LDV & Castle Howard

Had a very quick check from Bubwith Bridge this lunchtime, still good numbers of birds, more or less the same as yesterday species and numbers wise so see yesterdays report if interested (too some record shots of the waders on my phone (below)! The main difference was that there was a good 50+ Whooper Swans on Bubwith Ings, a dog walker then kindly flushed 2 previously unseen Bewick's Swans out onto the water for me!

I then headed over to Castle Howard to see if there was anything on the lake. Fairly quiet there to be honest, lots of Coots today, 3 Goosander and the female Scaup still present too. The gull roost was quite impressive, mainly Common and Black-headed Gulls with five Herring Gulls noted and one 1st winter Mediterranean Gull with a very smart 'zorro-mask'. There was also at least 52 Cormorant present.

'Normal' Ruff (phone-scoped)

'Funky' Ruff (phone-scoped through vegetation)

Lapwing (phone-scoped)

Redshank (phone-scoped)

Bewick's Swans (phone-scoped)

Sunset at Castle Howard

Nice Barn Owl on the drive home too.

More Ducks..

Morning dog walk produced an interesting mixed finch flock: 1 Brambling, 1 Lesser Redpoll, 3 Greenfinch, 2 Goldfinch and 12 Chaffinch. Not a lot else though.

I drove up to the Rufforth area to look for gulls, but they were more flighty than yesterday due to air-traffic and a nearby Buzzard that kept spooking them. Just the usual suspects today.

I then decided to head over to Castle Howard to see what was about, it was fairly busy with wildfowl, highlight here was a pair of Mandarin (a record shot of the distant pair below - male on the bank, female on the water). They were in more-or-less exactly the same spot that I had them here in the summer! There was also a Scaup present, showing about 500 m closer than the one I'd seen at North Duffield on Friday morning! Some pictures of this bird below.

Other wildfowl noted included: 14 Goosander, Pintail, Goldeneye, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Wigeon, Teal, Mallard, Gadwall, Greylag and Canada Geese, Mute Swan and Little Grebe (photo below). Don't remember any passerines of note!

Mandarin pair (phone-scoped looking into the sun)

Scaup

Scaup

Scaup

Scaup

Little Grebe