LDV Birding

Spent the day round the south of the York recording area today. Tomorrow is the Bird Race which I can't take part in due to other commitments, but I figured I'd go out today and sell my sightings to Tim, Ollie, Jack and Chris' team - The String Quartet.... (Read about last year here)

Where to start... Morning walk with the dogs produced the standard 3 Barn Owl, including 2 that were hunting together just 10ft in front of me! There seemed to be more Fieldfare and Redwing about this morning, a few Tree Sparrows flew through and a small flock of Yellowhammer were noted, but little else really, though a flock of 8 Lesser Redpoll was nice.

I then headed over to Foggathorpe Pools where I had a very nice selection of birds including: over 500 Pink-footed Goose heading north (in 4 flocks of over 100 birds each), Snipe, 2 Crossbill, 10+ Brambling, 15+ Siskin, 20+ Lesser Redpoll, 2 Bullfinch, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting, Goldcrest, Jay, Red-legged Partridge, 80 Teal, 8 Wigeon and then the usual common stuff... though this was a highlight in itself  with 2,500 Wood Pigeon sounding like a train steaming through!

Next I decided to check out Aughton to see if the Bewick's Swans were still about, and they were. Had 3 of them in with about 9 Whooper Swans. They were a fair deal closer than the other day when I was viewing them at North Duffield. I got some shots, one of which you can actually read the darvic ring (yellow left leg 702) details of this bird here. On to Bubwith Bridge where I counted 70 Pochard, a new high-count for me here. The water is dropping, finally (picture below). There was also Pintail, Wigeon, Teal etc...

I decided to drive down to South Duffield to look for Corn Buntings and in doing so found an incredibly impressive mixed flock including: 200 Tree Sparrow, 120 Corn Bunting, 20 Yellowhammer, 20 Reed Bunting, 35+ Linnet, 15+ Chaffinch and several hundred Fieldfare and Redwing. A lone Sparrowhawk was patrolling but this area looks spot on for Merlin!

Back at North Duffield for lunch and another flock of Corn Bunting, 20 this time, with another 10 Lesser Redpoll and 500+ Fieldfare and Redwing. Also here Great Spotted Woodpecker, Long-tailed Tit, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk.  A quick visit to Thorganby didn't produce too much though 148 Dunlin was good on recent numbers (and water levels) - thanks to Tim for counting!, Shelduck, Goldeneye and (another) a very showy Barn Owl was cool (though camera in car)!  Finished the afternoon back in the Geoff Smith Hide but it was pretty quiet to be honest! A couple of youngish Lesser Black-backed Gull in with the gull roost, Pintail, and surprisingly no Barn Owl!

Looking forward to tomorrow now!

Bewick Swan "Yellow left 702"

Bewick's Swan

3x Bewick's Swans and 3x Whooper Swans

3x Bewick's Swans + 2x Whooper Swans

Bewick's Swans

Bewick's Swans

Whooper Swans

The floods at Bubwith

Swans Everywhere!

A staggering 154 Whooper Swans and 18 Bewick's Swans reported in the LDV in the last day or so! Though I've not seen any recently. There was a large flock of Swans off Bubwith Bridge at last-light on Sunday but I didn't attempt to scope them as I was too busy trying to keep my eye on that plastic Barnacle Goose for Tim!

I had a very brief trip to North Duffield Carrs at lunchtime, it was blowing a gale and torrential rain - with increased water levels again! Not a single bird on the reserve that I could see! So I didn't hang around at all! A few Lapwing flew over Aughton, and there were singles of Black-headed and Common Gulls flying south along the river. That was it!

Back in the LDV

Morning walk produced an incredible immature female Peregrine, she was huge! Only a small flock of finches today, 50+ Linnet and a few Chaffinch and Brambling.

Went down to North Duffield Carrs for a bit this afternoon, it was fairly quiet due to several people walking along the river bank that flushed everything as far as I could see. Eventually it picked up as the afternoon progressed (and the disturbance reduced). Several gulls flew through, Lapwing and Ruff flew in/past but the highlights were 5 Pochard, a very close-up Barn Owl and the two biggies, male Goosander which flew through heading south, and 3 Barnacle Geese (that got the year-listers in a flap...wild/feral.... who knows!)... but can you afford to not see them?...

Had 2 Marsh Harriers this pm, one of which caught a Lapwing! There was a few Whooper Swans about but most were very distant.

Bewick's Swans and Bramblings

Had a late start today, woke up to several messages/missed calls and was initially gutted I'd missed a Ring-billed Gull on the local patch, but then relieved when it turned out not to be one! Certainly lots of gulls about. One day maybe....

Nice walk at lunchtime resulted in a massive finch flock including a mixed flock of 100+ Bramling and Chaffinch. Lots of Greenfinch and Linnet and a couple of Goldfinch, Bullfinch and some Tree Sparrow and Reed Bunting. These showed really nicely, especially when they came down to the puddles to drink. Unfortunately no camera with me as I had the dogs with me!

I'd heard that two Bewick's Swans had been present at North Duffield in the early morning so thought I'd have a look this afternoon, but it was fairly quiet to be honest. There was a couple of Whooper Swans but no sign of the Bewick's. The light was a bit strange and there was a real haze making use of the scope on high power more or less impossible so some stuff may have been missed/was unidentifiable. There was two possible Scaup to the left of the hide but they spent more time underwater than above it so a bit difficult, especially with the poor visibility... a few Shelduck, Shoveler, Pintail all showed well with all the regular suspects. Several Dunlin and Lapwing were noted. A few Pied Wagtails showed nicely as they walked about on the ice in front of the hide and a Barn Owl appeared out of nowhere but was too quick for me to get a proper picture.

As dusk approached numerous gulls started to come in to roost, mainly Black-headed and Common's with a  few Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls.

I heard from Tim that there were 2 Bewick's Swans at Ellerton this afternoon, another York Area Year-tick for him!

Pied Wagtail

Pied Wagtail

Barn Owl

Weekend Birding LDV: Whooper's and Waxers

Minimal effort with a fairly decent return this weekend! Starting with today first.  Had a flock of 9 Snipe flyover the garden this morning and a skylark was singing too. Then this afternoon, just as the sun was setting I got a message letting me know there was a small group of Waxwing in Escrick, so I shot across with my camera in the hope that I'd be able to grab some quick shots before it got dark.  Unfortunately they weren't in the berry bush and had moved to a distant tree and were sat in the top of it! So I could only manage the following record shots:

Waxwing © Andy Walker

Waxwing © Andy Walker

Waxwing © Andy Walker

Waxwing © Andy Walker

Waxwing © Andy Walker

Yesterday afternoon I popped across to the Geoff Smith Hide at North Duffield Carrs to see if there was much on the floods. In the couple of hours I was there I had a single Marsh Harrier, female Scaup, several hundred Lapwing, 7+ Ruff, several Pintail, Shoveler amongst all the common usual suspects.  With the water still right up to the base of the hide it meant that several birds were much closer than usual (e.g. Mute Swan and Mallard), there was a family party of Whooper Swans that came fairly close and another group flew north towards Thorganby.

The main highlight here however was whilst I was watching a field full of waders (Golden Plover c350, Lapwing c400, Dunlin c30, Ruff c15) and Starlings c750+ and Fieldfare c200, just as the sun was setting a Peregrine Falcon shot low over the car I was sat in and started to hunt the waders about 10 feet in front of me, I got spectacular views as the bird looped round making several attempts at the waders, as they all took to the air.  The Peregrine picked out a lone Lapwing away from the main flock some 500m away and went careering off after it.  It made a few dives at the Lapwing which dived out of sight into some scrub near Bubwith Bridge.  Breathtaking stuff leaving me regretting my camera being in the boot of my car! Next time...

Mallard © Andy Walker

Mallard © Andy Walker

Mallard © Andy Walker

Mallard © Andy Walker

Mute Swan © Andy Walker

Mute Swan © Andy Walker

Whooper Swan © Andy Walker

Whooper Swan © Andy Walker

Whooper Swan © Andy Walker

Whooper Swan © Andy Walker

In my last post I mentioned I'd got some bad news, that will wait for a while until I have a few more things in place.

NEW LDV Website.

Back in February I wrote a few posts about ringing recoveries in the Lower Derwent Valley (LDV), some really interesting ones too.

Good news: there are some more interesting recoveries, however better news is that the LDV has a new ringing blog: here, there is also a direct link on my blog list on the right of this page, why not follow the blog and keep up to date with all of the ringing information coming out of this fantastic reserve.


WIGEON: LDV BLOG

The following is sample of some recent ringing recoveries/resightings detailed on the blog:

Redshank (DB88181), ringed as a 6 on 29/03/03 on Aughton Ings, recovered on 19/10/10 at the Bay of Morlaix, France (dead).

Sedge Warbler (X437129), ringed as a 3J on 21/08/09 at Wheldrake Ings, recovered as a 4 on 26/08/10 in Paris, France.

Sedge Warbler (L751812), ringed as a 4M on 12/05/11 at Wheldrake Ings, re-trapped on 22/07/2011 and then controlled on 10/08/11 in Paris, France.

Teal (EL49846), ringed as a 4F on 12/11/07 on Skipwith Common, recovered on 27/08/09 in Finland (shot).

Wigeon (FA51531), ringed as a 3M on 04/12/04 at North Duffield, recovered on 01/01/11 near Long Sutton, Somerset (shot).

Wigeon (FH10123), ringed as a 3 on 23/10/07 at North Duffield, recovered on 01/01/10 in Solotcha, Russia (shot).

Whooper Swan (W09345), ringed as a 3M on 16/12/05 at North Duffield, sighted on 02/04/09 in Iceland (identified by darvic).

Whooper Swan (W24873), ringed as a 3 on 30/11/08 at North Duffield, sighted on 02/04/09 in Iceland (identified by darvic).

Wigeon (FP68613) ringed as a 4M at North Duffield on 11/11/07, recovered 07/05/11 in Russia (shot).

Whooper Swan (W24868), ringed as a 4 on 30/11/08 at North Duffield, recovered on 16/06/11 in Iceland (dead on beach).

Wigeon (FP65520), ringed as a 3M on 14/12/03 at North Duffield, recovered on 09/05/11 in Russia (shot).

Wigeon (FP93603), ringed as a 4M on 25/10/05 at North Duffield, recovered on 23/04/11 in Russia (shot).


Teal: LDV BLOG