Not birding just walking....

Decided to have a walk around in the snow this morning and it was more a case of walking and not birding.
The snow was about 5inches deep and a mixture of ice powdered snow slush and mud.

 

Plenty of woodpigeon as usual vocal crows and rooks with a good mix of jackdaw thrown in.

 

Fieldfare and redwing numbers down on recent days but still plenty about.

Yellowhammer and bullfinch in good numbers as were tits wrens robins and dunnock.

 



moving on the air was filled with huge numbers of geese gulls pigeons and corvids.

But in general the smaller birds were somewhat lacking.

Nice to see my gaggle of comedy moorehen are still doing well not a drop of water in sight and at least twenty of them flicking around. Robins vocal as was the great tit.

At the carrs nice to see the superb job that is in progress by Craig and the team the feeding station looks great. (Cheers everyone).

Spent the last couple of hours in the GS hide and could not help but notice the constant stream of gulls going over it was literally non stop for two hours. Stacks of fowl geese and waders golden plover flyby (12) and snipe numerous. Sadly lots of shooting activity.

Where are they all going????
Finished off with a nice Barn Owl flypast and a Tawny owl calling from the trees.

So its good night from me and goodnight from him.....................

Not at the carrs just in case the LDV team are looking.

 

Cold and misty day..

Had a look at to see how much white stuff had landed overnight 2-3 inches was the answer and I quickly realised that the bird feeders were totally empty!!!

Having filled all the feeders and the water trough I returned to the warmth of the house,straight away a single fieldfare flew in and started to tuck into the feast I had laid out in the garden.He/She was quickly joined by two dunnocks a robin and several blackbirds,then the starlings arrived to help clear the bread on the snow.

I decided to have a walk around the village and noticed several bullfinch rummaging around in the shrubs,what was obvious was the huge number of fieldfare in the hedgerows (100+) GSW flew over and a large flock of long tailed tits were observed desperately trying to find food in the shrubs.

I then spotted something moving around in the shrubs turned out to be a dunnock.

walked a bit further flushing out dozens of fieldfare in the process they really are very vocal and hungry.

I decided to move on and see if any barn owls were about found one but sadly he refused to come out of his box obviously much warmer where he was I decided to leave him alone and move on.On arrival at Bubwith bridge it was clear that the river had dropped by a significant amount and visible to all was a huge number of waders golden plover,redshank and snipe in number.wigeon and teal also in big numbers.

Again more fieldfare and several redwing were observed.

I must admit the poor lapwings looked frozen but they were very vocal and were seen to be flying high and then dive bombing other members of the group.

Back at the bridge no sign of the otter that had been seen earlier in the week but there was a small lock of what looked like meadow pipits (6)

Snipe were now all over the place hunting and probing for food in the mud.

I then decided to move onto the GS hide at north duff carrs the light had not been great all day and the mist was descending fast so int the hide stacks of lapwings and a huge flock of Whooper swans (80+) mutes around as well as the usual teal and wigeon,wrens foraging outside the hide and at one point 7 yes 7 robins were seen outside the hide fighting and looking for food, two bewicks flew in late on and as usual the huge gull roost was building up nicely I hope we get some better visibility tomorrow.

Boxing Day Out..

Started out with a trip to the local hide (GS at North Duffield) was greeted by a familiar face..

POP Goes the Weasel
Then went down to the hide and watched a Weasel trying to catch a Wren !! Brilliant!!

A slight increase in Water levels and the water is now on the road (passable at the moment) Loads of Teal and Wigeon and 100+ Swans distant in the valley.Two Buzzards soaring kept the local pigeon population on its toes then a high speed flypast by a large Sparrowhawk within 20 feet of the hide, Ketrel was struggling to find food but the local Robins were as vocal as ever.

Five Pintail (4male 1 female) were showing well but distant.

 

 

 

A stunning flock of 50+ Dunlin put on a fine show, as did the huge Lapwing flock.

 

Very strange to see what looked like a Dunlin (cheers Tim) leading the flock of Lapwing.

 

 

 

 

Boxing Day Crackers ...12 Long Tailed Tits were looking for food outside the hide.

 







 

Then a stunning distant flypast by a Male Marsh Harrier incredible in the sun. The swans at the far end of the valley were too much of a temptation so I decided to up sticks and head off, Not much at Thorganby so i moved on to be rewarded by a bird i have seen once this year and twice last year good to see its doing well..





 

Four distant Whoopers and at least 2 Bewicks in a line of 30-40 Mutes taking shelter from the wind.

 

2pm and the weather taking a turn for the worse so i headed off home and noted a large flock of Finches flying across the road Chaffinch and Brambling hope to catch up with them tomorrow,

 

Also had 150+ Rooks,Blackbird,and over 1000 gulls mainly Black headed and common Tufted Duck and Gadwal were also noted .