Some good news and some not so good....

Decided to visit all my 7 known spots on the patch which over the years have almost guaranteed me a Barn Owl sighting.

Sadly nothing doing! even my best site nothing, what has happened to all the Barn Owls in the Lower Derwent Valley?

any input appreciated.

Could not help but notice that the hedgerows are still groaning under the weight of uneaten fruit and then as if by magic in came a huge flock of Fieldfare at least 200+ birds.

Had a look at the new footpath that's under construction and then spotted a new feeder it was under siege from an assortment of Great tits, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, and one single Brambling.

 distant views of 30+ Whoopers and one Black Swan.

 View from the Geoff Smith hide dare i say it but we need some H2O!!!! 

 New footpath under construction at the North Duffield Carrs.

 New feeding station sadly no pic but there was a brambling hanging around this feeder.

 One final stop off at one of my nailed on Barn Owl spots but sadly more chance of seeing an England cricket victory!!

Turdus pilaris

Another brisk walk on the local patch this morning and I noticed a huge flock of Fieldfare (300+) they were obviously very hungry and were also very vocal.Nothing else except for the usual robin,wren,great tits and blue tits although all the blue tits I came across were all feeding on the floor.

Moved onto Aughton and had a look around the church could see lots of teal and wigeon across the ings but not much else so decided to have a look around Bubwith bridge one of the huge Aughton buzzards was seen roosting in the top of a roadside tree it flew off as soon as I stopped the car.
Nothing like as many birds as yesterday but there were a lot more walkers out today as the flood water is dropping fast, more on that later.
Good size flocks of lapwing and yet more fieldfare and redwing still plenty of snipe around and 6-8 redshank.
Reed buntings were numerous (8-10) as were chaffinch and the local sparrow population is still looking healthy.Several collared dove were flying around and a constant stream of incoming gulls were seen

popped into the GS hide and thankfully I was greeted by my regular barn owl pheasants and partridge running around in the fields, plenty of crows rooks and jackdaws hanging around.

Shortly after getting settled in an empty hide all the visible teal and wigeon on the river were seriously spooked by something, I followed the flock and observed a single Marsh harrier gliding down the river.

I was then joined by three other birders and within 5 minutes one of them had picked out the male scaup dozing off on the icy water loads of pochard and 100+ tufted duck were seen.Pintails looking good in the fading light lots of whoopers near the still flooded garganey hide but numbers were well down on yesterday.

Garganey hide!!!!

decided to risk a walk to the gargeney hide to see what the floods had done.................

Think this will take some drying out!!!!

more redshank and snipe flying over and a huge flock of starlings, walking back to the GS hide I had chaffinch, great tit,blue tit robin and a very busy goldcrest.

Calm before the storm?

Water levels on the LDV have dropped slightly with no issues on the road from Bubwith bridge.
Started with the usual mixture of wigeon and teal, six whoopers in the turf field were nice to see,lots of canada geese, greylags,mallards and mutes, lots of swans in the distance so could not id them. A dozen pochard were an added bonus as was the display put on by a single female goldeneye, first shelduck for a while and the usual build up of lappies and gulls. Long tailed tits still trying to find a meal outside the hide as well as the usual robins wrens and blackbirds. Pintail still hanging around but mainly females (hope the males have not been shot!! why is this bird still a "quarry" species?)

Buzzard nearly lost its temper with two crows and a female sprawk was keeping an eye on things, but i get the impression that the birds are preparing for the oncoming wild weather..just a thought.