More from North Duffield

Was working in some really nice places today, made Selby look posh! On the plus side I did/hear lots of warblers (Common and Lesser Whitethroats, Blackcap, Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff), the sites were also rammed with Swallow, House Martin, Sand Martin and Swift which was cool - there must have been a massive arrival today.

On my way home I popped into Thorganby to check out the viewing platform. The water was about 3ft deeper than on my last visit a few days ago, the fence that the Black Tern was sat on was totally submerged in the water! A quick scan of the mass of water revealed very little really, 157 Tufted Duck, 4 Pochard, 30 Shelduck and a few other bits and pieces. There was plenty of Swallows flying around too.

A bit later I checked out North Duffield Carrs to see what was around. The Bar-tailed Godwit was still present, sat right out in front of the hide showing really well as at first it fed, and then it slept. A quick scan of the reserve resulted in an increase from 1 (yesterday) to 6 (today) Greenshank. There was also 10/11 Black-tailed Godwit but these were staying fairly distant. Whimbrel numbers seemed much reduced, though they could have just been in the longer grass, also the water levels of the floods seem to be going down too which is good. There was also a good number of hirundines present here too.

North Duffield & Arctic Skuas in LDV

Dog walk this morning resulted in my first Cuckoo, first female Blackcap, and 2 Sedge Warblers back on the circuit.

Popped into North Duffield Carrs on my way to work this morning where there was 23 Whimbrel, 1 Greenshank, 1 Black-tailed Godwit (complete with a set of colour rings - see below) and 3 Sedge Warblers. On the way to work I had another couple of Cuckoo and a good number of Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff.

Work was fun, at least it wasn't raining! Highlights were the Red Kites that showed really well for an hour or so. This Meadow Pipit also showed nicely! I had about 46+ Swallow heading north during the survey.

Meadow Pipit (Phone-scoped) 

Meadow Pipit (Phone-scoped) 

Back to North Duffield this evening and I got brief views of a 1st summer Little Gull, I got a couple of record shots below, but it was quite distant. There was at least 28 Whimbrel present, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Greenshank and a summer plumaged Dunlin flew east.

Distant Little Gull (phone-scoped) 

Distant Little Gull (phone-scoped)  

Distant Little Gull (phone-scoped) with Black-headed for size comparison

Interestingly the Black-tailed Godwit (below) was colour ringed with a code appearing to be:  right leg - yellow over white over yellow and left leg - white over yellow (all above the knee). Will see what I can find out about it...

Colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwit (phone-scoped)

One of the Whimbrel (below) was also colour ringed, I'll provide an update when/if I can get to the bottom of it!

Colour-ringed Whimbrel - where's this one come from and been to? (phone-scoped)

Biggest local news was the 2 Arctic Skuas that Tim found flying north through the valley in the afternoon - a great, if not a bit gripping find!

More good local birding

Had a couple of forays into the local area this afternoon/evening. Seemed to be more migrants in today too.

Highlights included:

Wheatear: 1 male
Sedge Warbler: 1 singing North Duffield
Yellow Wagtail: 3 males
Swift: 2 flying north
Great Crested Grebe: 3 on Bubwith Ings
Greenshank: 2 North Duffield
Whimbrel: 7 North Duffield
Swallow, Sand Martin and House Martin all in higher numbers.

Highlight this evening however was the owls with great views of Barn, Short-eared and Tawny Owls. The Tawny flew right across in front of the hide perching briefly before moving off, but while walking back to the car I spotted it sat in a tree and got the following photos.

Tawny Owl (Phone-scoped) 

Tawny Owl (Phone-scoped)

Great Grey Shrike in the HAND! (and its alive)

Approximately this time last year (20th February) a Great Grey Shrike turned up at North Duffield Carrs Nature Reserve, just a mile form my house! Read all about the initial discovery here.

After a few days of it vanishing for long periods it was figured out that the bird was moving between the North Duffield Reserve and nearby Skipwith Common Nature Reserve (both very large areas) where occasionally it would show well - such as like it did here a month into its stay.

It was enjoyable and very educational to be able to watch this bird on a number of occasions during the late winter - it was covering a large area so there was hope/expectations of it turning up anywhere in the local area! My garden would have been nice (my garden was half way between the two regularly used sites)!

Despite all of the above views one Sunday afternoons sighting was the best and resulted in the following images... (these are all taken on my old Blackberry which unfortunately didn't have a very good camera - motto = keep your proper digital camera battery fully charged!). This is the first time I've put these pics on my blog, for some reason I was really busy at the time and just forgot all about them! They are not the best but you get the idea...


Great Grey Shrike Andy Walker (phone pic)


Great Grey Shrike Andy Walker (phone pic)


Great Grey Shrike Andy Walker (phone pic)


Great Grey Shrike Andy Walker (phone pic)


Great Grey Shrike Andy Walker (phone pic)


Great Grey Shrike Andy Walker (phone pic)


Great Grey Shrike Andy Walker (phone pic)


Great Grey Shrike Andy Walker (phone pic)

Garden Peregrine

Spent a couple of hours working at home this morning before heading in to the office. A reward for being sat at my desk at 9am came in the form of a 2nd year male Peregrine that burst out of a clamour of rooks that were scattering left right and center by this lean mean hunting machine. It shot straight over the garden and then over the house. I raced to the bedroom and caught it as it came over the roof before it closed its wings and stooped into the stubble field in front of the house putting up a mass of corvids, pigeons and starlings. With a bit of luck it may even have caught one of the village cats! This is my third garden Peregrine sighting since we moved in, just over 12 months ago, hopefully it will become a regular occurrence during the winter?


What a bird! Peregrine (Source Unknown)

Thrushes Galore

I spent the day report writing at home today, trying to prevent the imminent transfer of germs from my cough etc. However I couldn't help but notice the half-decent passage of Fieldfare and Redwings going south/southwest over the garden. The main movement seemed to occur between 1100 and 1400 hrs.

The totals for the day (over the garden) were:

Fieldfare: 967
Redwing: 560

I spoke with Ade this evening, he was working up in Northumberland and also had a decent thrush passage with 2000+ Fieldfare during his VP survey.

I noticed a few Golden Plover and Lapwing flocks moving around and also a few Wigeon flying about.

Common Crane & Great Grey Shrike - North Duffield

Most of Saturday was spent sorting the horses new stables out so I had to put the Great Grey Shrike hunt at Skipwith on hold until today. I was meeting up with Will (who I used to work with) during the afternoon so I suggested we met at Skipwith Common with the hope of catching up with said shrike. After 2 hours of no sign we thought that it had probably moved off somewhere. There was an awful lot of people/dogs etc running all over the place which may well have flushed it.

At about 4.30 I went over with Jenny to check on her horse over at Escrick, and at exactly the same time I got a message from Russell saying that he and John had just found 3 Common Crane and they were flying south through the Lower Derwent Valley, headed straight to North Duffield! Arghhhhhh!!! Then another message from Russell, then one from Alan, I was getting nervous that I was going to miss them... At least I got to enjoy views of these little beauties! (and 2 Oystercatcher).


Yorkshire Junglefowl!

We quickly finished sorting the horse out and I shot home and then across to the North Duffield Carrs car park, all the time hoping to see the group of Cranes in flight somewhere (part of me wished they were flying right over my house whilst I was dropping Jenny off!). I got there to see Alan walking back towards the car park. A quick chat revealed that the birds had done a circuit over the Carrs after leaving Wheldrake Ings airspace and had dropped low, possibly near the village. I've missed them was my immediate thought. Gutted! Alan decided to head towards the village and I decided to check the fields from the reserve area. A sudden flash, a Peregrine caught my eye, I followed it as it flew over Bubwith Ings.... then something else caught my eye, the 3 Common Cranes! They must have done a circuit behind the reserve and landed on Bubwith Ings! Awesome, and close and out in the open too! I called Alan back, we scoped them from near the car park. I phoned Russell and Jono to say I'd relocated them and they were on the deck.

I decided to go down to the Geoff Smith Hide to see if I could get a better angle through the willows - I could! I was now getting truly stunning views of these three birds, birds that were in spectacular plumage. I rattled off a couple of record shots on my new phone - I don't really like it for phonescoping. After a while feeding the Cranes started displaying. I've never seen this before (in this species of Crane). It was spectacular!


3 Common Crane, Bubwith Ings


3 Common Crane, Bubwith Ings


Displaying Common Crane, Bubwith Ings

I had the place to myself as most birders were watching the Cranes from Bubwith Bridge. I'd intended on going to the Carrs for dusk regardless of the Cranes as I'd wanted to check through the waterfowl. With the Cranes on view it was hard to take my eyes away from them but a quick scan revealed a typical range of species in higher numbers. A movement in front of the hide caught my attention. The Great Grey Shrike was sat in the same bush as it had been when I first saw it about 5 weeks ago! Amazing! The light was going quickly as it was gone 6pm so I got a quick record shot (worse than usual).

Great Grey Shrike, North Duffield Carrs - Geoff Smith Hide

I phoned Alan, Russ and Jono and the news must have got about as within 10 minutes the hide went from me only, to standing room only! Everyone got views of the Cranes and Shrike, then it got dark so I left. Hopefully they will get seen tomorrow too.

According to Birdguides News Extra, 3 Common Crane were observed flying north this morning in Nottinghamshire. It's likely that these are the same birds seen here this evening.

Thanks to Alan, John and Russ!