mice living inside it! Oh well at least it will be clean enough for Uncle Albert tomorrow on our voyage south...

Had a nice walk round the dog-walk patch this morning, there was a massive increase in Blackbird today, with several flocks of 6-8 birds seen in the various bits of hedgerow. Came across a small Long-tailed Tit flock that contained one Chiffchaff and three Goldcrest.

Had a bit of a stand-off with the local hunt and their pack of Hounds! A couple of barks from David and they all ran off! A single Golden Plover flew up (after being flushed by the hounds) and a raucous call alerted me to a 'patch tick' in the form of a single Jay. So close to the garden!! Next time!

I popped into North Duffield Carrs for the late afternoon/early evening however the light was abysmal! No sign of the Short-eared Owl but a minimum of 5 Marsh Harriers roosted. The highlight here however was a single Grey Plover that flew through calling. It possibly dropped down near Bubwith Bridge so may be worth looking for tomorrow? Plenty of Lapwing again with a couple of distant Redshank, Dunlin and between 1 and 3 Curlew. The Grey Plover was a patch tick. There seems to have been a decent number this autumn, I had one that was seen by a number of people at Bank Island several weeks ago and Russ had 2 more near Elvington on a flood so there's been at least 4 found. Shame it wasn't something rarer but can't complain!

One of the Marsh Harriers came close enough to phone-scope though as the light was so appalling they're not great. Was good to catch up with Tim (who's now set up my camera so I hope to be able to get some decent shots whilst on the Scillies - thanks!) and Nige too.

Marsh Harrier (phone-scoped) 

Marsh Harrier (phone-scoped)  

Marsh Harrier (phone-scoped) 

Harriers and Owls in the LDV

Spent the afternoon at North Duffield today. The river has finally gone down a fair bit but the floods are still present, in fact there seems to be more flooding than last week!  The reserve was full of Lapwing, Teal and Wigeon with a good number of Golden Plover and a few Ruff thrown into the mix too.  Additional waterfowl included Pochard, Shoveler, Tufted Duck, Gadwall and Mallard.  There was also hundreds of Greylag and Canada Geese and a flock of 70-something Pink-footed Geese flew low north.

Pink-footed Geese 

Pink-footed Geese

Harriers appeared well down on my last visit, think I only counted 5 birds, however I was fairly distracted by  the two Short-eared Owls that were showing (relatively) close to the hide - still a bit too far for photographing them properly but I gave it a try anyway!

 Short-eared Owl

 

 Short-eared Owl

 Short-eared Owl 

 Short-eared Owl 

 Short-eared Owl 

 Short-eared Owl 

 Short-eared Owl

There was a few Siskin, Redpoll and Skylark passing south and I could hear a couple of Jays and a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the background too.