Guess who dropped in today?

This was not a promising start water lapping the road out of Bubwith and winds gusting to 40mph!
terrible gloomy light and not many birds noted on the water.

 Then from 11am onward i had some surprising company (surprising for here anyway)

 If only the light was better distance blah blah etc etc!

Thenanother nice surprise the arrival of Andrew Kisby in the flesh strange as we had shared messages over the last  4 years but never actually met (top birder!!)

 20+ Whoopers and a family of 21 long tailed tits kept us entertained.

10+ Golden plover, and numerous Tufteds Wigeon and Teal also noted.Back tomorrow roads permitting.

What swimming stroke do moles use?

After an appallingly long delay i have finally found some time to update this blog!!
sorry for the delay.

The water arrived with a vengeance and flooded out the North Duffield Carrs.

Greated by lots of Black headed gulls who were picking off the poor unfortunate voles and shrews who were in a state thanks to all the water,

Kingfisher wizzing around in front of the hide was a nice surprise but was clearly in a state due to all the water in the wrong place.

You can just make out the River Derwent starting to burst its banks.Then as the water started to rise I noticed this poor Mole attempting to escape the rising water levels, (made it today but not sure about tomorrow)

Water Rail flew in to roost just as I was leaving.

Tomorrow arrived and this was the scene.

 Gargeney hide suffering from a little rising damp!!

 Lots of Wrens darting around and nice to see that the Stonechats were still doing well.
Distant Peregrine and Buzzard were on the prowl.

 Lots of distant Mutes and Whoopers and Pintail in top shape. Gadwal Wigeon Teal and Lapwing in good number as were shovelor and Tufted.

Will be back tomorrow to see if it's any higher.

Spring is in the air.

Quick wander around the north duff carrs this afternoon still plenty of Whoopers hanging around, Wigeon Teal and Shelduck nice to see good Curlew and lapwing numbers and Redshanks were also feeding in the margins.

3 Roe deer feeding was a nice surprise and Stonechats were as busy as ever. Lacewing were active in the hide but so were the bluebottles!!

Back for more tomorrow.

Sunday Morning Special

Quick wander around this morning resulted in some spectacular stuff and some nice surprises.

Just as I got to the GS hide these two popped up.

Five Redpoll were feasting on last years Rose bay seeds as Long tailed tits and Chaffinch added to the early morning grazers.

Teal, Pintail,Wigeon,Shovelor were all present as were good numbers of Golden Plover,Lapwing,Dunlin with a few Knot and Redshank also noted.

Peregrine put on a nice display but seems to lack the final killer touch.

Curlew and a couple of english grey partridge were also nice to see.

Things are getting busy!!!!

Update

Just a quick update on the situation on the LDV.

Nothing like as much water as there usually is at this time of year but loads of birds!

Started with  the usual Stonechats and lots of Wigeon and Teal/

Plenty of Golden plover,Lapwing,Dunlin and Curlew.

No raptor show today with the exception of four high soaring Buzzards.

Barn owl put on a nice display late on despite been mugged by the Kestrel.

42 Whoopers and 1 Black swan

Even the military are interested in this site.

Did not expect much today (shows how much I know)

Started with a nice distant Stonechat and all the usual finches and tits. Then had a look across the valley and observed 300-500 Teal and Wigeon.

Then I was joined by the military.

Down side all the birds in the valley went up!

Plus side it exposed dozens more birds who were obviously hiding in the reeds and surrounding trees and shrubs.

After everything had settled down and spending sometime watching Buzzards soaring across the valley, it became very noticeable that the valley was full of Skylarks at least 20 separate birds were observed.

Came across the remains of what looked like a Snipe (could be wrong) very neat leftovers though.

A nice Kestrel, Little grebe and Pochard were all welcome after the military fly pass,

Then the main event!!!

All the birds in the valley were clearly on edge!
Were the military on their way back?

I observed an amazing site a Marsh Harrier and a Peregrine Falcon and i swear (if i didn't know better) that these two birds were working as a team.

First the Harrier flushed the birds on the water mainly Teal,Wigeon,Snipe and Golden plover and the odd Curlew then the Peregrine would dive bomb the birds,they were absolutely petrified.

This went on for the best part of half an hour before two Chinook helicopters flew low across the valley and at that point both raptors took off down the valley. What a cracking morning.

 Peregrine and Marsh Harrier join forces to find breakfast.

Barn Owls back.

After what seems like a long absence (and me moaning about the shortage of Barn Owls in the valley)

It was nice to get not one but at least 3 separate birds in the last week.

Water levels on the NDC are much lower than you would expect at this time of year but that only means that most of the birds down here are concentrated in a much smaller area.

Still lots of Whoopers, Stone chat, Pintail, Teal and Wigeon, and up to 5 Pochard.Big numbers of Golden plover,Dunlin and Knot also observed, Healthy flock of Lapwing too.

Barn Owl return.

 The Buzzard was after the Stonechat and the corvid was well Just been a pain!!

 Golden Plover murmurations !! is there such a thing?

View from the GS hide.

Back at home.

Had a wander down to the GS hide this morning and met up with a couple of other local birders

Visibility was not great and all the birds were distant. Many more swans than in recent weeks at least 70 birds and the place was awash with waders Dunlin,Golden Plover and Lapwing were by the far the most abundant.

Peregrine was flushing the birds up every now and again and a very pale local Buzzard was also keeping them on their toes.

Managed to get a quick view of a Robin which was frantically defending its territory against what i at first thought was another Robin.

But alas not it was two Stonechats a very nice bonus!!!

 Reed bunting active as were Sparrow Hawks and Kestrels.

Wigeon and Teal were abundant as were a huge flock of Shelduck. Plenty of Snipe among the drainage ditches and Grey Heron patrolling.

Finally as i was about to leave one of the other birders in the hide spotted 4 Black Tailed Godwit in the distance and four Redshank.

Not a bad morning me thinks.

Long time no blog!!!!

Due to work,spending lots of time in the Yorkshire Dales and some other lame excuses I have not posted as often as I would have liked.

Should put that to rights this year and might even include some dales stuff.

Started off the year with some new kit and determined to get more time to go birding.
Had a little trip to Castle Howard and Pocklington.

Thought this was odd could not identify this very hungry bird crammed into this bird table.

Had plenty of tufted,gadwall, goldeneye and all the usual suspects.
Also had this strange Canada- Greylag cross.

Moved onto another area and came across 4-6 Red Kite visibility not great and bitterly cold.

Back to the LDV on Sunday and found my self 4 feet away from a Barn Owl not sure who was the most startled me or the Owl!

By the time I had got out the camera it was well away. (Mental note) get camera out of bag before you go out birding.

Also had loads of Fieldfare, Redwing, Bullfinch, Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Dunlin, GSW,
lots of finches and tits.