A great few visits to the Patch

Had a great few visits onto the 'patch' this weekend.

Some highlight birds include:

Hen Harrier - finally caught up with the ring-tail Hen Harrier that's been in the local area for a few weeks!

Raven - one flew west over Skipwith Common on Saturday afternoon.

Marsh Harrier - had an immature bird at NDC today.

Peregrine Falcon - had an adult female yesterday and an immature male today, both at NDC. The male today made several attempts at Dunlin during the 2 hours I was watching him, and one go at the Marsh Harrier too!

Barn Owl - saw a few birds this weekend - probably about 5 birds! Some very nice views (and rubbish record shots off my phone in near-darkness).

Tawny Owl - three seen on Saturday night.

Black-tailed Godwit - one flew into NDC briefly before heading back north up the valley, presumably trying to find some unfrozen ground!

Stonechat - Two seen at the same time today at NDC.

Other common birds that had alluded me until now included Corn Bunting, Coal Tit, Siskin, Lesser Redpoll. I'm now at 81 species, 86 points.

The Shelduck had reduced to about 110 birds, Dunlin had increased to 224 (good count) and there were about 97 Whooper Swans late afternoon today. It was not possible to count the wildfowl as they were all very tightly packed on the only unfrozen patch of water!

Barn Owl - phone-scoped record shot near dark

Barn Owl - phone-scoped record shot near dark

Skipwith and LDV (with the new camera)

Morning dog walk resulted in two decent flocks of Skylark, totalling about 35 birds.  A couple of Siskin and Meadow Pipit were noted flying south.

I decided to take my new camera for a walk round Skipwith this morning.  It was a beautiful day, cool but bright and sunny.  Highlights included several Jays, 2 Spotted Flycatchers (my first local area ones of the year!), single Hobby, 11 Buzzard all in a kettle (and very vocal), single Kestrel, 2 Sparrowhawk and a massive tit flock, made up mainly by Long-tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Great Tit, a few Goldcrest and a couple of Great Spotted Woodpecker and Chiffchaff but none of the hoped-for Yellow-browed Warblers!  Also had a few Wigeon flying around with the Mallard.  Further interest was provided by lots of dragonflies, mainly Hawkers and Darters I think? I also managed the following photographs with the new camera.  Will hopefully get better as I learn the correct settings etc...

Sparrowhawk 

Buzzard 

Hobby

Skipwith

 Presumed Hawker sp?

Presumed Ruddy Darter?

I then went across to Bank Island at Wheldrake to check out the wader habitat, about the only bit in the whole valley at the moment, but it does look good (had Grey Plover here last week).  There was near to 100 Lapwing, 1 Greenshank, several Common Snipe and 28 Golden Plover.  A flock of about 125 Black-headed Gull dropped in, and in with them was a first-winter Mediterranean Gull.  As I was leaving a flock of 17 Pink-footed Geese flew through heading south.

My last stop was North Duffield Carrs to check on the Marsh Harrier roost.  It was really quiet tonight with only 5 Marsh Harrier seen coming in to roost.  Most interest was from a distant Short-eared Owl that was getting mobbed by a Carrion Crow.  The crow soon lost interest and the Short-eared Owl remained sat on the fencepost for the next two hours! When I arrived at the hide I'd just missed a Hobby, no doubt attracted by the huge number of hirundines present (thousands of Swallow and House Martin tonight - really impressive).  There was also a distant Barn Owl out hunting and a roving flock of over 60 Goldfinch and Linnet. No pictures from here as everything was distant and the light faded rapidly.

All in all an enjoyable day, though the coast is calling for tomorrow!

LDV Patch Birding

Had a lazy morning, local dog walk was made up of lots of singing migrants - which seemed a bit bizarre given how cold it was! First bit of sunshine since last Saturday morning probably had something to do with it! Also found Sparrowhawk and Great Spotted Woodpecker nests which was cool. Also had Swift over the house/garden for the first time this year.

After lunch I spent 45 minutes in the Geoff Smith hide at NDC, however it was pretty quiet. There was 10 distant Black-tailed Godwit and there was also 5 Greenshank (2 close to the hide and 3 far from the hide). Didn't see any Whimbrel and there was again no sign of the Bar-tailed Godwit. Several Sedge Warblers gave really good views. There was also 2 Great Crested Grebe on the floods on the reserve and 4 Oystercatcher.

Mid-afternoon I took a quick local walk which resulted in some really nice views of a couple of Tree Pipit. The first sat out in the open on a dead branch and the second hunkered down in a leafy bush. I managed to grab a couple of record shots on my phone though they are not the best as I was obscured by the vegetation between the path and the birds. Also had Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler showing well and Green Woodpecker and Cuckoo were heard too. Several Swallow flew through.

Male Tree Pipit (Phone-scoped) 

Male Tree Pipit (phone-scoped) 

Male Tree Pipit (phone-scoped) 

Tree Pipit (phone-scoped) 

Tree Pipit (phone-scoped)

A 30 minute spell at Geoff Smith this evening was very quiet with no sign of any Greenshank but the 10 Black-tailed Godwit were still present (very distant) and the Grebes were still there too. A Cuckoo was heard calling. Again, no Whimbrel but there was several House Martin and Swallows about.

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)

A morning walk around Skipwith

Yesterday (Boxing Day) we all went for a walk around Skipwith, taking in the periphery of the Common and some nice farmland to the north. We went on a route that I've not been on before which was interesting to see.

There was a decent tit flock near where we parked the car, lots of Great, Blue and Coal Tit with a couple of Treecreeper all showing well. There was a sizeable flock of Chaffinch too and a nice mix of Thrushes: Song, Mistle, Blackbird, Fieldfare and Redwing all showing well to close range. A couple of Great Spotted Woodpecker were vocal too as they called from the tree-tops. A small patch of hedgerow held a dozen Tree Sparrow, several Reed Bunting and a couple of Yellowhammer. The usual Dunncok, Robin and Wrens were all busy in the hedge bottoms. There was quite a few Red-legs and Pheasants keeping low trying to avoid the Boxing Day guns and raptors on show included a couple of Kestrels and a few Sparrowhawk.

As we were at the stables in Escrick checking on Jennys horse a Peregrine showed well as it flew low overhead before stooping down behind a copse flushing several dozen Wood Pigeon.